Branding and entertainment have
traditionally been woven together by a simpler concept of product placement
where a product is placed on the screen making it a part of the set-up in order
to strike the audience with the brand and its usage by the movie/ programme’s
characters.
A few years back when Adidas decided to
finance the ‘Goal’ movie trilogy with about $100 million investment, it was more than just a
product placement. The financial risk was high due to the huge
investment while it also gave Adidas the freedom to try and convey its message
and brand personality to its audience in more number of ways than what a
product placement would have offered.
Such productions where the whole programme or
a movie is financed by a brand or a company whose primary objective is to put
across its brand communication to its audience in a way which is more
entertaining and assertive than the traditional advertising are known as advertiser
funded programmes (AFP) and advertiser funded films (AFF). Some people also
choose to call this practice Brand entertainment since a brand wrapped in a programme
or film entertains the audience.It essentially is a step further by marketers from the product placement concept in the entertainment domain for communicating with its customers.
Simply put, AFFs and AFPs are content that
allows brands to forge a deeper relationship with production houses via a
funding model either in full or in part. Once executed, the advertiser’s investment
is employed into producing the content while the advertiser earns a great degree
of ownership over the content as well as its use as a wider communication platform
for its brand/product/message.
Outside India, AFPs and AFFs have been
regularly used as marketing and communication tools. The term soap opera
was so called because the original soap operas were funded and produced by soap
companies such as P&G. Some of the recent examples are short films by BMW, Castrol
edge, TBA by Vodafone etc. P&G and Walmart have already announced their
interest and entry into this newer advertising platform.
Click the below links to watch the video clips.
AFPs have been common in Indian marketing
context as well, though AFF is a newer concept for India. Some of the examples
of AFPs in India are - Cadbury Bournvita Confidence Champion, IDBIs Sawaal
India ka, L’Oreal Elite Model Look ’06 etc, MTV Panasonic face of beauty (Watch video clip) etc.
AFFs prospects doesn’t look bleak either
with the numero uno car company of India, Maruti Suzuki having tested the AFF waters
very recently by partly funding the bollywood release “Mere Dad ki Maruti”
produced by Y-Films, a subsidiary of Yash Raj Films. The producers wanted to
make an advertising funded movie and with the of the movie based on family car,
they pitches it to multiple auto companies in the country and Maruti turned out
to be the most favoured partner with highest bid.
Maruti Suzuki invested around Rs 6 crores
in the movie which had a total budget of Rs 10 crores. As for the returns for
the auto major, the movie has already earned more than Rs 8 crore and apart
from having its brand name in the film title, it also managed to hog the
spotlight throughout the two hours as Maruti is the main protagonist of the
film. From Maruti 800 to the Swift and finally the Ertiga, the story weaves in
both loyalty and aspiration towards the brand. A common feedback from the movie
audience was that the movie was a fun-filled 2 hour Maruti advertisement.
Marketers’
biggest challenge these days is to secure brand-space in their customers’ minds
and with customers trying harder than ever to keep traditional advertising
away, the challenge has only become more daunting. Hence, newer platforms for communication
must be continuously looked upon. Advertiser funded programmes (AFP) and advertiser
funded films (AFF) are such innovative planks to base marketing communications
on.
AFPs and AFFs can be the new flag-bearers
for Indian marketing rumble but how quickly and in what spectrum they evolve,
it is yet to be seen.
Cheers,
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