• by March 6, 2006

ORLANDO - Over the past two years, the view of branded entertainment has grown from novelty and experimentation to an important and accepted marketing discipline. That was the message delivered Friday during a panel discussion on the final day of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' annual Media Conference and Trade Show here. Panel participants included Sunta Izzicupo of Magna Global Entertainment, David Lang of MindShare Entertainment, and Brian Terkelsen from MediaVest USA.

"Clients have become so much more savvy, especially over the past year," said Izzicupo. "They want to know how the content can be re-purposed, on broadband, or on cell phones. They're talking more about content than ever before."

The panelists agreed that although a precise, workable definition of branded entertainment remained elusive, clients are more eager to participate than ever. They said projects spanned a gamut of concepts, and go much further than simple product placement, which was indicative of the early stages of the strategy.

Despite the advancements, Terkelsen said the industry still faces many challenges. Most importantly, he said, is the need to connect the content more organically to the brand.

"We need to redefine the connection between the content and the brand dialog," he said. There is a thin, narrative thread there that I call the connective tissue that needs to be expanded."

He also argued that the industry should be more active in helping clients and the media understand what branded entertainment has achieved so far, and what it can do for brands in the future. He said many of the issues covered by the panel were the same as those discussed at last year's conference, and said that was evidence of a need to educate people and bring the discipline to the next level.

The panelists also agreed that any suggestion that media agencies are leading the branded entertainment charge at the expense of creative agencies is unwarranted. In fact, they said, most projects are intensely collaborative. Lang said that on one of his branded entertainment projects, for Unilever's Axe deodorant body spray, he worked closely with creatives from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, an agency not even affiliated with Lang's holding company, WPP Group.

Terkelsen agreed that the creative agency people are heavily involved. "We're working incredibly closely with them," he said. "You have to."