• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 7, 2018

Branded entertainment continues to be a growing business. But for many, there is a need for more granular data for marketers to analyze — especially across different screens.

But what about better creative for branded stuff?

Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel looks to standardize metrics across devices and content for linear TV, subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) and short-form digital video. Nielsen says 611 brands had onscreen TV integrations last season, up from 574 during the 2013-2014 TV season.

In a Nielsen press release, Marie Clayton, global strategy at Carat, said this about branded entertainment: “Influencer marketing can be very powerful, but it is not paid media or even earned media as we know it. Subsequently, it requires a different set of rules.”

Until now, much of this has been fuzzy. For example, some video of a Toyota Camry car — and its name on the auto — on a big TV drama. What does this obvious but bland product placement mean to the average viewer? Yes, it will get some “awareness” points. But will it push a viewer to buy the car?

Nielsen says it will factor in size, location, duration, brand hits and impact — and then come up with a “score” as well as value for that specific product placement and aggregate occurrences.

Digital media marketers know when it comes to specific new YouTube-channel “influencers” — for example, there is value in those performers involvement in products. But what exactly?

Brand-entertainment activation can still be a slow process — often at odds with the fast-moving automated/programmatic TV/video marketing efforts. (There is still negotiation time with a TV producer to make a brand work well in a script.)

While more standard measures are a key component, the quality of branded creative may be necessary to push consumers to purchase — especially when it comes to immersive TV dramas, comedies and reality shows.

Down the road, those involved in product-placement efforts will not just count on what works or doesn’t with TV viewers. They will look for better data to come up with better creative when teasing consumers to buy that new ride.