• by Wayne Friedman , February 9, 2006

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.--Branded entertainment still has a long way to go in becoming an effective alternative to traditional marketing tools, according to executives at Advertising Age's Madison + Vine event in Los Angeles.

That was probably good news for the Screen Actors Guild members who were protesting outside The Beverly Hills Hotel, where the event was being held.

SAG and other unions have, for some time, protested the ever-increasing inclusion of brand products into their TV programs and theatrical films. SAG complained yesterday that no one from the creative community was invited to the event. Had members been allowed inside, they would have heard that things aren't completely well in the world of branded entertainment.

Some four years after he gave the keynote address at a Madison & Vine event, Steven Heyer, now CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, says the marketplace hasn't improved much: "It feels like a lot of logo slapping. I don't think this enlarges the brands. What are missing are ideas. There needs to be a bridge."

When he spoke last, Heyer--who then was a senior executive at Coca-Cola Inc.--issued an ultimatum to agencies and the media to come up with better creative ways for marketing and messaging, and not to just rely on spending marketers' media budgets.

Now Heyer seemingly favors a somewhat cooler, quieter approach to branded entertainment. "I really believe that ubiquity is overrated. The real value is to be scarce."

Or cool. Starwood Hotels' Heyer's hip W line of hotels is looking for just that profile. Recently, W did a deal with Time Warner's magazine Entertainment Weekly to have its Los Angeles W hotel be the "Los Angeles bureau" for the magazine, where the W hotel would be the hip backdrop setting for EW reporters when interviewing major Hollywood talent.

In a separate panel featuring 12 executives, led by Harvard Law Professor Arthur Miller, a number of industry executives weighed in on the current state of marketing and branded entertainment. Major concerns still abound.

In observing current traditional marketing and branded entertainment efforts--after years of working overseas--Stephen Berkov, director of marketing for Audi of America, said: "I'm so shocked at how risk-adverse marketers are."

Some even questioned the size and supposed growth of the brand entertainment business. "[One research report says] $4.2 billion is spent on the business. That's ludicrous. People are buying into this," said Norm Marshall, CEO of NMA (Norm Marshall & Associates) Entertainment & Marketing, a long-time West Coast product placement agency. "I can tell you the vast majority of deals I do are barter deals. I do hundreds of deals a year."

The rush over branded entertainment during the last few years has been quelled somewhat. Now some deal-makers say brands should take a slower approach to branded entertainment deals--which makes sense for Paul Bricault, senior vice president of the William Morris Agency, who represents clients such as General Motors, Anheuser-Busch, Hilton Hotels, and the NFL.

"Not every brand should be doing entertainment," he said. "Branded entertainment can be a bit forced."

Some deals, he adds, should be trimmed back for more simple approaches. After the panel, Bricault described one such deal. His agency worked on General Motors' Cadillac for the John Travolta-starring 2005 MGM theatrical movie, "Be Cool." But no Cadillac cars appeared in the movie as product placement. Instead, the "Be Cool" video was simply a part of GM's regular TV commercial spots.

Measurement issues and return-on-investment issues still are a concern for those in the branded entertainment field. Branded entertainment executives believe--even as they try to meet marketers' demands for return on investment (ROI)--that many deals are still, at the core, a leap of faith--a risk.

"You have to be riskier than you were in the past," said Chris Di Cesare, director of Xbox Marketing Entertainment, Promotions & Digital Marketing for Microsoft Corp. "You need to experiment. The market is changing."

Obstacles are present, especially from traditional brand managers who like to keeping working. "People's jobs are more secure when they have quantitative tools," said Stephen Berkov, director of marketing for Audi of America.

"We don't have great tools that everyone can agree on," added Frank Cooper III, vice president of promotions and interactive marketing for Pepsi-Cola North America.

"The problem with new media is that we are creating a halo effect," said Peter Dang, CMO of Bragman Nyman Cafarelli. "How can you measure a halo?"