“Branded Content Video” is a relatively new term that has popped up in the field of advertising and marketing in recent years.
As a London video production company that specialises in all areas of digital content production we have noticed that branded content video is still a subject that can be unclear to many people and businesses. To put it simply, Branded Content Video is a way of engaging with your audience without shoving your brand or your product in their faces. In today’s saturated digital content world, audiences have become detached with traditional methods of ‘selling’ and are now a lot more demanding of brands, so much so, that a brand now is taken to heart by a customer and becomes more of a lifestyle choice.
There are many branded content agencies in London that specialise specifically on this method of digital marketing. Brands must adapt to this, by opening their minds and doors and letting the customer in on a personal level. Brands are now sharing and engaging with the customer, giving them an ‘experience’ rather than just a sales pitch, and as such many brands will have their own in house branded content agency. At Beast London our background is in both commercial TV advertising and video production, and this has given us an across the spectrum understanding of the best approach to branded content video productions.
What is branded content video?
Branded content video is typically content that represents your brand and often reflects current issues. Here’s one we’ve just created for Simba Sleep where we have piggybacked another event. In this case the 2020 Glastonbury 5oth anniversary weekend.
At Beast Production Company London we have been producing branded content videos for the past five years. So we have plenty of experience as a branded content video production company London, UK. We are happy to work from an existing brief, or from a simple idea that needs building. We like to work closely with other branded content agencies, offering our support and experience in order to get the best creative direction and execution for the project and budget. We are also happy to work closely with smaller start-up companies looking for branded content video productions. We are always looking for new stories and we like to get to know the brand and take a journey together with them that will ultimately deliver high quality branded content video.
How can you make professional branded content videos?
61% of consumers say they feel better about and are more likely to buy from a company that delivers custom branded content videos. This is just one of the many reasons to create high quality branded content video, so how can you produce high quality branded content video? Easy, just hire a top London Branded Content Agency or London Creative Content Agency.
But What if you can’t afford to hire a branded content agency?
Here are a few tips on what you can do if you want to get the ball rolling…
What can you actually make?
Well there’s no real limit to what you can make as it’s really down to you. But here’s a few ideas.
- Short film
- Sponsor blog post
- Live event
- Newspaper article
- Viral video
The most popular form of branded content video would be a short film, or viral video, but some other brands do sponsor blog posts or newspaper articles and even in the case of pedigree dog food, set up a radio station especially for dogs. Probably the most unorthodox branded content would be the lego movie, the movie which came out in 2014. It wasn’t an advert for lego but from the film Lego saw a huge boost in sales and reached a new audience. Now we know that most companies don’t have millions of dollars to spend on a film or be able to make a feature length film from your product but it makes for an interesting read. And you may be able to take the principle and apply it too your own branded content albeit in a more cost effective way.
Preferably you want your content to be new and fresh, so brainstorm and think of something you can do that no other brand can, you also have to determine what fits your brand, so ask yourself if there are any current issues you are passionate about and want your brand to represent. Perhaps take a look at what has worked for similar brands in your niche. So if you work in the beauty industry perhaps look at what Dove do, they produce stories that show people exactly what they stand for and support. Another great example is Red Bull as they produce stories that represent their love for sports and risk. Now this does sort of contradict our previous point about keeping you content new and fresh, but see if you can put a spin on these ideas to make it fresh.
Focus on story
Focusing on story in your branded content is the best way to appeal to potential consumers, people love to hear stories, it can help build an emotional connection with your audience. This is a great way to get some more sales, the key is though to make sure you include your product in the story, not as an obvious product placement but subtly put it into the story in a way that fits well. Let’s look at a good example, like we previously mentioned Dove use branded content to tell stories about women and touch on female empowerment, their campaign “Real Beauty” features a video that shows women that while they may not perceive themselves as beautiful, they are, they do this by having the women describe themselves to an artist who then draws them. After this they have a stranger describe the women to the artist and they draw another picture of the women, the two photos are drastically different as the strangers don’t focus on tiny insignificant things that the women do when talking about themselves. Dove does well in this advert as they hit the right nerve and really get across their statement that everyone is beautiful. They also make sure to include product placement but it’s not particularly noticeable, all it is a little dove logo in the corner, and then a link to the full video on their website at the end of the clip. The ad was incredibly successful, going viral on youtube and starting a conversation which directly led to a boost in sales for Dove.
Make it relatable
When creating branded content video you need to make sure it’s relatable, if you’re telling a story, include characters that relate to your target market because people like to buy off of a brand that they relate to so making sure there’s that connection to your audience is imperative to making sure that your content works. Brands like patagonia do this well, they know that their main audience would be adventurers, so they produce a documentary following adventurers on their travels, the adventurers are all wearing patagonia, so people watching the documentary see that and it influences their decision. So when making your content make sure to take a look at your main target demographic and make sure it relates to them and their hobbies.
Focus in on the benefits of your product
When creating branded content, you need to make sure it paints your product or service in a good light, that’s obvious and should be a key factor. Now some branded content, especially branded content videos sometimes don’t actually include the product, case in point our previously mentioned Dove video, but they still find a way to focus in on the benefits of the brand, in our example they do this by implying dove is a positive brand that wants to empower women and people love that, hence why there was a boost in sales from that video. But if you do want to include the product in your video then that’s fine, it can and has worked for many businesses, you just need to make sure it done right, branded content isn’t technically an advert for your brand, as like we’ve mentioned you are focusing more on a story or current issue, so you can’t plaster your product all over it, you need to make sure its included subtly. A perfect example of this would be a campaign from the university of phoenix called “a career outside of football” which follows the story of Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, as he studies a college course online, while not only playing in the nfl, but caring for his mother with cancer and raising his children. This story highlights that fact that you can be travelling all over the world and have other more important things to do but still have time to get a degree from their university which is the biggest benefit of their online course service.
So there you have it, there’s just a few tips on how to create high quality branded content without a branded content agency.