No, I don’t think so. Who in their right mind wants to sit through a 60-minute ad? We see a lot of it: brands given media deals or simply posting long-form content loaded with branding and product that goes on to die a sad and lonely death in some barren corner of a streaming service.
It’s not so much the branded bit that makes it bad; it’s the lazy, familiar ideas that are simply not good enough to compete with the incredible choice and creativity of brand-free programming available today. Martin Scorsese recently released a three-hour and 30-minute epic on Netflix featuring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano and Stephen Graham. Good luck getting people to watch your dog biscuit documentary.
But what about brand-funded entertainment? A different model. At its best, a brand co-funds or fully funds an idea that is so good that people actively seek it out, watch it, talk about it and tell other people to go to watch it. This is not about crowbarring in product and messaging. It’s about a brand investing in creativity and engaging its audience with a story that they can own. Imagine that – someone willingly sitting down with your brand for an hour or so. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.