By A SHOOT Staff Report

NEW YORK --

No matter the platform, storytelling is the foundation of content marketing, affirmed Shane Snow, chief creative officer of Contently which provides professional journalists for brand publishing. During a session at Advertising Week NYC (September 29-October 3), Snow underscored his assertion with a story he attributed to French poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert who ran across a beggar sitting on the sidewalk. The beggar was holding a sign which read, “Blind man without a pension.” Prevert asked the man how he was doing and he said not so well. People weren’t stopping and no one had dropped any money into the hat.

Prevert offered to write the man another pitch, scrawling his new message on the other side of the cardboard sign. Returning later, Prevert asked the beggar if things were any better. Indeed they were, with numerous people stopping and contributing; his hat had never been so full.

Shane then revealed that the new sign read, “Spring is coming but I won’t see it.”

The critical difference between the signs was that the second told a story and that stories are what connect with people, causing them to become involved and to care. Shane then cited research from the University of Wisconsin which found that stories well told break down barriers and foster compassion. A New Zealand study concluded that stories promote a sense of connectedness and empathy.

Advertisers and marketers need to take heed of the stories they tell–and the stories of their brands as well–stressed Snow, adding that the Contently mantra is: “Those who tell the stories rule the world.”

Practitioners, not pundits
An Advertising Week panel on Branded Content, moderated by Nick Brien, former CEO and chairman of McCann Worldgroup, also affirmed that content is king. Panelists were Norman Aladjem, president of Levity Entertainment Group; Samir Arora, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Mode Media; Drew Buckley, chief creative officer, head of digital at integrated multimedia studio Electus; and Jon Kamen, CEO/co-founder of @radical.media. Brien described the panelists as “practitioners, not pundits,” translating into more relevant perspectives on the state of branded content.

Buckley noted that with the advent of the DVR and other technologies, people can time shift and often pass over commercials, thus eliminating the brand’s adjacency to a quality program. Thus brands have to weave their way smartly into programming in order to be associated with great talent and great stories. According to Buckley, Electus currently has 17 TV shows on air, a number of which are brand connected. He cited as a prime example Running Wild with Bear Grylls. Essentially it’s a talk show in the wild, taking place in some of the most remote locations in the U.S. and around the world. A famed adventurer and survivalist, Grylls partners with celebrities in their own stand-alone episodes (with guests such as Zac Efron, Ben Stiller, Channing Tatum, Tom Arnold and Deion Sanders). Buckley noted that partnered in the wild talk show is Walmart which has an inventory of camping and other outdoor gear that dovetails nicely with the essence of the Grylls brand.

Kamen related that going back to the early days of television, programs such as GE Theater, single sponsored by a brand, enjoyed tremendous popularity. By being associated with quality, entertainment programming, sponsors built relationships with consumers. He said that @radical’s mindset has always been to produce more intelligent content that people appreciate. Kamen cited @radical’s production of the Iconoclasts series on the Sundance Channel with Grey Goose vodka as its sponsor, and the American Express Unstaged series of music concerts and entertainment. “Consumers are an audience,” said Kamen and you have to respect the audience’s intelligence and entertainment needs.

Kamen added that @radical.media produced the pilot for Mad Men which ultimately became a traditional advertiser-supported show on AMC and has gone on to great critical and commercial success. But as a what-if scenario, Kamen wondered what a great yet different success story Mad Men might have been if a single sponsor stepped up to the plate and owned that show from the get-go. Such a sponsorship would have been pure gold for the right company in terms of building prestige and a quality connection with audiences and popular culture.

Mode Media’s Arora observed that while time-shifting technologies have made brand adjacency to a program “more difficult,” such adjacency won’t go away. Making it still viable is targeting of viewers based on their needs so that they will find the marketing messages relevant and worth checking out. Mode Media packages professional digital content with relevant brand advertising.

Levity’s Aladjem noted that the comedians his company represents are invaluable from a brand perspective in terms of engaging audiences through laughter and stories “funnily told.” From the perspective of the artist, though, the content cannot be a sellout of the artist but rather a natural fit with his or her brand of comedy. Levity, which creates and distributes content across multiple platforms, maintains four divisions: Live, Talent Management, Production and Digital.

Aladjem later shared that for him the most recent stellar examples of brands being woven into content include The Lego Movie which generated some $500 million in global theatrical box office, and Chipotle’s shorts as well as its Farmed and Dangerous comedy parody series on Hulu.

“Fem-vertising”
Genuine women’s stories also need to be told as opposed to scenarios that perpetuate inaccurate female stereotypes. That was a prime message from a session titled “Fem-vertising: Women Demand More From Brands,” presented by lifestyle site SheKnows.

Marketing which empowers girls and women is good business in that females control some 85 percent of household buying decisions. Among the panelists was DGA Award-nominated filmmaker Lauren Greenfield who directs spots and branded content via Chelsea Pictures. Greenfield directed a viral video–the centerpiece of a social experiment campaign from Leo Burnett for P&G’s feminine hygiene brand Always–which chronicled how people interpret the phrase “Like a girl,” an age-old negative stereotype (“you throw like a girl,” you run like a girl”). The feedback she captured ranged from negative to positive connotations of the phrase, with the video generating some 70 million views, resonating with its target audience and beyond.

“There’s a real relief in seeing yourself [accurately] reflected,” observed Greenfield. When a brand can depict something real and relatable, that message can connect with women.

As part of the #LikeAGirl campaign,Always invited girls and women everywhere to join the movement and share what they proudly do #LikeAGirl. They were encouraged to Tweet, take a picture, shoot a video or send a message to take a stand and show young girls everywhere that doing things #LikeAGirl should never be used as an insult–that it instead means being strong, talented and downright amazing.

Last month the #LikeAGirl initiative won the Grand CLIO Award for Public Relations (Brand Development). Additionally #LikeAGirl took home six CLIO Awards–two Gold CLIOS, one for Engagement, the other for Public Relations (Corporate Image); Silver CLIOS in the categories of Direct (Film), Digital/Social (Social Media) and Branded Entertainment & Content; and a Bronze in Direct (Digital/Social).

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