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Branded entertainment is either the next new thing or a fairly healthy 125-year-old
“Brand entertainment is finally coming of age.”
So said a recent magazine article, which was off by only 100 years or so.
As far back as 1900, a tire company in France published a guidebook of noteworthy destinations for car owners, giving them more reasons and greater distances to drive. Which meant their tires would need to be replaced sooner. Somehow, we still take Michelin’s advice on where to eat today.
Brands of course were also producers and content creators in the early days of radio and TV, bringing audiences the entertainment they craved rather than interrupting it. Soap operas, anyone?
Even the current iteration of brand-funded content is more than a quarter-century old. TiVo disrupted the intrusive ad model in 1999 with its skip button, forcing brands to confront a world where they’d have to earn attention rather than buy it. BMW set a new bar for storytelling and production quality in 2001 with a series of short films directed by and starring A-list Hollywood talent.
Imagine a car commercial where the hero bleeds out in the back seat? You don’t have to. BMW made it 25 years ago.
At the time, I was a journalist reporting on the rusting business models of the…
