Evaluation of Media: Branded Entertainment Strategy

Many companies hire product placement firms to gain consumer recognition without the traditional sales tactics. Product placement is a form of advertising and promotion in which products are placed in television shows and or movies to gain exposure. In recent years this form of advertising has grown 46. 4 percent from 2003 to 2004 and grew another 22. 7 percent in 2005. It is now a $4. 5 billion industry (Belch & Belch 2009). Strayer University is a college formerly known as Strayer college of Baltimore whose headquarters is in Arlington Virginia.

The for-profit university currently has 88 locations and is assessable online internationally. In an attempt to further Strayer’s reach three media options are recommended: Content Sponsorship, Advetiainment and Ad-Supported Video on Demand. Utilizing these strategies will help Strayer develop a cohesive and appealing integrated marketing campaign. These strategies are called branded entertainment, which is a form of advertisement that blends marketing and entertainment through television, film, music, talent and technology.

The first branded entertainment strategy that is recommended is Advertainment.

Advertainment is the creation of video and/or music content by an advertiser in an attempt to entertain views while advertising their products. For example, a company may plan an outdoor concert for the sole purpose of advertising their brand. Strayer could benefit from this by planning a short series of commercials interviewing famous people or people with extraordinary stories that have graduated from a non traditional college and have become extremely successful.

The second branded entertainment strategy is content sponsorship. Content sponsorship is when an advertiser rather than developing their own content; some advertisers agree to sponsor specific programs, receiving product placement, integration and promotions in return.

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For example, MTV decides to have the MTV awards and they look for companies who wish to donate money to the events cost in return for advertisement opportunities during the scheduled event. Strayer University can benefit from this strategy by sponsoring a new movie that is coming on television for the first time.

The type of movie that they should sponsor should be one that targets their specific consumer: career professionals, parents, and non traditional students. Lastly, the Ad-Supported Video on Demand branded entertainment strategy. Ad-Supported Video on Demand is specialized content programs offered through cable TV networks that are developed by advertisers and provided to the cable operators for free (Belch & Belch 2009). Strayer University could benefit from this type of advertisement by producing a short presentation on the success stories of Strayer University.

After considering the branded entertainment strategies, media planning is of paramount importance. Media planning is a series of decisions involved in the delivery of an advertising message to prospective purchasers and or users of a product or services. The media plan determines the best way to get the advertisers message to the market (Belch & Belch 2009). In other words, we will use branded entertainment techniques however, what are the best ways to do so? Would sponsoring a music video award show be better than sponsoring an outdoor concert?

Decisions such as these are critical to creating a successful integrated marketing campaign. Situation Analysis Strayer currently has 88 campus locations and is assessable on the World Wide Web. Strayer currently has 45, 491 students enrolled ( Strayer University). Strayer’s current competitors are other online universities such as Devry, Capella, Waldern and Phoenix. In addition to the online universities Strayer also competes with public and private universities. However, at this time Strayer targets the nontraditional student by the tagline “we fit your life”.

Media Plan The recommended media plan begins with the goal of making Strayer known as the non traditional school for non traditional people who are ready to excel. First, the university would use ad a job fair from noon until the eight in the evening at a hotel. In order creating a job fair and them sponsor a Movie on television. In addition, Strayer should produce a 30 minute movie to be watched on video on demand about strayer success stories. During each of the previous advertiaiment and sponsorship strayer should advertise for its on demand movie.

The range on the TV advertianment and sponsorship is vast. If the sponoship is done at the right time, on lifetime the commercials can be expected to reach 3. 9 milliion viewers. The premiere of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s original movie on Monday night about a housewife turned prostitute hooked Lifetime the second-largest telefilm delivery of 2010 reaching 3. 9 million viewers on July 19, according to Nielsen data. Included in that total were 2. 09 million adults 25 to 54, 1. 88 million persons 18 to 49, 1. 36 million females 18 to 49 and 1. million women 25 to 54 ( internet source).

In addition, Rentrak stated that, VOD viewers spent more than 3. 1 billion hours watching on-demand content last year. In an average month, 45% of enabled set-top boxes are accessing VOD. Active users of VOD are ordering an average of 16. 4 free programs per month, 8. 7 subscription programs and 2. 0 movies-on-demand. Viewers placed 5. 1 billion FOD orders and spent nearly 1. 6 billion hours watching FOD content. Subscription VOD content generated 1. 6 billion transactions and more than 1. 1 billion hours of playtime.

Transactional VOD content generated over 208 million orders, totaling over $963 million in gross revenues. Frequency The frequency is the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message before a response is made and before exposure is considered wasteful. Thomas Smith wrote a guide called Successful Advertising in 1885 that is still being used today which states found the following: The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it. The second time, they don’t notice it. The third time, they are aware that it is there.

The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before. The fifth time, they actually read the ad. The sixth time they thumb their nose at it. The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it. The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again. ” The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something. The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it. The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.

The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product. The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value. The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time. The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it. The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future. The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product. The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.

The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully. The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering. Based on this philosophy, our frequency number will be 20. During the Advertainment, we will make sure that we expose our attendees to the Job Fair advertisement at least 20 times before the date. During the sponsoring of our movie we will make sure that we involve our advertisement 20 times and have our video on demand advertisement make reference to strayer 20 times.