Changing face of Branding: Branded

content to Anthropomorphism

Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi

Associate Professor,
Dept. of Management & Business Administration
Aliah University, West Bengal
Email: baksi. arup@gmail.com
www.aliah.ac.in
• Brand represents a set of tangible benefits masked with
intangible assurance to generate solution to problems.

•The essence of Branding lies in the way it is communicated.

• Clutter has triggered a major switch in Brand

communication as alternative medias are taking over the
message transmission sequence

• Rapidly changing consumer dynamics engaged with a

passive placement of Brands seemingly has become
ineffective.
•Branded integration as a communication strategy
and
• Proliferation of global movie networks, satellite channels
and social networking sites

• Growing competition, Media fragmentation, Segmentation

complexities – giving rise to Branded integration.
• Using the ‘celebrity-rub-off-effect’.
•Emergence of Branded content – Hybridization of
entertainment and advertising on a Brand platform

• Conventional media gave way to media with high impact

value:
a) Movies
b) TV serials and reality shows

The director Alfred Hitchcock once remarked,

‘Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It
didn’t change people’s habits. It just kept them inside the
house’.
 Movies Brand Nature of I n t e g r a t i o n Plank, Proposed objective Outcome

First Of its kind

Rajdoot
Bobby Passive Brand Association integration giving a high
motorbike
Recall value.
Very High Recall
Paas Paas Effective Brand in the backdrop during a
helping to develop
Yaadein Mouth Passive ( Logo sports event with all the main
positive attitude and
freshener placement) leads.
association
ICICI Bank, Highly Visibility
Lead Actor working for the
Baghbaan Tata Tetley Active leading to better
Brand.
Ford association and recall
Garnered High
Lead Protagonist utilising the
Buddha Hoga Harley Attention value for
Active Brand stylishly in all major
Tera Baap Davidson already established
action sequences.
Brand.
Brand Launch of Inspired
Visibility &
collection and Lakme was
Heroine Lakme Active Association was strong
relevant to the storyline &
for the brands
concept.
Active Integration with an Very High Recall &
Dabangg Fevicol Active
interesting Item song. repeat value.
30% rise in Test
Mere Dad Ki Leveraging the Title content for drives Lead
Maruti Ertiga Active
Maruti visibility & conversions. generation &
enquiries.
India Gate Integrated with an important
High Recall &
Basmati rice. sequence at a very crucial
Satyagraha Active. Consumer Evoked set
Ultra tech point in the film leading to
giving high Visibility.
cement. high visibility & Association.
 High Visibility and
Extremely well integrated and actively
Chennai showcases brand Nokia Lumia while creation of awareness about
Nokia Very Active briskly describing the product
Express features leading to better
features.
brand recall

Active Integration with an Very High Recall &

Dabangg Fevicol Active
interesting Item song. repeat value.

Mc Donald’s
leveraged the association
Western Union
Brands integrated at various smartly linking it to sales
Money,
spots thus leveraging Brand Western Union – highly
Ra.One McDonald's, Passive
Association with the movie & the visible during the movie
Nerolac Cinthol
lead star beyond logos. Promos as well skewed
Deo
towards prime time and
high- impact buys.

Ek Tha High Visibility &

Tiger Tourism Ireland Active Tourism promotion
awareness

Effective integration with the

Jab Tak Canon Camera Very High Visibility
Hain major characters in the film who
Discovery Active & Recall for effective
Jaan plays a scribe and uses the camera
channel association.
whilst working for discovery channel
Bournvita, Integration at relevant points in
Effective association,
Krishh 3 Rado, Tata Active the movie showcasing the
high visibility and recall
Motors benefit of the Brand
• Given the current context product placement has grown
tremendously, moving way beyond the concept of
placing a static logo in a movie background or a passing
reference in other platforms.

• The emergence of digital content based movie networks

namely NETFLIX, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, PVR Intra,
Klowd movies etc, social networks namely Facebook,
Twitter etc, content platforms namely Youtube are
hosting branded content to maximize visibility.
 Brand Recall percentage

Year Recall %
2012 32
2013 39
2014 41
2015 58
2016 69
Source: Nielsen, December, 2016

• Nielsen further reported:

a) dropdown in Brand recall to the extent of 9% over the conventional
media during 2012-2016
b) increase Brand Awareness by almost 30% more than traditional
techniques
c) 63% of viewers have found it to be more influential in their purchasing
decisions
 Report of Ernst & Young 2015-2016 about the digital spread of
Brand exposure
Countries Facebook Twitter Netflix/ PVR Movies

2012-2016 2012-2016 2012-2016 2012-2016 2012-2016

US 32% 23% 18% 28% 17.6%

UK 12% 15% 9% 14% 21%

European
10.75% 16% 5% 12% 10%
Union

Asia Pacific 17% 21.75% 11% 15% 18%

Southeast Asia 24% 28% 11% 9% 26%

Latin America 26.12% 14% 8% 14% 22%

India 27% 31% 12% 9% 27%

Vital factors for successful integration. Success Factors
for Brand Placement/Integration
The degree of interest in the brand or product category The
Fit relevance of the content to the target audience The fit between the
content and the brand

The degree to which the integration is engaging The degree to

Focus
which attention is focused on the brand
Fame The level of additional supporting activity (advertising or publicity)
 Branded Content Integration Objectives inferred
from the research conducted so far :

• Customer Engagement – Entertaining content for better

attention span.
• Customer relevance – Leveraging the Right Content
• Customer Retention - Right celebrity & Right Media
platform
• Customer Recall – Brand Repetition.
Recent trend shows a gradual shift towards a more
active Branded Content integration increasing
Interactivity & thus the element of customer
engagement : Internet and Mobile application.

Mobile device emerging as the third screen

This new Marketing Age has presented brands with two
critical challenges:

Firstly, brands no longer compete for the precious real estate

of the consumers’ mind against other brands in category or
indeed cross category, but with everything (and one).

Secondly, everyone has become a marketing expert,

interested in it, and analyst of it.

Whilst everything and everyone is trying to be more

like brands, one solution the industry has offered is
for brands to be more like people.
Humanizing brands: Moving to Anthropomorphism

The Fourth Cultural Phase One solution from the industry

The Age of Marketing The Clark Kent Human Belief System

Everything & Everyone is communicating as For Brands to become more like and closer
Marketers to people

Communicates to Communicates to

Brand Brand
People People

Mimic Brand Mimic Brand

My model of future Branding:
The Model of Superhuman
The superhuman belief model mark-up of brands is reflected
Delivering extraordinary values through Anthropomorphism as
marketers take shrine to
Brand mythological characters.
Impressing Marketing Age Consumers from a
transcendental spot
Brands like Vodafone, Cadbury,
Essar, Oldspice, Corona,
Samsung and many more are
Extraordinary Extraordinary Extraordinary
humanizing brands for better
Fiction Performance Control
perception and cognitive
People masking.
Thank You