This keenness is easy to understand. Sue Unerman, chief strategy officer at MediaCom, believes the expansion of the internet has changed the rules governing brands' involvement in media content. 'Old advertiser-funded TV programming was slow and clunky, but now the routes to market are wide open,' she says.
Mark Eaves, managing director of PHD's branded-content division, Drum, agrees. 'Dove TV is another illustration of how online is becoming a primary rather than a secondary method of distributing content,' he says. Eaves attributes this to the effect of online services such as the BBC's iPlayer, which have brought the practice of watching televisual content via a computer into the mainstream.
Drum is receiving more commissions for web-only content-creation projects than ever before. Indeed, there is a growing trend for brands to become platforms in themselves.
According to Mark Boyd, creative director and head of content at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, brands have always been channels, but are only just waking up to it. 'To be a channel you need an audience, content and distribution. Brands have all these things,' he says. 'Advertisers are shifting from renting a broadcaster's audience to becoming media owners. Digital media has created the opportunity; now brands have the resources and appetite to make it happen.'
Nonetheless, for any brand tempted to embark on such a project, success depends on two significant factors. They must be prepared to meet the expense of sustained commitment, and remember that the content must be entertaining.
For example, Unilever must be hoping that Dove TV, which will feature information based on the brand's 'Real beauty' positioning, achieves greater success than Budweiser's equivalent effort. Last year, the US beer brand committed more than $30m (£15m) to the creation of a 'Bud TV' video-content site, and commissioned Hollywood scriptwriters to come up with original content that included everything from reality shows to stand-up comedy.
Although morphing a marketing department into an editorial content provider was undoubtedly a bold move, it also turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Instead of the 2m to 3m hits that brand owner Anheuser-Busch predicted, the channel barely scraped 5% of that estimate, and in March last year it registered as the 49,303rd busiest website in the US - behind one promoting sheet rubber, according to Quantcast research. The future of Bud TV hangs in the balance, with the brewer failing to give the project its unqualified support.
This, according to Eaves, is an example of some brands' misguided belief that 'if we build it, people will come'. Unerman adds her own warning to brand-owners: 'Just because you can, it doesn't mean you should.'
However, some brands have achieved greater success. Audi hired Bartle Bogle Hegarty to create a branded channel, which launched in 2005 across a variety of digital platforms. The agency claims
it has been a successful innovation, and figures suggest it has driven both sales and interest in the brand.
Land Rover also launched a web TV channel, Gobeyond.TV, in 2006. Created by MindShare, the channel features six streams of video-on-demand content: sports, adventure, people, culture, places and, naturally, Land Rover.
Unerman suggests that before brands embark on trialling such platforms, they think carefully about what they have to say and how interesting it is. In the short to medium term, expect other brands
to jump on the bandwagon. Just don't expect too many to go the distance.
Case Study: Audi Channel
- Almost 1m new car buyers have viewed the channel.
- Potential buyers return 12 times during the decision-making process,
- and watch for eight hours on average.
- The Audi Channel has influenced an estimated 12,000 car sales, with an average price of £25,000 per car.
- 97% of people who have watched the Audi Channel have rated it positively.
- 89% of non-viewers are also positive.
- 94% are positive about the content.
- 13% go on to book a test drive.
- 49% go on to order a brochure.
- 35% go on to visit Audi.co.uk.
- Source: Bartle Bogle Hegarty