The future of advertising: Content is king but awareness is key By Byron

Foster’s, Red Bull, online video, branding, marketing, brand TV, advertising My post yesterday on Foster’s use of online video content got me thinking. Brands becoming producers of entertainment is something that I, as well as many others believe will be a key aspect of advertising in the future. Some brands are already doing this, for example Red Bull. Red Bull TV produces original extreme sports programming that is aligned with its sports sponsorship strategy, and appeals to its target audience. The goal is to create content that is entertaining and relevant to your target audience, regularly drawing in visitors to your website.

The challenge for brands, as the proliferation of online video content continues, will be to drive awareness of their content. In the case of Fosters Funny – I only became aware of it because of a huge poster at a Tube station (as much as I am a fan of innovative, online advertising, I find that good old fashioned posters in the Tube can also be incredibly effective). But they weren’t advertising their beer – everyone already knows they make beer – they were advertising the fact that they had original content on their website. So is this what multichannel marketing will be in the future? Rather than marketing products – will everyone be marketing content? The 15 second pre or mid-roll ads that you’ll get in between the on-demand TV shows that you’ll watch, could go something along the lines of “Hey – you like this TV show , come over to our website where we’ve got more stuff like it.”

Of course, maintaining and informing your audience about your content will be made easier as an Internet marketing channel through social networks. A video in someone’s Facebook timeline has a better guarantee of being watched than a referral through a poster. But until the brand becomes a hub for entertaining content, people like me will have no incentive to become “a fan” of the brand on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. So while content may well be king, awareness is going to be key.