FUNC YOUR BRAND! Understanding in Movie, Game, Show and App Advertising

Advertising changes from time to time.I correct myself - the 'modes' of advertising change from time to time. Given the current developments in social networking, free sharing technologies, gaming systems and changes in the entertainment making and providing business, change is certain.

Lets look at certain seemingly unrelated facts before we try analysing this 'change':# more people wanted to go to Pangong lake in ladakh than ever before the year 3 idiots released. Previously, it was TsoMoRiri lake that was more sought after.

# The sales of Zandu balm shot up after it was mentioned in a song in the movie Dabangg.


# many games employ brand-name products such as guns and cars as status symbols within the game. Examples of this include cars by Lexus, Lamborghini, and Ducati in Atari's Test Drive Unlimited^[23] and guns such as the Colt M1911, MAC-11, AK-47, and M16 from the Grand Theft Auto series.

# Axe Deodorant went for something a little more fun. They placed a random can of their product on one of the levels of the game RAINBOW 6… if the gamer shot the can they were rewarded with a ‘blooper reel’ created by the game’s developers.

#Britain's got talent: I phone app - The app, built to offer users the chance to see behind the scenes footage, backstage interviews, galleries and a great 'play at home' red buzzer game, was developed purely for the iPhone and iPod touch so that the TV companies involved in the show could get a handle on the sort of demand for these adjunct services and to assess the challenges of developing the mobile channel.
Downloads of the app started at 64,000 on the first weekend that the show was broadcast, growing steadily to a total of 538,367 by the time of the grand final. There are even some people still downloading the app after the show has ended…

# MTV Hero Honda Roadies, is an almost entirely sponsored show that's been working for its sponsors year after year! Just check the list of brands piggy backing/partnering it: Hero Honda Karizma, Garnier Fructis, Haier Mobiles, Mountain Dew and Castrol Power 1, with Fastrack from Titan as Style Partner, Nestle Polo as Partner, Ground Partner- Pizza Hut, Broadband Partner- Sifymax and 93.5 RED FM

So what do we draw out of this?more people than ever visited a tourist site just because they saw it in a movie.
more brands reached directly to their tg coz tasks in a game highlighted their benefits.
product demos were not ignored because they came as a part of entertainment.
a TV show went public by going mobile effortlessly - from a bigger screen, to a smaller one(a more accessible one).
Is this the death of conventional advertising? No way. It's just a new route. A new medium. An enormously fast growing medium of advertising that depends on ONE KEY WORD - FUNCTIONALITY.Functionality determines whether brands in such a space make it or not. Just static integration wont help. The consumer needs to find the brand interactive. The brand needs to be of value to the consumer. Coz unlike static or one way advertising, this kind of advertising is INTERACTIVE.

Unless you FUNC your brand in this space, you can't really expect anything much. you cant just expect people to spend on your brand or even believe in it in the first place just coz you are telling them to. you need to convieniently persuade them. you need to ask yourself:Is your brand entertaining the consumer?
is your brand involving the consumer?
Is your advertising something the consumer is ready to be with?
Is your brand serving/helping the consumer in any way?
If your brand communication is adding to a consumer experience, it is most likely to be accepted and internalised.

the simplest way to put this whole nw trend into a nutshell would be :
"ask not what the consumer can do for your brand,
but what your brand can do for the consumer!"- Pushkaraj Shirke

PS: when it comes to INMOVIE branding, just don't over do it - like BUD Light points out in this hilarious commercial: