Branded Content Day – 2019

In November 2018, Branded Content Day was held in a small room above an event space in Shoreditch; a morning only session, with a big telly, a handful of great speakers, both agency and brand-side and a quick cup of coffee. In one short year, Nemorin’s Branded Content Day, has upgraded in every way. The variety and quality of content, billing, duration, venue (The Curzon – Soho) and of course, the volume of attendees to network with. The day was conceived and delivered by Nemorin Film & Video and featured consultants and in-house leaders in branded content from the likes of BAFTA, BP, Red Bull, The Guardian, Reuters, PWC, ABComms, Twitch, Whaler and The Drum

Keynote Talks included:

• Verizon: – ‘Brands as the new patrons of the arts’
• Red Bull: – ‘Let’s work together – the future of branded content’
• Guardian labs: – ‘20 case studies in 20 minutes’

There were panel discussions on Measuring ROI, AR & VR, Influencer marketing, The future of audience engagement, How to harness AI, data and tech and Internal Comms & B2B

….and then of course, there were lots of Best of Branded Content 2019 screenings. My highlights were:

• BMW – The small escape
• Patagonia – ‘Artifishal’ – the fight to save wild salmon
• Red Bull – Space dive
• Guardian Labs – How cricket is helping Afghan boys build a new life in London

The hits kept just kept coming. I filled an entire moleskin with notes and met some brilliant people. At times it was hard to keep up with so many great insights – all useful for our agency and of course, our clients. I have now been tasked to deliver my 3 top take-aways from the whole day, so I’ve chosen the ones that resonate particularly strongly with us at Tilt (and of course Nemorin themselves)

1. Video is still a key player in the future of branded content – there’s also a demand for high-impact long-form content (as seen in above examples) With the surge in environmental awareness and consequent demonstrations, consumers have never been so hungry for information. They want ‘big’ stories, that take them out of their immediate lives and educate and move them. If the content is truly engaging enough, e.g. Ross Edgely’s Great British Swim, attention spans will stretch and people will keep coming back for the next chapter. Consumers will always want ‘accessible’ heroes, and in a time of ‘fake news’, now more than ever.

2. Always work with specialists – Will Sturgeon – Head of Content & Thought Leadership – PwC, talked about the importance of working with content creation experts,  rather than trying to up-skill in house brand teams.

3. Internal and External are the same – in the Internal Comms and B2B discussion, the panelists all agreed that content created for these arenas needs more investment. It needs to be just as powerful as that found in brand marketing to perform. Employees are consuming the likes of the examples above outside work for e.g. shopping, buying cars and booking holidays, why then, would they engage with lower quality content when they are being asked to learn new work skills, change a behaviour or buy products and services?

All three points (especially the last one) are music to our ears at Tilt. They align perfectly to our purpose and core service offering from day 1. What a great event! – until next year!

Find out more about Nemorin’s Branded Content Day