We make branded content. But that’s not all we make. We also do promotional content, corporate content, PR content, sales content, advertising, and sponsored content. So, lets break down a few of these buzzwords and get to the bottom of what they actually mean and some of the possibilities.
BRANDED CONTENT
Branded content is content that is conceived and created by a brand, has stand-alone value to an audience, and showcases the brand in a way that is integrated into the content.
A few common examples of branded content would be a recipe or craft video featuring a product or tool. A makeup tutorial featuring a beauty product. Or a music documentary featuring a band discretely wearing a fashion label or drinking a beer.
This content has stand-alone value to the viewer (people want to watch recipe videos!), and features the use of the brand. But likely doesn’t push the product on the viewers. If you want people to organically share your content, branded content is a great place to play.
PR CONTENT
PR Content captures and extends the life of initiatives you are hoping to gain Public Relations clout from. Think ribbon cutting or store openings, sponsored event recaps, or highlighting charitable partnerships.
The trend of content that captures staged PR stunts also falls into this category.
Of course, many of those PR stunts are a part of in-person activations and are also made into short form ads. Any of this content can totally be part of cross-platform campaigns.
PROMOTIONAL CONTENT
This can be anything where the brand or company is talking to the consumer or customer. Company ‘About Us’ videos, product or process explainer videos, lifestyle product features, testimonials, etc.
This type of content will generally need to be promoted or distributed so your audience sees it, be shown to a captive audience, or live where the viewer wants to discover it and is already trying to find our more about your product or (eg., your website or an e-commerce site).
COMMERCIALS
This is the traditional commercial is that :15, :30 or :60 second promotional content. There are TONS of styles for commercials from lifestyle to spokesperson, jingle-driven to documentary, and many of them fall into the Branded, PR or Promotional Content categories outlined above.
While commercials can have a creative merit of their own, they generally require paid media or placement plans to get seen.
SPONSORED CONTENT
We’re not talking about sponsoring your content on Facebook (we can help you do that, too!), but sponsored content is content that is created without the brand’s direct involvement or creative control, but bears the brand’s sponsorship to fiscally support the creator.
Think: the “brought to you by…” type presenting sponsorships on PBS.
Or partnerships with Youtube influencers that allow them creative control of the content.
You’re sponsoring content much like how you might sponsor a sports team or an event. Speaking of that, we consider video or photo content that captures the sponsorship of events or teams in the above PR content category.
CORPORATE CONTENT
Corporate content is generally designed for internal communications purposes to explain business objectives, processes, changes, or goals.
Corporate content can train teams, get people excited about a process or initiative, explain policies or procedures, or communicate change. This can be anything from a video message from a CEO to an animated video describing a corporate structure. Strong corporate messaging can really increase moral, organizational efficiency and compliance.
Of course, there can be lots of overlap here. And while these labels can be partly semantic, they can also help frame the discussion for the type of content you want to make.
