Making branded content more than just advertising

This event report addresses the current weaknesses in how marketers approach branded content. One problem is purely definitional: the term "branded content" itself seems to lack ambition, and is essentially self-interested rather than focusing on the needs and wants of the audience.

Making branded content more than just advertising

Andrea Sophocleous

When developing content, marketers must prioritise the audience and forget about the traditional restrictions of advertising. That was the message of Jonathan Kneebone, co-founder of The Glue Society, a self-described "creative collective", during his keynote address at the Festival of Branded Content and Entertainment, held in Sydney in October 2013.

Kneebone began by rejecting the term "branded content" as being "unambitious", "self-focused", "self-interested" and "self-defeating". "Let's be frank. Calling advertising something different doesn't make it suddenly more palatable to an audience," he said.

"They admire it when it's clever, funny or...

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