In Spain Branded Entertainment is still an emerging activity in which brands are starting to delve in successfully, a good example being “Citizens of a Place Called World”, which was given a prize last Cannes. The actions are sporadic due to the complexity and the context. Brands keep prioritizing their investment in conventional push advertising, where television gulps 41% of the media investment and internet a 21%, leaving the rest of activations to be minor test actions in their own or digital channels. For their part, government regulations are focused in advertising actions rooted in branded and product placement, restricting brands in their involvement and joint production of those branded entertainment actions/contents that may carry out a transverse and transmedia strategic vision in several points of contact. Lastly the involvement and partnership of mass media broadcasters is reduced given their structure that drastically separates the sales team from the contents team; and their traditional vision in which brands have to pay in order to broadcast advertising or at the very most sponsor contents/programs in whichever outlet. It could be said that we’re starting out and there’s still a lot of “branded” yet still little “content” and “entertainment”.

Once we analyzed our company, the communication assets and the target audience, we created an umbrella strategy around the Cinergía concept as a cohesive project that would allow us to get our messages across in different degrees of depth and to different audiences. We involved renowned directors that would give the project quality and credibility. Four short films starring famous actors that people of all ages and areas recognized. They were chosen to partake actively in the project not only as mere actors. We blended these activities with the sponsorship of the festivals in the project so that everything amounted to one single initiative.

Once all contents were created we focused on the Transmedia communications strategy in order to incorportate in the most integrated fashion the activations in the paid/own media, generating earned/shared media, to project the uttermost impact (the customized contents fit the contents depending on the necessities).

Thanks to Cinergía we managed to boost the brand’s sponsorship activity, making their activities and projects known to the general public. According to a Millward Brown study, Gas Natural Fenosa reached the number one spot in memory as Spain’s foremost cinema sponsor, overtaking companies whose main business is audiovisual production/distribution, such as Mediaset or Atresmedia.

The short films, the cornerstones of the action, were seen more than six million times, achieving a total audience of 30 million people. Only on TV, the short films and other elements created for the campaign (makings of, previews, interviews, etc.) were seen by over 156 million people.

Thanks to the development of all these actions and the generation of news, buzz and earned media, we achieved over 230 advertising impacts, with a payback that exceeds 200% of the money invested in the action and its activation.

Lastly, conversations in social media about energy efficiency improved by twenty per cent.