There are 2 aspects of the UK branded content environment that are of key importance to our brief:•Alcohol marketing heavily regulated- Despite relaxed product placement rules in the UK, alcohol is still banned from appearing in TV formats beyond advertising- Wary of a future where TV alcohol advertising is completely banned in the UK, marketers are investing in their owned spaces and developing engagement platforms online and through sponsorships- In this context, brands that develop strong entertainment properties will be best placed to endure future regulation•Online content overload- Between online video, smartphone video consumption and good old fashioned TV, our audience are exposed to 8.5 hours of video content per day- Broadcasters and web media brands are the fastest growing provider: a combined quarterly run rate that now surpasses 700m streams. - The amount of online branded content is also at an all-time high, now accounting for 26% of overall marketing spend- Online branded entertainment faces a huge amount of competition from both other brands and the entertainment industry itselfFor us, this means we have to create quality, high value, never been seen before content.

We built our strategy around distributing the content to as many consumer touch points as possible: including partnerships, PR, seeding, outreach and video hosting sites.The key drivers of audience interest are:- Working with the iconic UK talentWe worked with famous comedy talent (eg Steve Coogan) who are already part of our audience’s entertainment repertoire with a PR hook baked in.- Fame driving activityLaunch events, press interviews, blogger outreach, media partnerships and large format outdoor support ensure our content cuts through.- Tactical DigitalThe content is supported with relevant, contextual, targeted advertising to eyeballs at key moments.

The Foster’s comedy platform has been recognised as an innovative, ground-breaking approach to branded content.With the Audience:-Over 6% UK population reach with over 7m views-Impacted tens of millions of people -Coverage yielded a 3.6m PR value -Our content has gone on to appear on DVDs and Sky TV, and has been nominated for multiple comedy awards-Foster’s Funny productions is now approached as a commissioner by comedy producersFor the Client-Millward Brown brand tracking data showed uplift in key affinity measures since the comedy platform launched-Emotional Affinity: 9.0 pp. increase-Momentum: 9.9pp increase-Popularity: 7.8pp increase-From a sales perspective Foster’s has delivered a category share increase of +0.5pp in the on-trade and +9% in the off trade-The innovative content strategy has been credited by the client as playing an instrumental role in achieving these results.