Branded entertainment content and native advertising have broken through as increasingly utilized tools for American brands. Given the broad platforms available to brands – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MCNs, target specific digital channels and traditional television networks – placing creative and engaging messages where consumers are viewing content is a necessary component to the marketing mix.

However, many brands are still challenged with the ability to create positive attribution in the eyes of the consumer without the immense burden of huge investments, including talent fees and music licensing rights. By partnering with media owners who create lifestyle content of interest to a brand’s target consumer, we can typically offset some of the costs of talent, licensing and production through investment-led negotiations.

In the US, television network partners still struggle with effective off-air distribution but the recent trends of mergers and acquisitions giving traditional TV companies new digital and social channels has signaled a true change in cross platform distribution of content.

In a world-first concert experience, Pepsi and famed DJ A-Trak teamed up to create a concert that compelled millennials to live in the moment. Concertgoers received wristbands that monitored heart rates, movements and body temperatures - which directly influenced the concert. Wristbands were synced up to the audience’s social media accounts, allowing Pepsi to give shout-outs to fans who were dancing the hardest.

In parallel, live coverage on Fast Company and YouTube brought the experience of the live event to the masses and showed millions what it means to stop viewing life through the smartphone and just ‘Live for Now’.

At SXSW 2014, Pepsi and famed DJ A-Trak teamed up to provide a groundbreaking Bioreactive Concert experience that integrated state-of-the-art wearable technology into the performance. Concertgoers received wristbands that monitored their heart rates, movements and body temperatures, which in turn directly influenced the concert: for example, when the room got hot, wristbands unlocked Pepsi-inspired cocktails. The wearables were also synced up to the audience’s social media accounts, enabling Pepsi to give the most frenetic dancers shout-outs on Facebook and Twitter.

All of the data collected was relayed in real time to A-Trak so he could adjust his set based on fan reactions, both physical and emotional. The visuals at the concert also changed in real time to reflect the crowds energy. The video landscape changed its speed based on the motion sensing data, and the images matched the audience's temperature, going from a snowy New York backdrop to a Los Angeles beach as the crowd's temperature rose. The energy peaked with a massive boys vs. girls dance-off that motivated everyone in the audience to dance even more. Over all, we tried to match the crowd's data to cultural elements that intensified the moment and translated the intangible into the tangible.