In the United States, branded content is a media vehicle that has only recently been fully considered by brands within their marketing and advertising plans. This vehicle has developed tremendously over the past few years, going from simplistic billboards and animations within a regular broadcast to story driven TV and digital executions that are integrated into a broadcast or site organically.Since its genesis, branded content has been the subject of debate between advertisers and editorial camps. As a result, media outlets have opted to err on the side of caution and created some strict guidelines in working with various advertisers within the branded content space. The foremost restriction is that advertiser dollars are not permitted to fully fund and drive the content. This prohibition is to ensure that any branded content execution also fits into their overall editorial programming strategy. To this end, branded content must be engaging to the viewer/visitor and also convey the underlying brand messaging in a much less overt fashion than an ordinary banner ad or :30s commercial spot.

To maximise viewership, we chose American Football NFL tent pole pulse points to promote our branded content series, which included the Senior Bowl, Super Bowl and the NFL Draft. We lined up a battery of marquee distribution channels (paid and unpaid) including NFL.com, Gatorade.com, NFL Network and ESPN. Leveraged media included the ESPN’s High School Super Bowl wrap-up, a print insert in ESPN the Magazine and custom content for partners including target focused websites. Earned media included Men’s Health, Yahoo, Maxim and AskMen.com. Social media included Facebook, Twitter and USTREAM.

On every measure Gatorade’s ‘Everything to Prove’ program was nothing short of a total success, exceeding program viewership goals by 170%. With 8.1MM online views and counting, it is Gatorade’s most viewed content ever and was the #1 consumed video content on NFL.com during the off-season, Training Camp and Preseason. In addition, it was the recipient of multiple Telly Awards, including Top Prize for Documentary, Use of HD and Editing, and Second Prize for Sports and Cinematography.In terms of earned impressions and social media, ‘Everything to Prove’ received: 230MM total PR impressions, 7MM Facebook interactions, 8M Facebook impressions, 3.9MM Tweets and 31MM Twitter impressions. Paid media and digital engagement results include: 3.4MM impressions from ESPN SportsCenter Draft features, 568MM total paid media impressions and 31.9MM impressions from STACK and Rivals, resulting in 2.9MM additional views for the programme.Finally, in terms of impact on the teen target, 93.5% of teen athletes surveyed found the content somewhat/very appealing; 80.5% of teen athletes said the training/ nutrition habits of the rookies is relevant to their own training/nutrition; and ‘Everything to Prove’ generated 15% awareness among male teen performance athletes with less than $2MM in paid media.