The challenge for Appetite for Life in the Branded Entertainment space isn’t overcoming regulations or restrictions imposed by the government but rather, how it can reach the tech savvy consumer in a tactful, unobtrusive manner in a multimedia world.

With the scattering of media attention by tablets, smart phones/TVs, etc., it is getting increasingly difficult for brands to gain the attention of the viewer. Consumers are DVR-ing television content, downloading tools to skip conventional pre-rolls, and dividing their attention between multiple screens. For brands or products to get their message across to this fragmented audience, it is a struggle to find the perfect balance between advertisements and content.

Appetite for Life goes a step beyond the natural fusion inherent in branded content. While the base of the content is pure entertainment, brands have the power to go beyond and bring about change and positivity. This influential type of content not only provides value to the brand but also inspires the audience to share the content in a more organic manner, and to ultimately better connect with the brand itself though content.

Partnering with MSN helped bring traffic to the Appetite For Life content, which was housed on the portal’s website. Homepage headlines on MSN.com and editorial promotions on contextually relevant sites such as Delish.com (MSN’s designated food-related site), along with AFL banners across the MSN network—both online and mobile drove additional traffic. Other media on Xbox Live promoted the AFL theme packs and gamer pics. Consumers were also drawn to the experience via the AFL Facebook and Twitter fan pages, as well as Andrew’s personal fan pages.

Appetite for Life: Southern Hospitality content had over 1.35m video views and approaching 3m visitors to the Web and Mobile sites. The series’ core fan base was highly social. Over 100K articles, 2K videos, and 20K content links were shared via email and Twitter. On Facebook, AFL has over 5,000 daily engaged users with a 33.5K organic reach. To speak on behalf of the charity aspect of the season, AFL successfully raised hundreds of thousands via donation programs to give back to Meals on Wheels and Feeding for America, among others.Ultimately, the programme helped to positively influence the primary brand health metrics of the Toyota Venza. Among the target audience of active boomers, Toyota Venza experienced a brand favourability lift of 95% (Dynamic Logic, April 2012).