The audience in Brazil is directly involved in the circulation of content, at the same time the reality of the broadcast system is that TV and mainly one player centralizes the content distribution in the country. With the grow of social media we can see a demand for content to reach consumers in social networks and on YouTube what enable brands’ message really to flows with the content and not just around it. Going from the traditional way to insert brands in the media environment to a way to create conversations. Branded Entertainment is taking over the Internet, which naturally enables its distribution. The discussion about a less intrusive, more consumer-relevant marketing approach is growing in Brazil and with that communications with less impact but greater audience involvement.

Sony Channel was going to air The Voice’s seventh season in Brazil. Besides being a success, the TV show wasn’t a new thing anymore. To attract new audiences and inform the fans about the new season, we’ve decide to use the two things that it’s known for: the judging/evaluation of singers and for revealing new talents. Those two experiences were taken to a digital content and we’ve created something cool enough to entertain and engage Internet users and make them feel as one of the judges from the TV show. Using a simple and small thing: the Skip Ad button. The Voice’s new season was going to be aired in September. In July, we’ve published newspaper ads and social media posts calling for entries for a New Talent’s Music Contest. To attract these new musicians, we’ve offered a contract with Sony Music as a prize for the first place. After the submission period was over, employees from Sony Music selected the best talents and called them in to auditions at Sony Channel studios in São Paulo. There were hundreds of musicians. There, we’ve revealed to the participants that the actual contest was going to take place in YouTube. Those auditions were filmed during a whole week and the videos were used as content in the Skip Ad Festival. Voilá: what was supposed to be just a campaign in YouTube’s Pre Roll became a branded content in partnership with Sony Music, a music festival that entertained our consumer and invited him to interact with the idea.

We’ve used YouTube’s True View format as a channel for our branded content idea. Our audience could just watch the auditions from the Skip Ad Festival, listening to the new talent’s songs and presentations, but they could also interact with them, deciding who was approved and who was not. By just clicking the Skip Ad button if the participant was rejected.

While the average interaction in YouTube is 12%, during the Skip Ad Festival this number went up to 22%. Besides becoming a YouTube success, the idea also reached its main goal: The Voice’s new season had a record audience in Sonny Channel. So, we promoted the TV show, we’ve revealed new music talents in an advertising campaign and we’ve also provided entertainment to our consumers, making them really experience our product. All in just 5 seconds. The idea also became a benchmark for the True View format, used by Google as an example in its Update Release to other agencies.

The Skip Ad Festival was an online interactive Music Contest created to promote American The Voice’s new season in Sony Channel, creating entertainment content in partnership with Sony Music in YouTube’s Pre Roll. It worked as a music competition, putting the viewer in the judging position, as if he was one of the judges from the TV show. The viewer could watch the new talent’s auditions and had to interact immediately with the content. He had 5 seconds to decide: if he clicked the Skip Ad button the singer was rejected, but if he didn’t the singer was approved by him – he just had to let the video play its 30 seconds.