Branded entertainment activity falls into three major categories: product placement/integration, media deals, and content creation.

Product placement is common, transactional, and only restricted in product categories such as alcohol and entertainment categories such as kids' TV. Media deals include time buys for content distribution, meaning simply an extension of the paid advertising formula into longer form content.

And content creation means brands paying for production, and then seeking (or paying for) distribution.

While not particularly restricted, the biggest challenge to branded entertainment in the U.S. is breaking down the longstanding separation of advertising production and distribution, and entertainment production and distribution.

American malt beverage brand Jeremiah Weed is sold mainly in convenience store refrigerators, where it was languishing alongside more popular beer competitors. This unknown brand needed to not only make some noise, but prove that it was a legitimate competitor worthy of contending with the big boys in the beer refrigerator.

Use of the right celebrity would help this cause, but only if housed within an execution that reflected the brand’s irreverence and bluntness.

To accomplish this, we hid a surprise in the refrigerator of a South Texas convenience store that customers would not soon forget – legendary rock and roll band ZZ Top. Hidden cameras rolled as real customers opened the cooler door to discover the band performing its first single in a decade, produced by Rick Rubin. In-store posters and standees featuring ZZ Top helped instantly connect a world-famous band to a previously little-known brand.

Footage from the content piece was also used heavily in the creation of ZZ Top’s first music video in a decade, which is big news coming from a band responsible for some of the most famous music videos ever created.

First, the content was seeded strategically across major music sites including Rolling Stone. At the same time, thirty-second TV trailers in key markets drove viewers to Jeremiah Weed’s Facebook page to see the full-length content, which was also posted to ZZ Top’s official Facebook page so their fans around the world could access it directly.

In-store posters and standees featuring ZZ Top helped instantly connect a world-famous band to a previously little-known brand. Significant use of the content footage was used in the band’s official music video, bringing valuable legitimacy to Jeremiah Weed immediately.

The highly anticipated song release drew the attention of music publications and blogs globally. ZZ Top fans around the world became Jeremiah Weed fans for making the debut possible, and for delivering it in an unexpected way.

The campaign gave Jeremiah Weed an unprecedented spike in awareness and demand, which it struggled to meet due to unfortunate production issues. But with nearly 3 million hits combined between the content piece and the music video and the genuine endorsement of rock and roll gods ZZ Top and Rick Rubin, suddenly that little, unknown brand didn’t feel so little and unknown anymore.