Subroto Geed, Sr VP marketing at United Spirits has several guidelines for branded content: it ought to bring the brand's purpose to life and be engaging; the integration ought to be seamless; the content should be easily findable and shareable and finally good production values.It's a hardworking checklist, born out of the several branded content initiatives United Spirits has backed.
A recent partnership for Jammin created by the Mumbai-based Qyuki gave Geed a great chance to push Signature subtly -because that's all that's allowed for an alcohol brand - via the Signature Startup Masterclass; an initiative where young hopefuls attended sessions with people who quit their presumably more lucrative professions to follow their dreams.
Jammin helped pair up aspiring musicians, with those who'd already hit the big league. The result: 15.4 million views, 64 hours of content watched and higher than average engagement on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Says T Gangadhar, managing director, MEC South Asia, “Qyuki are fast positioning themselves as the go-to guys for brands that seek to build narratives around music. They have demonstrated a knack for identifying and promoting upcoming musical talent.
So how did Qyuki take the calls that landed it YouTube stars like the Sanam Band, Shraddha Sharma and prank acts like Funk U?
According to Samir Bangara, co-founder, “We believe the creative director and A&R in our company is analytics."The analytics backend helps Bangara and team zero in on the keepers. While reluctant to tell us what goes into the process, he offers some hints: for instance, the amount of time spent on each video. Bangara points out, “You may have your Eureka moment in the bathtub, but you need hard work till you get there."
Once the talent is spotted, Bangara offers an end to end service including pushing the artist across the right media and linking them with appropriate brand associations. This flips the older and according to Bangara, riskier model: talent spotters zeroing on what they hope will be the next big thing and then taking a punt.
However the newness of the model combined with an innate uncertainty about branded content means marketers are not particularly queueing up around the block to come on board. Says Bangara, “If you refer to digital content creation with brands coming aboard, it is around Rs 100 crore - Rs 125 crore, in its purest form."The big fight is not with other media but other components of the digital mix like search.
Another battle is one of perception. While Qyuki backs other artists as well , for instance, pranksters and auto enthusiasts, it is still for better and worse, widely associated with music, perhaps natural for a firm that counts A R Rahman among its co-founders.
According to Gangadhar “Going forward, they need to create more IPs even beyond music."Bangara himself admits brands deploy the connections his firm provides in a more tactical manner “It needs to move from a campaign to a long term strategy.“.
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