Evidence from National Restaurant Chain’s Integrated Marketing Communications and Social Media Management

BRAND ENTERTAINMENT AND PLAY

Pasi P Tuominen

University of Hertfordshire Business School

World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality 13 Dec, 2011, Hong Kong, China

“DEFINITION” OF BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT• A convergence of advertising and entertainment.

• A new term to describe a more contemporary, sophisticated use of product placement

• Branded products are no longer just 'placed'; they are entwined into entertainment content making a stronger emotional connection with the consumer

LITERATURE• Hudson, S. (2006). Branded entertainment: A new advertising technique or product placement in

disguise? Journal of Marketing Management , 22, 489-504.

• Moore, E.S. & Rideout, V.J. (2007). The Online Marketing of Food to Children: Is It Just Fun and Games? Journal of Public Policy & Marketing: Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 202-220.

• Pellegrini, A. (1995). Future of Play Theory: A Multidisciplinary Inquiry into the Contributions of Brian Sutton-Smith. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

• Terlutter, R.D. (Ed.). (2010). Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 1). Cutting Edge International Research. Germany: Gable Verlag.

• Zhang, J.Y. (2010). To Play or Not to Play: An exploratory Analysis of Branded Entertainment in Facebook. American Journal of Business , 25 (1).

exampleEnergy Drink Red Bull

• Introduction and background stories about the designated X-fighters

• Redbull.tv with multiple channels for (extreme) sports, music and fashion

• High class Games & Apps are changing according to their usage

• News, results and video footage from around the world

• 23,6 million followers in Facebook

Sample for this researchAmarillo Restaurant Chain

• Casual restaurant chain with 21 units operating in Finland and Estonia

• 31 000 followers in Facebook

• Research period June – December 2010

• Facebook Insight Reports

• Whitevector Chat Reports (Social Media Monitoring)

• Snoobi web traffic reports

Findings from the study• Campaigns started late August or

during September.

• The amount of followers in Facebook increased with 2504%

• Between August and October, the increase was from 3174 to 25113

June July August September October NovemberDecember0

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Findings from the study• Interaction (the volume of) were

highest, when company (or a devotee) published content at the end of the week.

• Cross-media content provision by the company created most interaction in Facebook, re-tweets and blog reading.

1 8 15 22 29 36 43 50 57 64 71 78 85 92 99 106 113 120 1270

10

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80

Findings from the study• Incoming web traffic was higher in

other medias than Social Networking Services.

• To be able to participate or to be able to gain monetary compensation or status proliferation enhanced the incoming web traffic.

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200

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Findings from the study• Burger tuning (FB application)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

67 83129

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312376

91 117

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Completed Burgers Likes Page views

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Findings from the study• Reactions to content

0 2 40

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PromotionFactEntertainment

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PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS• Ambient presence is required in order to compete in the evolving brandsphere

• Active and creative content creation and customer service play key role in acceptance

• Entertainment valued content creates most impressions ( and reactions )

• Promotion or fact related content has to be exclusive and offer real long term value

• Bargain hunters will rarely commit or build emotional connection to the brand perusing special price incentives

THANK YOU