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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
In a world of increased content and clutter across multiple channels, the need for branded films to cut through is more important than ever.
At Campaign’s inaugural Brand Film Festival this week, a range of brands and advertising companies came together to share insight on some of the best work launched in the past year along with the learnings they took from the campaigns.
A big theme on the day was that branded content should feel natural and not forced. Context is everything and the best films cut through to align with culture and evoke emotion.
Digital Cinema Media contributed to the conversation by presenting some of the work and innovations launched on the big screen. Creative Business Director, Jeremy Kolesar, took to the stage to address the 250-strong audience and outlined how brands can make the most of the power of the big screen and the wider cinema environment.
The first of three pieces of work shown in DCM’s slot at Oval Space was Three and LG’s I Know What You Unboxed Last Summer, which won the Grand Prix prize at the annual DCM Awards run in association with Campaign in September. The film takes inspiration from the popular unboxing of phone films on YouTube and follows the brand’s purple mascot, Jackson, as he ventures into the woods with a friend leading to an engaging comedy and horror narrative based on The Blair Witch Project.
The second piece of work shown was an interactive video launched by RNLI, which encourages the audience to see how long they can hold their breaths to warn about the dangers of drowning in open water.
The two pieces of work are very different in length and Jeremy explained that the ad reel in cinema can be used in creative ways. He also explained that brands have to consider people skipping and finding ways not to watch their films on other platforms, but in the cinema, they become part of the overall experience.
“From my point of view, while cinema has seen some exciting innovation in the past few years which continues to evolve, the principles haven’t changed too much. It’s a traditional channel that is getting stronger at a time of uncertainty for other media.”
The final piece of work shown by DCM was the live cinema stunt created for smart energy for its Gaz & Leccy campaign informing about a nationwide rollout of smart meters. The work showed that the cinema space can be utilised for great branded innovations that go beyond the big screen as well as engaging and impactful film projects. Also, the fact that the stunt was captured on video meant that it spread across social channels, highlighting cinema’s worth as a cross-media platform.
The Content Afternoon ended with a networking drinks session before the inaugural Brand Film Festival London award winners were announced in the evening which concluded an inspiring day of thought about film and how brands should be harnessing the medium across multiple channels.