The Integration of Entertainment and Advertising: Advertainment

Introduction

As traditional means of delivering advertising messages lose their ability to reach and effectively communicate with those target audiences judged most desirable by advertisers, the need for alternative vehicles for communication becomes more urgent (Scott, p.365). Media and audience fragmentation, advertising avoidance and technological evolutions such as digital television, the personal video recorder, Web 2.0 applications and user-generated content, make it increasingly difficult to reach and convince consumers with traditional campaigns.Therefore,commercial communications is increasingly using advertising formats that can break through the perceptual barrier and can be potentially more convincing than traditional advertising media. Examples of these new formats are hybrid advertising techniques such as brand placement, branded entertainment, advertainment or branded content, plugs, sponsored magazines and advergames (Pelsmacker and Neijens, 2009).

The term advertainment, now standard in advertising trade, describes forms of entertainment that act as marketing vehicles in addition to attracting audiences for spot advertisers. Advertainment exceeds product placement in its degree of conflation between the advertising and entertainment industries and in the creation and selection of show content. Functioning as advertainment, the television show itself is essentially transformed into a lengthy commercial (Kumanyika, 2011, p.479)

According to Scott, the primary difference between product placement and advertainment is that advertainment signifies the creation of content to support a brand while product placement is the utilization of a brand or its product to support content (p.367). Therefore it can be claimed that the content is regulated to support the brand through advertainment; on the other hand, the brand is needed to accomplish the content in product placement.

The evolution of the advertising industry’s promotional practices remains in a state of constant transition as technological advances steadily continue to shape, transform and cultivate the digitally integrated landscape of today’s modern world. The fusion of advertising and entertainment, known by the industry as advertainment, is becoming an increasingly popular method that marketers use to connect with consumers (Millili, 2012, p.6). Russell (2007) contends the term “advertainment” was “coined to reflect the intertwined connections between advertising and entertainment”. It refers to the promotional practices that integrate brand communications within the content of entertainment products. With the effectiveness of traditional advertising, such as commercial messaging, on the decline, advertisers are relying more on the integration of brand communications within narrative content in entertainment to promote products. The inclusion of advertainment practices in marketing campaigns allows advertisers to engage with audiences in a way that encourages creativity, imagination, innovation and interactive consumer participation. Advertainment practices based on the degree of integration of the brand in the entertainment content. The typology of the advertainment messages is classified into three categories: Product Placement, Brand Integration and Branded Entertainment (Millili, 2012, p.7).

The term advertainment was coined to reflect the increasingly intertwined connections between advertising and entertainment. It refers to promotional practices that integrate brand communications within the content of entertainment products (Wasko et al., 1993). The aim of advertainment is to make ads themselves so entertaining, or so useful, that people want to watch them (http://www.prenhall.com, 2013). Brand communications are now present in the content of a broad range of entertainment vehicles, including TV and movies (Wasko et al., 1993), radio shows, songs and music videos, video games, plays, and even novels (Friedman, 1985). The increased mingling of advertising with the entertainment world has generated a slew of newly coined terms to reflect these trends, such as hybrid advertisement (Balasubraminan, 1994) or the “Madison and Vine” expression, reflecting the physical intersection of the advertising industry's New York City Hub on Vine Street (Russell, 2007).