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Brand Programming Is The New Marketing And Advertising

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"People don't read ads. They read what interests them, and sometimes it is an ad." The late great San Francisco adman, Howard Gossage, made that observation some 40 years ago and it still holds true today. Only you need to add a few new verbs to sit alongside "read" to capture our current media landscape. Words like "watch," "click on," and "engage," to name but a few. The point is content. People are attracted to amazing content, and sometimes, yes, it's from a brand.

There are a few brands who are starting to wake up to the reality that part of brand communications is now "programming." Let's take a look at a few examples.

First let's turn to Heineken. The Dutch beer brand has done some nice advertising and some smart sponsorships for decades. Very recently, they came up with a "program." The marketing objective is simple: Think big sport, think Heineken. Yet the clever bit here is how it all unfolds. Heineken created a 3-minute reality show called, "The Candidate." It's a behind-the-scenes look at hiring an intern for their sport sponsorship group. It's "The Apprentice" meets "Punk'd" with a little bit of the UK "Office" for some delectable moments of awkwardness. The story highlights a series of odd tests like the potential boss holding your hand to bring you into the interview room and then asking you about it. Another test challenges the candidates to deal with a medical emergency and a fire -- yes, both events break-out during the interviews. In the end, Heineken creates some hilarious content -- that all actually relate to their sponsorships. Have a look here:

Another brand looking at programming is Lincoln. During the Grammys weekend, your grandfather's car brand swiped a page right out of the MTV playbook and created a really smart music program called, "Hello Again." Like "Unplugged," back in the day, which featured an artist re-interpreting a song in a new context, the Lincoln team hired musician/song-writer Beck and director/creative technologist Chris Milk to re-interpret David Bowie's song, "Sound & Vision." It's marketing for sure -- "say hello to the new Lincoln." Yet it's also content. Here's a look at one of the intriguing "making of" films of the program:

Of course, Brand as media company has been virtually perfected by Red Bull. Last year's 128,000-foot, supersonic free fall featuring Felix Baumgartner was one of the year's biggest media events. It garnered over 32 million views on YouTube and was front-pixel news on CNN.com.

All of which points to the new realities of brand communications. Marketing? Yes. Advertising? Sure. And for the smart brands out there -- brand programming.