Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance - July 2021 K7.Media - K7 Media
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Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance July 2021 K7.Media
Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance K7 MEDIA
Brand Funded Programming in
Spending and Finance
1. Introduction 3
2. Making Finance 'Sexy'… and Comprehensible 5
Attracting the Young 5
Jargon-lite… 9
Through a Modern Lens 10
3. Demonstrating Purpose 14
Helping the Individual 14
Helping Businesses 16
Helping Society 20
4. Challenges to Overcome 26
It’s pretty dry… 26
Financial reputation and compliance 26
Industry processes 27
5. Interviewees 28
Brendan Dahill 28
Pete Fergusson 28
Samantha Glynne 29
Graham Hayday 29
Vicky Kell 29
Anthony Ng 30
Karen Ngui 30
Amanda Murphy 31
Lasse Nikkari 31
Nick Parnes 32
Paul Tremain 32
Simon Wells 32
Roberta Zamboni 33
About K7 Media 34
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1. Introduction
Earlier this year we published an in-depth look at the world of Brand Funded Programming
(Brand Funded Programming: Why It Matters Now), examining the combination of factors
which are coming together to bene t this area currently.
A timely convergence of Covid-induced nancial pressures, alongside the diminishing impact of
traditional advertising spots in a world of proliferating VOD platforms, has led both broadcasters
and brands to put renewed effort into nding new ways to co-fund and co-develop original,
entertaining programming, and we spoke to industry experts across the globe to nd put more
about the rewards and challenges of BFP in different territories.
We’ll be updating that global overview in due course, but in the meantime we’re issuing some
shorter spotlight reports looking at a series of different themes in this area.
Our rst examines the brand category of Spending and Finance - from banking and personal
nance brands, to small business support and ethical investment. While the brands in this
sector have a long track record in content sponsorship, what’s changing is their growing interest
in using longer-form programming to tell their stories.
At the same time their ever-present need to woo the next generation of spenders and savers is
being met with increasing interest by a young audience whose nancial aspirations now
encompass everything from entrepreneurship to cryptocurrency trading and investment advice
on TikTok.
Once again we’ve talked to those involved in BFP around the world, with insights and a few
select case studies from the UK, Australia, Russia, Asia, Finland and Italy. In the interests of
examining the key drivers, trends and challenges in this category, our examples include some
sponsorship partnerships and digital branded content, as well as pure broadcast BFP.
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Authors
CLARE THOMPSON - Non-executive Director
Clare is Non-Exec Director at K7 Media, regularly writing and presenting on global content trends
for their international broadcast and production clients, and at festivals around the world.
Alongside this she runs development and pitching workshops, team training sessions and
channel/ commissioning strategy projects for clients including the BBC, Channel 4, ITV
Studios (UK & US), Endemol Shine, All3Media and MTV, and for all the major Chinese
broadcasters through the University of Westminster’s China Media Centre. She consults on
the development slates of several indies in France, Ireland, and London; and in Scotland via
the Screen Scotland Focus scheme.
Clare’s background is in entertainment and factual entertainment development: in-house at
ITV from 2000 - 2008, she headed up their Entertainment Development team, steering work
on international formats and returners like Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, before
moving over to run internal innovation unit Imagine. In recent years she has also Exec
Produced documentaries including Girls With Autism (ITV) and Traf cked in Suburbia
(YouTube’s Real Stories channel).
VICTORIA DE KERDREL - Asia Paci c Consultant
Victoria has spent the past 10 years in Asia working on numerous co-production projects
with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, the Asia-Paci c
Broadcasting Union and the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS).
Previously, she worked for BBC Studios for 10 years in a number of key European roles
including a stint in the Paris of ce where she ran the factual co-production business in
France. She currently represents K7 Media in Singapore.
HANNAH BARNES - Australasian Consultant
Hannah joined K7 in June 2020 from Australian channel group Foxtel, where she was the
Group General Manager for Foxtel's Lifestyle Group linear, SVOD, BVOD and digital
platforms. With over 20 years’ industry experience, Barnes has enjoyed an extensive career
working across the UK, US, and Australian media markets, including time spent working for
Sky and Channel 5 in London.
Alongside her main gig working for K7 Media Hannah's hands-on approach consulting with
various production and media companies in Australia and NZ gives her an intimate
perspective on the markets.
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2. Making Finance 'Sexy'… and Comprehensible
For most brands operating in the world of nance, the biggest challenges are how to
make quite dry nancial products ‘sexy’, and also comprehensible, particularly to
younger audiences.
ATTRACTING THE YOUNG
For this reason, in the past, many banks have looked to align themselves with
content from which they borrow these youthful, more glamorous values. As
Samantha Glynne, Global Senior Vice President of Branded Entertainment at
Fremantle, says, “Finance brands have always been attracted to BFP and
sponsorship of entertainment content. Credit card companies in particular
work well, with brand pillars around things like ‘living life to the max’.”
Samantha Glynne
Global SVP Branded
Entertainment
In Italy Fremantle had bank Intesa Sanpaolo sponsoring X Factor for four
Fremantle
years as a headline partner, until the sponsorship was taken over by Axa
Insurance last year.
Intesa Sanpaolo wanted to target millennials and developed speci c nancial products for them.
They had a strong presence on air, associating their logo with the X Factor contestants and this
increased their brand awareness from the rst year onwards. Another huge element of their
sponsorship was ticketing for B2B and B2C customers, with hundreds of tickets made available
for each X Factor show through contests and their Rewards App. Additionally they had concerts
in bank branches every Friday with the eliminated contestant, plus friends, family and audience
members booking online to attend.
At the end of the series a huge event, promoted all over Italy, took place in Intesa’s
headquarters in downtown Milan, with original songs performed by the show’s stars, and
compered by its main host. All of the extra content and the concerts were produced by
Fremantle as part of the sponsorship package.
Says Roberta Zamboni, the Fremantle Italy Branded Entertainment Director
responsible for the partnership “It’s de nitely the case that institutional brands
like banks and insurance are most interested in music and talent series, they
need the glamour, and ways to engage with those younger audiences, but
also families with children who view.”
Roberta Zamboni Wavemaker (part of WPP) is Intesa’s media agency, and carefully tracked the
Branded Entertainment
Director bank’s return on their investment - including brand awareness, brand equity,
Fremantle Italy
and how many people were opening accounts (apparently 5000 a week during
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the show’s run). By all accounts the partnership delivered what they wanted, but after four years
Intesa decided to switch to supporting charities and sustainability causes when Covid hit
(there’s more on this type of funding migration later in our report).
“Axa Insurance then came in wanting more or less the same package, if a little smaller, with a
desire to motivate their sta with tickets as incentives, and also to engage that same,
younger customer base. Previously they had sponsored The Voice in Italy, so it was a natural
switch for them” explained Zamboni.
But these are still straight sponsorship packages around existing formats in the entertainment
genre. Other banks have been more daring in creating bespoke BFP content to ‘sex up’ their
brand and nancial products. One example was Beyond Money for Santander (2017), created
by Ogilvy - a 17 minute, Pedro Almodóvar-esque lm, set in a near future where you can sell
and buy experiences stored in your memory, and focusing on a woman who trades her most
signi cant moments, including her rst kiss and wedding day, for money.
Beyond
Money
Santander put a lot into the lm, with a top director (Kike Maillo), one of
Almodóvar’s favourite actresses (Adriana Ugarte) starring, a red carpet
premiere, posters in the banks, and a campaign where they gave away
amazing experiences as rewards. The lm won the 2017 Cannes Lions Grand
Prix for Entertainment and helped make the brand attractive, as they’d hoped,
with 12,426 attendees on the rst day of the lm’s cinematic release, 7.5 million
online views during the rst week, and the fastest product sign-up rate (for its
1/2/3 Smart Account) in Santander’s 160-year history.
But what’s also changing is how much more willing brands in the nance
Vicky Kell category are to actually invest in shows which get into the 'nitty gritty' of money.
BFP Consultant
As BFP consultant Vicky Kell puts it “For me what's evolving in this category is
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the move from sport and music, in which these brands were traditionally active (shows like
Barclaycard Share The Stage in 2020, and many more in the past) into more product or
nancial themed content like Save Well Spend Better, and The Money Maker.”
The Money
Maker
Both of these examples are from Channel 4 in the UK (and there’s more on
both later in our report), and for Kell this is part of a wider trend, in the UK
especially, “happening across branded entertainment - a move into more
diverse areas from afro hair to small businesses to climbing Everest.”
At the same time, there is a realisation that young audiences today aren’t only interested in
traditionally youth-skewing genres like music and talent, but can be very engaged by the right
kind of business and money programming.
Says Paul Tremain, Head of Branded Entertainment at MediaCom, "What is
intriguing is how our current, highly entrepreneurial culture is making an
impression on younger audiences. We looked at The Apprentice and
Dragon’s Den, and they skew quite young. The fascination with bitcoin,
trading and nancial advice on TikTok reinforces that fact. Young audiences
Paul Tremain
Head of Branded
Entertainment
are interested, the challenge is how to make it entertaining.”
MediaCom
It’s also becoming increasingly clear that educating younger audiences about
nance is a valuable mission in itself - and one that brands, broadcasters and
even governments can get behind in terms of useful TV content.
In Australia the New South Wales government has this month rolled out a new nancial literacy
challenge across schools, using the Australian Securities & Investment Commission’s
‘MoneySmart’ teaching resources to teach Australian children essential money skills.
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It’s fronted by nance expert and author Scott Pape - aka the Barefoot Investor - and a three-
part observational series for Foxtel’s LifeStyle channel, Scott Pape’s Money Movement, is
following the pilot program in a series of schools across NSW. Along the way, Scott tackles the
big banks’ existing school money programs, and calls on politicians in his ultimate goal of
having nancial literacy added to Australia’s school curriculum.
This one is NOT funded by a brand, as Pape maintains his objectivity by not
associating with specific brands, but it has assistance from Screen Australia. In
classic Jamie Oliver campaign TV style, it’s a genuine personal mission for Pape,
as well as for Executive Producer Brendan Dahill at makers EQ Media. Dahill cites
Jamie’s School Dinners as a huge influence on him, leading to jobs producing
Brendan Dahill
other campaign TV like the Australian adaptation of the BBC’s War on Waste,
General Manager
EQ Media
and then to a desire to make a show about the debt crisis and financial literacy in
Australia when he read Scott Pape’s book The Barefoot Investor.
In mid-2019, concerned by the lack of nancial literacy being taught in schools and the
country’s credit card debt, Pape had an idea to create a new money education program for
students, and teamed up with Dahill to make the TV show around it. Based on his best-selling
books, the Barefoot Money Movement was launched and demand was so huge that one in ve
Australian schools applied to be part of his pilot program. Scott is now urging the other state
governments to follow NSW’s lead and make the program national.
Scott Pape’s Says Dahill “At the moment we have banks teaching our kids about savings
Money
Movement and credit - and that’s not right. As Scott often says "that’s like letting
Ronald McDonald teach your kids about nutrition”. Teaching our kids how to
spend and how to save responsibly is a vital life skill.”
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Part of the problem that Pape has identi ed in relation to young people’s nancial security, is the
rapid growth of the Buy Now Pay Later services - brands like Afterpay and Zip in Australia,
Klarna in Sweden, the UK and elsewhere.
Without a full understanding of how interest works, and the pitfalls of these attractive, seemingly
painless credit offerings in particular, it’s all too easy for young spenders to be seduced by their
slick and now omnipresent marketing.
Writing in The Observer magazine this month, columnist Eva Wiseman has also identi ed how
the messaging of these BNPL companies is particularly targeted at young women, “A press
release I received this morning from another BNPL company, Laybuy, was promoting a new
campaign, ‘to get women talking more openly about their money worries and adopt better
nancial habits for the future’. We have long become accustomed to brands promising
women that empowerment will come with the purchase of a jazzy new stiletto or lipstick, but
this is new. This is the promise of empowerment through debt. Empowerment through
buying whatever you want, whenever you want it. The object you buy is not important, it’s
the buying itself that’s transformative. Empowerment through postponing the tricky
businesses of securing money, until a later date when the thirst for scented candles has
lessened.”
With its bright pastel colours and youthful marketing events (“a pink ice cream van parked in
Shoreditch [handing] mermaid-themed treats to young people”) she observes how they “o er
a generation for whom saving seems pointless the chance to spend thoughtlessly, and they
market it as self-care.”
It’s here that it becomes clear how complicated it can be for nance brands to try to seem sexy,
entertaining or purposeful, while at the same staying the right side of the line when it comes to
making their products ethical and clearly understood by the average consumer - particularly the
young. If that is the case in standard advertising messaging, it becomes even more dif cult in
longer form funded content.
JARGON-LITE…
Because there’s still the undisputed challenge that programming which gets TOO granular
about business or nance can be a turn-off to audiences of all ages, as can the real nitty gritty
of money itself.
A recent Channel 4 brief from Barclays, put out to a select group of TV producers pitching for
digital BFP commissions, reads:
“Money and money management are traditionally considered “dry” compared to other
lifestyle and entertainment content consumers love to engage with. In fact, this is a topic
consumers are extremely interested in (as demonstrated by the rise in independent nance-
focused in uencers, media content and websites), with many having questions about money
but few credible places to turn for an open and honest conversation. Barclays believe they
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can be a source of trusted, relatable and engaging money help and advice, but we need to
change perceptions of the kind of content they o er consumers.”
“Last month Barclays set o two of their creative agencies to come up with bingeworthy
ideas, and the winning idea for the rst content piece is based on banking acronyms &
jargon – titled ‘WTH Does That Mean’. APRs, IBANs, CHAPS, and IMOs are all confusing,
and very few people know what they actually mean.”
“Our role as Channel 4 is to bring this thinking to life through social- rst content. We need a
format that feels entertaining but still informative and breaks down those acronyms and
nancial jargon. How can we do this in a way that is accessible to all?”
It’s a clever move to both demystify nancial jargon, but also to highlight that these kinds of
acronyms come as naturally as breathing to that very audience they are trying to engage.
Pitches for BFP digital shorts for this brief are currently under consideration.
There is also the challenge that traditional business and nancial programming tends to skew
quite male, as MediaCom is nding to be the case in their research on the audience and impact
of The Money Maker, the show their client Dell co-funded with Channel 4. “But that was OK”,
says Paul Tremain, “Dell were mostly interested in targeting SME’s [small and medium
enterprises], rather than any particular age bracket or gender.”
But woe betide the banking brand that tries a little TOO hard to attract the female audience -
particularly if they appear to be ‘dumbing down’ the nancial jargon to do so. This month UK
bank NatWest published an open letter in London free-sheet magazine The Stylist, entitled “A
message to all women” and featuring a bowler-hatted character with a bunch of owers (based
on Mr Banks from Mary Poppins) apologising for the way banks have communicated with
women on nancial matters in the past.
“For years now I have patronised you, ignored you, talked to your husbands, fathers and
brothers instead of you, and made far too many suggestions that your earnings and
expenditures are meaningless and trivial….Our behaviour has led to a huge financial
confidence gap. From pensions to investments, women don’t feel represented by the financial
industry. That is our fault, not yours. And it’s time for change…. I am an outmoded stereotype.
You need to be spoken to respectfully, in a non-patronising way. You need to hear from people
who actually get you. Please accept my sincere apology from history. Mr Banker.”
While the sentiment was well-meant, some of the accusations of ‘patronising mansplaining’
which followed illustrated the pitfalls of trying to engage with audiences and consumers
differently in the area of money.
THROUGH A MODERN LENS
For this reason it’s brave but necessary for nance brands interested in BFP to think carefully
about how to create longer-form content that works for modern audiences, and re ects current
preoccupations.
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Another of MediaCom’s examples in this space was their ‘M Word’ campaign for Lloyds Bank,
and the supporting show Save Well Spend Better (Channel 4), which combined the issues of
money and mental health.
The show arose out of the statistic that 1 in 3 people in the UK have experienced money-related
stress in the last month. In typical British fashion, instead of talking about it, Brits tend to keep it
quiet because talking about money can make them uncomfortable. Research showed money is
a more sensitive subject for UK families than sex, religion or politics.
Lloyds wanted a new way to demonstrate the brand promise of being ‘by the side of every
generation’, and to convince people that they were best placed to help them with their finances,
so the ‘M Word’ campaign set out to tackle these taboos by getting people talking about money.
Save Well
Spend Better
In the 5-part Channel 4 series Save Well Spend Better (produced by
Firecracker Films), a team of specialist counselling and nancial experts offered
practical advice to a range of people suffering because of their money secrets
and worries - often hiding things from close family, friends and business
partners. Alongside the episodes Channel 4 actively encouraged viewers to
have their own money conversations across their platforms, with VoD viewers
asked to ‘pause to talk’, and a free live call and online support centre manned
by experienced Relate counsellors offered during and after the show.
Described by the Times as “arguably the most prominent example ever of advertiser funded
programming”, the show brought a peak audience of 1.2 million viewers, but perhaps more
importantly for Lloyds their research showed that viewers were 90% more likely to have talked
about money or nance with a family member or friend, and their association with Lloyds as ‘the
bank who encourages people to talk about money with friends/family’ rose by over 50%.
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Says Simon Wells, Controller of Funded Content at Channel 4, ”We are very
proud of both Save Well and The Money Maker. Making BFP for nancial
companies and brands is actually very di cult because it’s a sensitive area
and the regulations around the subject are especially complex and strict. But
Simon Wells Lloyds' Save Well was especially e ective in aligning the bank with being a
Controller of Funded
Content thoughtful, responsible and 'putting the customers' needs rst' type of
Channel 4, UK
organisation. And the TV spot activations around it were very e ective."
But despite all that the show isn’t coming back for a second series (“Lloyds are moving in a
di erent direction” says Paul Tremain), illustrating the perennial challenge of getting returning
formats in the BFP space, when there are shifting priorities and objectives for both channel AND
brand to satisfy.
Mind Over
Money
In New Zealand, TVNZ’s Mind Over Money managed two seasons, running
from 2017-2018, and again looking at the relationship between money and our
psychological state. Funded by Kiwibank, and hosted by well-known Kiwi
psychologist Nigel Latta, the rst 6 part season looked at the psychology of
money, while the second used a Kiwibank-built quiz to assess and delve into
peoples’ different ‘money personalities’.
This provided the show with a good set of fresh themes to build on second time around, with
Latta expanding on how the financial decisions we do, and don't, make can help or hinder our
lifestyles, goals and personal relationships. The four main money personality types identified – the
power spender, the social sharer, the freedom seeker and the security saver - were all illustrated
with well-cast contributors, who were then encouraged to have more open conversations with
those around them about their behaviours, just as in Save Well Spend Better.
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Says Latta "It really is important to have that conversation and have it pretty early because if
you don't, everyone is going to be blundering along and reacting and that's when
resentment and that kind of stu can kick in, whereas you can complement each other and it
can work out really well. Savers and spenders actually can work quite well together because
one teaches the other useful things. The spender teaches the saver about spending so you
actually enjoy life and the saver says yes, but it's good there is stu in the bank.”
Besides the case studies, Mind Over Money also offered advice on how to improve nances
and change behaviour for the better.
"We have an episode on investments because investment for some people feels like
something only rich people do or it's something you need this specialist knowledge to do.
And yet you kind of don’t.”
What worked well for the show was the play-along aspect of the quiz, which viewers could take
part in themselves, to nd out what type they are. “We all want to know, so which one am I?
When you do start to understand more about the money personalities you do go, 'Yeah, I
think I'm kind of that but, in reality, I'm actually that.”
Like the rst season, but with a new twist, the aim was to “provoke people to have
conversations with their partner and even internal conversations with themselves about who
they are and why they do stu ."
In an era of highly personalised TV programming, and product marketing, it’s vital that content
about finances can also feel just as personal to each of us - relatable, personality-led and built on
human behaviour, not numbers. But with a new twist each season if it’s to return; and with plenty
of clear, solid information and advice sat behind the entertainment. A tough balance to achieve.
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3. Demonstrating Purpose
Increasingly for many brands, the objective is also around demonstrating their purpose,
or use to society, particularly if they are investing in a longer form piece of content.
As Paul Tremain at MediaCom says, "I think more than it being speci cally about the nance
or spending category getting more interested in AFP, it’s about brands getting more
interested in the ‘purposefulness’ category. More and more they want to own a space that is
about making a di erence, and in the current climate a lot of that is about personal nance,
rebuilding businesses, and above all supporting communities.”
He mentions other banks and building societies looking at this area right now, just as in Italy
Intesa Sao Paolo wanted to move away from X Factor towards supporting charities and
sustainability causes.
HELPING THE INDIVIDUAL
On the micro level that’s about showing how nancial brands and products can help the
individual - through their products of course, but also as a general mission.
In the US this month, long-running student quiz show College Bowl is being
Capital One revived on NBC as Capital One College Bowl, hosted by football great Peyton
College Bow
Manning, with brother Cooper Manning as sidekick.
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Teams of three college students put their knowledge to the test, competing for a share of the
$1 million dollars in academic scholarships that financial-services company and sponsors
Capital One are providing. Participating schools include University of Alabama, Columbia
University, University of Michigan, University of Virginia and Xavier of Louisiana, while Capital
One will be funding not only the prize, but also the Champion trophy, and plenty of
accompanying social content.
Following on from Pepsi’s Cherries Wild game on Fox earlier in the year, it appears that
gameshows are the BFP genre of choice on US networks right now - albeit in this case with a
neat message of educational and nancial support tied in, and reinforcing Capital One’s well-
known ‘What’s in your wallet?’ tagline.
Love It or List
It Finland
In Finland meanwhile, Nelonen is leaning on Nordea, the largest nancial group
in Northern Europe, as the main funding partner on their adaptation of home
search and renovation show Love It or List It. With the format relying on big
nancial decisions around renovating one’s home, and then deciding whether
to stay in it or sell and move, it has proved a useful title for attracting brand
sponsors in both nancing and home improvement.
Lasse Nikkari Says Lasse Nikkari, Head of Formats and Branded Entertainment for Nelonen,
Head of Formats &
Branded Entertainment
(Nelonen)
“We have Nordea as the main partner… alongside two other partners - a real
Sanoma Media
estate agency and an interior design store."
“We also produce two spin-o series where we dig deeper into renovation and real estate
nancing. One with a more lifestyle edge for the interior design retailer, focusing on the
choices of furniture, colours and textures; and one with a nance edge for Nordea, focusing
on the details that need to be taken care of and negotiated when you either renovate or buy
a new home.”
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“Nordea want to be top of the mind when it comes mortgages, and be the place to get
the best possible advice, so in selected episodes where the couple needs to re-negotiate
or seek consultancy then Nordea have a more prominent role. We are putting out new
spin-o episodes simultaneously with the mother show, with banners advising viewers to
watch the spino too.”
HELPING BUSINESSES
Alongside helping individuals, nance brands also have a clear opportunity to demonstrate how
they are helping small businesses to survive and thrive, particularly in the current climate.
Pre-dating the challenges of Covid, Russian bank Sberbank worked with The Story Lab to
create four seasons of the original TV format Now I’m The Boss for the Friday! channel in Russia.
(Friday!/ Pyatnitsa! is an all-Russia broadcast entertainment channel, first launched in 2013.)
Now I’m
The Boss
Each 10 part season (April 2018 - December 2019) featured two bosses in the
same eld, one from a small business and the other from a large business,
switching places for three days. Each one is able to run the business as they
choose during this timeframe.
The idea is that the Big Boss will help the small business grow by integrating Sberbank’s expert
management solutions, while the small business boss uses innovative and creative ways to
solve problems within the larger business.
Sberbank own 40% of the market share for small businesses, but were facing the challenge that
new business applications in Russia were declining by 30% year on year. Their aim was to
encourage people to start new businesses, with of course Sberbank’s business products
supporting them. And by doing that via the TV show, also of course to attract a new audience,
change brand perception and enter into a new market with a new product launch.
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In terms of a returning BFP format, the show has proved more successful than many, with
several seasons and even an award in the “Best TV Show 2019” category at the TEFI-Capital
Russian Television Awards (Russia’s equivalent of the Emmys).
Pioneers of
Progress
Meanwhile digital branded content specialists Nemorin Film and Video have
also worked with nance clients, including Credit Suisse, on lms showing the
support innovative businesses get from banks.
The Credit Suisse example is a series of documentaries for CNBC, entitled Pioneers of
Progress. The lms showcase several industry-leading businesses and their relationship with
the brand. Each is around eight minutes long, and runs in commercial air time rather than as
strict AFP. The lms will be distributed on YouTube, the clients’ own digital channels and on out-
of-home displays in Credit Suisse reception areas.
Nemorin was founded in 2014 by CEO Pete Fergusson, who’d previously run
the commercial video team at The Telegraph. Graham Hayday joined him from
the Head of Studio role at Guardian Labs, The Guardian’s in-house branded
content agency. Together the two set out to make white-label branded content
Pete Fergusson
that could sit anywhere – a client’s website, intranet, YouTube channel,
Founder & CEO Facebook page, TikTok or even on TV. Five years later Argonon took it into their
Nemorin Film & Video
group, realising that BFP was a rapidly growing market.
Nemorin still do the digital branded content they’ve always done - whether it be
short form or feature-length docs – but now they also develop their own
formats for broadcast distribution, while facilitating and co-producing longer-
form programming with the companies in the Argonon group. All of it is funded
Graham Hayday (or partially funded) by brands.
COO & Director of
Content & Strategy
Nemorin Film & Video
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Says Graham: “We have access to seven brilliantly creative production companies in the
group, who are out there pitching to commissioners all the time. If we don't have an idea of
our own up our sleeves we can feed through the briefs from agencies or brands and ask
what our colleagues have on their slates. They often come back with something that they’ve
already talked to a commissioner about, something that could be helped over the line if it
were part or entirely funded by a brand.”
This was also was what happened in the case of Channel 4’s most recent
business-supporting series The Money Maker, adapted from another CNBC
show The Profit, by UK indie Kalel Productions. Says Nick Parnes, CEO of
Kalel, “We’d already seen and liked The Pro t and thought we could do it
here. We licensed the format and pitched it to Channel 4. They knew, via
Nick Parnes
CEO
MediaCom, that Dell wanted to do a small business show, and this tted
Kalel Productions
perfectly with their mission to help SMEs via their products. I think there
might have been another idea in the running, but [commissioner] Becky
Cadman pitched this to them and they were already quite keen before we
The Pro t even got in the room with them.”
Paul Tremain at MediaCom admits that the fact that the format already had a track record in the
US was a big help. “This was a US acquisition, so obviously came with the added con dence
of being able to see broadly how it might look.”
In the US the show is currently on its seventh series and features multimillionaire investor
Marcus Lemonis visiting struggling businesses and investing his own money in exchange for a
share of each company. For the UK, new talent had to be found, and as Parnes says, “Trying to
nd a multimillionaire investor who would be happy to spend up to a million pounds of his or
her own money to invest in struggling, crisis-hit businesses that may or may not succeed
was a nigh on impossible task. It was then I began to understand why no one had
successfully brought The Pro t over to the UK before.”
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But in the end they hit upon serial US entrepreneur and investor Eric Collins, the man behind
Impact X Capital, a £100m fund that invests in companies run by female and underrepresented
entrepreneurs, and a member of President Obama’s White House Small Business Council.
Tremain says that “Dell didn’t get involved in casting – we always keep the client informed,
but they took the producer and channel’s recommendations, which is as it should be. On the
companies we followed they just had to be SMEs, and the ones they found tted the bill.”
“The UK version was slower and less shouty than the US version, but Eric was great – a
talent not known over here, so maybe a harder sell, but he was excellent.”
With the show being commissioned just as Covid hit, continuing was a big gamble for all
concerned, but in the end its social purpose became even more important as Collins set out to
help the chosen companies navigate these most challenging times, as well as build a successful
long-term future. Those included a bakery, forced to move mostly online; a company carrying
out invisible repairs to household ttings; and a team of mobile barbers, looking for ways to
survive lockdown.
As Parnes explains, “It meant that the storylines and the mission to help small businesses get
through it were even more relevant than ever, but of course it made it much harder to make.
Our Exec had worked on The Apprentice in the past, and he said all the big supermarkets
that would normally happily let you go in and lm someone pitching products to them, just
didn’t want to be seen to be taking unnecessary risks with lming, even though it was
allowed. So we had lots of drop-outs and not as many locations as we’d have liked. But it
didn’t really a ect the viewing experience, just the budget and production logistics.”
While the ratings were not stellar for Channel 4, those associations with their brand purpose
were still invaluable for Dell. Says Tremain, “Launching a new format is hard, the numbers
might not have been what we hoped, but we feel it’s a show that will gather momentum.”
“It had really strong social sentiment, and we got lots of positivity on social media about how
the show was doing that. It’s too early to say on the full ROI for Dell – we’ll have the results
of our full analysis in July, when we’ve looked at things like brand consideration and uplift -
but they were very pleased with the response from those who engaged. The social assets
they put out with Eric Collins did very well, and it’s clear that the subject is very interesting to
those who are interested!”
Because the format was already in existence, there wasn’t much room for input from Dell on
that, but in the end it was these brand values, the attached social assets, and some moderate
placement of their computers in the series that were the key elements their investment delivered.
The question now is whether the format will travel further - again with a brand attached. Says
Paul Tremain at MediaCom, “Dell will have to pay for the option if they do want to be
associated with it in other markets, but they have expressed interest and it is in advanced
conversations elsewhere so we’ll see, once everyone has looked at the post campaign
analysis. And the same for Channel 4 and a second series.”
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One of those markets is Finland, where the show has also been optioned from NBCU by
Nelonen (with interest from “various potential partners in the insurance, IT and nancial
management sectors” according to Lasse Nikkari.)
Despite the nancial complications of Covid and the added headache of extra partners to
satisfy, the experience hasn’t put Nick Parnes off brand funded programming at all. “This was
our rst BFP – we’d pitched in before for branded All4 ideas, but this was the rst we’ve got
away. We weren’t actively pursuing many tenders like this – it was more a case of being in
the right place at the right time with the format, but we’d de nitely do more.”
HELPING SOCIETY
Alongside the mission to help small business, there are also plenty of nance brands wanting to
prove their value to society as a whole - whether it’s via specially tailored content, or added
extras around established shows they sponsor.
Roberta Zamboni at Fremantle Italy says the challenge is to keep brands feeling like they are
getting that, even from the biggest entertainment titles.
“All these companies are moving towards value propositions now. They want
to be associated with empowerment, sustainability and diversity. Our
challenge is to nd ways to incorporate those values and messages into
shows like X Factor.”
“So for example for Axa we created a manche dedicated to female
Anthony Ng
Writer and Co-Director empowerment, in support of women campaigning against violence towards
on DBS mini-series
Sparks
Moviola Productions
women. We had a female orchestra involved and also our judge Emma
Marrone whose monologue went viral on social media for the week after.”
But for nancial brands with reputations for probity and integrity to uphold, it all has to be
delicately managed. “It has to all be done very carefully - the storytelling has to be right, and
it has to feel integrated into the show. Brands are very demanding about what they want
from these sponsorships now, but it raises the bar for us to try and make it feel appropriate,
engaging and in the right context.”
“Brands want more and more digital involvement, and talent with followers they can harness
- the TV show or campaign itself is not enough now.”
A highly successful example of impressive real-world support and action via digital branded
content comes from DBS Bank Ltd - a Singaporean multinational banking and nancial services
corporation.
Their Sparks mini-series launched in 2016 online, produced by Moviola Productions, Hong
Kong, and centring on a group of DBS bankers who go above and beyond to solve client
challenges. The series garnered over 250 million views across Asia, and led to the creation of a
second season in 2019, entitled “Everyday Heroes for a Better World”, and focusing
speci cally on social enterprises.
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Sparks The series is still on-going and follows the bankers from Season One as they
Season 2:
Everyday partner with these various social enterprises to create positive social impact. The
Heroes for a
Better World first seven episodes of Season Two garnered almost 215 million views and nearly
7 million digital engagements across Asia, indicating wide audience reach.
The idea built on a previous online mini-movie DBS had made in India that focused on a couple
who were trying to start a restaurant and were clients of DBS. Says Antony Ng, Writer and Co-
Director of Sparks for Moviola, “[In that lm] we learnt about DBS through the couple’s
interactions with the bank, what they had on o er and their services; but the issue with this
approach was that the bank came across as rather a minor character and with very little
speaking time. It was really about the couple and DBS came in at certain parts of the movie
to provide solutions.”
“So we started to think about what else we can do. Why don’t we turn this around and make
the story about the bank and its employees? This would not only get an in depth
understanding of its services but also provide a great opportunity to show the more human
side of banking which most people don’t get to see. Especially after the nancial crisis
people had a very negative view of banks, they just want my money, they are only concerned
about pro ts etc. They don’t necessarily care about social responsibility.”
“So that was our approach and with the concept in place, we started to create an interesting
group of DBS bankers as characters that would drive the story. With the characters in place,
we very quickly saw the potential for a continuous series.“
DBS bought the concept of the series, but the challenge then became working out what
durations would most engage the audience. “The research showed that the drop o rate was
quite high (even after seconds) so then the question was, why are we trying to do something
much longer - is this going to be viable? For season one, episodes one to three were 5’ as
we tried to keep it as short as possible.”
“After they were so well received, we realised we could try some longer episodes.
Sometimes the data is not always so accurate in terms of how you can reach and engage
with an audience. We went o and said let’s try a longer duration for episodes four and ve -
and we were right. The 12’ eps were even more successful.”
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“We do have drop o s but the people DBS want to reach are not necessarily those skimming
through stu . I think the message is a) either we do something as attention grabbing as
possible in a very short space of time and just unload the information before we lose the
attention span or b) we want the audience to “feel it” and not be told. In a way, there is a
slight e ort on their end to follow the story. We all love movies that make us feel smart, I get
to participate in the viewing as well. People remember how they feel – this approach has a
lasting impact.”
The stories have to be carefully chosen to feature engaging social enterprises, challenges and
characters, and also subject areas that the audience can relate to.
Says Ng “For season 2, we focused on social enterprises. DBS insisted that every episode
needed to be based on a true story which was hard but we realised that the impact would be
much greater than something ctional. Every episode starts with what DBS wants to talk
about. We take these true stories and then dramatize them to t the format.”
“We start researching and coming up with the story – this involves rounds of feedback and
scriptwriting. We have to talk about the bank and what DBS do, how they nurture social
enterprise, but then we also have to talk about social enterprise, what they do, who are the
founders, why did they start the enterprise, what are the challenges? How do they solve the
problem with the bank’s help?”
“On top of that, we have to keep it entertaining. Is there romance? Is there con ict?
Disagreement? As a writer and co director, I need to bring these elements together to create
an entertaining, brand building piece all at the same time. Not an easy job but a collective
e ort to slowly smooth out the rough edges and make sure everything is balanced.”
Above all it’s important that behind the story there is a genuine lasting impact that DBS and the
social enterprise have been able to achieve in the real world. “For the season one nale, we
wanted a big story that ended up straddling episodes nine and ten. These eps were to be on
a social enterprise specialised in solar power.”
“I ended up writing the story where Sachin Tendulkar, the famous cricket star, helped DBS to
build the solar power oods lights for a village cricket ground in India so that kids don’t have
to choose between doing homework and playing cricket. They can do their homework and
play cricket at night.”
“DBS informed me afterwards that because of this episode, DBS and Sachin actually
teamed up and built the oodlights for the cricket ground. So, what we created really did
make a di erence in the world and I love the fact that DBS actually did that and put their
money where their mouth is.”
For Karen Ngui, Managing Director & Head of Group Strategic Marketing and Communications
for DBS Bank, Sparks has been a success on many fronts.
She says: “Over the past 4 years, Sparks has created value by successfully shaping and
strengthening DBS’ brand perception and driving purchase consideration. When we
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compare perceptions between people who have caught Sparks or Sparks-
related content, and those who haven’t, there is evidence that Sparks has
led to far more positive brand perceptions of DBS.”
“In particular, we see stronger brand associations between DBS, purpose,
Karen Ngui and sustainability traits for those who are aware of Sparks vs those who are
Managing Director,
Head of Group
Strategic Marketing
not. And our attribution modelling studies show that a healthy percentage of
and Communications
DBS Bank and those who have been exposed to Sparks have then gone on to nd out more
DBS Foundation
Board Member
about DBS’ products and services.”
Of course, it’s important to know who those people are, and, as previously discussed, it’s often
the younger audiences that banks are most interested in engaging.
As Ngui says, “Given that it’s a web series and marketed primarily online through social
media, we are able to reach a larger proportion of younger, digital natives who are more likely
to consume content online. And it’s great that Sparks has resonated with both the public and
DBS employees alike. Some of our younger colleagues have even told me that the series
changed their perceptions about what working in a bank is like, and they wanted to work for
DBS after watching it!“
While Moviola produces the full episodes and the trailers, DBS’ in-house content strategy and
production teams conceptualise, develop, and push out the fringe and publicity content to drive
interest around every new Sparks episode. And, apart from Sparks, DBS’ Content and Studio
teams also now produce other content offerings for DBS, including a podcast and an
experiential vlog series.
“We made it a priority to build and grow our in-house content strategy and production
teams. We hired content strategists and writers, and also established the DBS Sparks
Studio, an in-house studio with production capabilities including live-streaming,
videography, graphic design, and so on… Our in-house content creation and production
capabilities have enabled us to be more agile and experimental in creating always-on
content for social media and digital channels, even as we try new formats such as audio and
augmented reality content,” explains Ngui.
With the series recently being recognised as a Webby Honoree, now the challenge is to see
where the idea can go next. Says Ngui: “We decided to adopt a brand publisher approach to
content creation, including creating our own in-house content o erings, and pushing them
out directly to customers and the general public via social media and other streaming
channels. Sparks is one successful example of this. That said, it would be great if Net ix or
Disney+ or the other streamers would pick Sparks up!”
For DBS the plan was never about pushing a speci c product, more about showing how
Sparks is a demonstration of what the DBS brand stands for. “Sparks helps to encapsulate our
single-minded focus on customer centricity, our belief in going the extra mile for the
customer, and our desire to help our customers live larger than themselves by being socially
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conscious and having a sense of purpose. These values are deeply engrained in our DNA,
even as the “mechanics” of banking evolve over time.”
She adds: “The ending scene in our latest episode of Sparks, ‘One From The Heart’, sums
up this sentiment nicely. It’s a scene where budding young DBS banker Ethan asks his
manager Chester on how being a banker today is di erent from being a banker in the past.”
"Chester replies: “Well, with the wonders of technology, life, and banking as we know it, is
very di erent today. But what’s in here... (gestures to where the heart is) has never changed.
It is still about standing by our clients and supporting them through good times and bad. It is
still about thinking beyond ourselves and being thoughtful with our actions so we can leave a
better world than the one we inherited. And it is this purpose that drives us every day.”
Sometimes multiple partners can use the same piece of content in different ways, to re ect their
own social agendas and purpose. Banijay’s format Eat Well For Less has been a success for
BBC1 in the UK for a number of years, and also performed well as an acquisition for TVNZ1 in
New Zealand. But with the cash aspect always in sterling, and the supermarket foods speci c
to the UK, there was de nitely the appetite from TVNZ for a local adaptation that would be more
relatable to the New Zealand audience.
Amanda Murphy, a freelance Commercial and New Business Executive specialising in Brand
Funded Programmes, explains how she and the TVNZ commissioner set out together to nd a
range of brands to help deliver a fully funded NZ version.
“The series subject matter was key and topical from a nutrition & health
perspective, spending habits, food waste, food education and Kiwis being
time (and budget) poor but wanting to make nutritious meals for their
families.”
Amanda Murphy With this in mind their rst approaches were to supermarkets - notably
Countdown (Woolworths NZ ), whose marketing tagline “Eat Well For Less”
Freelance Commercial and
New Business Executive
specialising
made them the perfect t. But alongside the mission to get families eating
in Brand Funded
Programmes,
Brand Partnerships,
Sponsorship and
Media Integration better and more cheaply is a broader societal aim around reducing food waste,
and supporting more sustainable food production methods. So the next stop
was Rabobank NZ (subsidiary of Rabobank Netherlands), a 100% online bank
offering that supports local farmers.
As Murphy explains “It’s a mutual which means money raised from deposits gets reinvested
back into New Zealand - back into the land to grow the food we eat… Their challenge is
motivating urbanites to make deposits by explaining the ‘mutual bene ts’. i.e: money raised
from deposits gets converted into loans & support for the rural agriculture sector.”
One of the biggest social purpose aspects to what they do is trying to help reduce food waste.
As their website explains, “Naturally, we have a deep interest in knowing the food produced
by the New Zealand businesses we work with goes where it really belongs, on people‘s
plates….. Some of the produce that gets to market is wasted because of use-by dates,
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mislabelling, damaged packaging, cancelled orders and other issues. Some doesn’t even get
that far, like fruit and vegetables that are sometimes wasted because they have a few
blemishes or look ugly (even though they still taste really good).”
So the brand saw a partnership with Eat Well for Less as the perfect opportunity to grow audience
awareness of Rabobank’s support for food and local agriculture, drive deposits via the website, but
also promote the wider anti-food waste message and the tips they put out on their social channels.
Eat Well
For Less NZ
As Murphy puts it, the mantra of the series is that “if you're wasting your food
you’re essentially wasting your money. A great example is that when you go
to the supermarket you buy eight carrots when you only need to use two.
When you throw them away you're not just having a negative impact on the
environment, but you’re also throwing away your money, which is a key
message for Rabobank and the show.”
Along with a third sponsor, 5+A Day Charitable Trust (educating families around eating enough
fruit and vegetables), these different funding partners leveraged and ampli ed the series, making
tailored content to play alongside and further drive key messaging. This included TVC’s, social
and digital content, plus in-store collateral and recipes viewers could use to make the meals
from the series at home.
Series One ended up being the biggest show on TV in New Zealand in 2020, reaching just under
1.9 million viewers (5+) and averaging over half a million viewers per episode (5+), which meant it
outperformed My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef - previously the top two food shows in the
territory. It broadcast whilst the country was in lockdown so the content felt particularly topical.
Series Two is currently on air under the same funding model and at similar performance levels.
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4. Challenges to Overcome
So what are the challenges for brands in the Spending and Finance category wanting to
get involved with Brand Funded Programming, and how can they be overcome?
IT’S PRETTY DRY…
The rst is - as we’ve already established - that it can be very dif cult to make the nitty gritty of
money actually interesting to watch.
As Lasse Nikkari at Nelonen in Finland puts it when discussing Nordea’s sponsorship of Love It
or List It “Making mortgage discussion sexy is the biggest challenge in regards to content.”
For engaging TV programming, the human stories, drama and relationship problems that money
throws up can often be the best way into the subject, but with solid and clear nancial advice
sitting behind it, often in supporting digital content.
FINANCIAL REPUTATION AND COMPLIANCE
But this brings us onto the next area of complication: the fact that nancial brands have to
maintain unquestionable probity and their blue-chip reputations, and adhere to stringent
regulatory frameworks.
Samantha Glynne, Global Senior Vice President of Branded Entertainment at Fremantle, still
sees a lot of nervousness here. “We’ve had lots of briefs for small business-type shows from
banks, but then they never seem to go anywhere. There may be a good, funded business
format out there, but we haven’t really seen it yet. I think the brands put out the brief but
then get cold feet, they’re so cautious about their reputations in this category.”
And as Graham Hayday at Nemorin explains, even when they do go ahead, it can be
challenging working on nancial brands' content when it will be published online. “Compliance
is a major issue. It can be hard to do content about nancial services because it has to be
compliant in any market it might be seen in, as the sector is so tightly regulated. At one
banking brand shoot recently we had something in the script about a speci c product, but
had to take it out as it was only available in one market, and the lm would be available
globally on YouTube.”
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