BMW's Branded Entertainment Films Not All Created Equal

Albuquerque, NM - (mmd-news) - - It's nearly impossible to discuss successful branded entertainment without referencing the gold-standard BMW Films. However, until now, little research has been published on what's working, and what's not, with these classic examples. The mystery was partially solved at this year's Account Planning Conference held by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and those working in the burgeoning field of branded entertainment were all ears.

Ameritest, a firm specializing in providing advertising research for some of the world's top advertisers, is a member of the joint committee formed in 2004 by the Advertising Research Foundation and the American Association of Advertising Agencies to study emotional response in advertising. As part of this five-phase research project, Ameritest researched two of the BMW on-line films to discern not only what role emotion was playing in these mini-movies, but to better understand the still-nascent field of branded entertainment.

Using a quantitative/qualitative research model known as Research Theater, Ameritest conducted research on two BMW Films: "Hostage" and "Powder Keg." The study demonstrated how two films that work well dramatically can function very differently when it comes to brand BMW. Using their established visual diagnostic system in conjunction with foundational story-telling principles, Ameritest was able to decode why these two films with the same rescue plot structure performed so differently in terms of brand ratings and emotional response to the brand.

"If research is to fulfill its mission, it needs to go beyond hindsight and offer the creators of advertising good principles to use in the creative process, and not simply feedback on the success or failure of specific executions," said Amy Shea, Research Director at Ameritest. "What is so exciting about this research is it offers a concrete process and language for how to approach the making of branded entertainment in the future."

Ameritest is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is the exclusive provider of quantitative pre-testing ad research and tracking for two of the top technology companies in the world, as well as many other Fortune 500 companies. Amy Shea, Research Director, specializes in the study of how advertising functions as film, and is a published and fellowed poet. She is currently working on an analysis of key scenes in the classic film, "Casablanca."