What is Advertainment?
Advertainment describes the interdependencies between advertising and entertainment. Typically it refers to media that combine various forms of entertainment (television, movies, songs, etc.) with elements of advertising to promote products or brands. An example would be product placement in a film.
The function of advertainment
The approach of advertisers to use entertainment content to promote their own products stems from the use of branded products in early feature films. It was a collaboration between a filmmaker and a company where the screen display of a product, an off-screen confirmation by an actor or a combination thereof was traded for paid advertising and unpaid advertising by the company.
A growing place for advertising is video games, sometimes also referred to as advertainment or advergaming, where product placement and partnerships can play a more dynamic role according to researchers. The variables of gambling in the ongoing competition can make players more insightful or more active in terms of advertising. Examples of advertainment are billboards advertising energy drinks and billboards advertising sportswear.
In an advertising contract agreement, including product placement, scripts are often sent to producers of television programmes, films or music who need to use brands in their scenes. Product placements like these are often combined with traditional ads and online ads. Some authors and directors disagree with such arrangements because they fear that the plot is invented or does not seem interesting to the audience.
At the beginning of advertising, it was much easier to make placement-deals because they were considered “value-adding offers” and, above all, free. In today’s world, successful advertising is more complex and requires more extensive work and planning as well as experts in the advertising, entertainment and communications industries.
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