Branded Entertainment is increasingly popular in Australia as brands look for alternative ways to have reach and impact in a market where TV is phenomenally expensive.

The high cost of TV is driven by limited supply: There are just five major channels in Australia and the government run ABC and SBS have severe restrictions on branded content leaving just three channels available for advertisers.

Consequently, a number of brands are turning to self-produced digital content and recently, albeit to a significantly lesser extent, branded TV (predominantly FMCG and retail brands and predominantly through product placement) to get reach and impact in the absence of TV-advertising budgets.

The fact that branded entertainment is relatively free from regulations only serves as further encouragement.

But while there has been a rush to content – few brands have really struck gold.

Most pieces of branded entertainment are so desperate to attract attention, that execution often seems prioritised over strategy.

Kiwi Sceptics set out to demonstrate that branded entertainment can indeed earn attention whilst still delivering against a marketing strategy and benefit a brand’s bottom line.

To really shape attitudes and change behavior an idea needs to earn a significant amount of time and space in a person’s mind.

Consequently, we didn’t use channels to ‘draw’ people to a single piece of content. Instead we used every channel (TV integration, content, PR, digital) to draw new layers onto our story – creating an immersive campaign that grew the more people experienced it.

We did this by structuring our story around a celebrity who was commanding the nation’s attention, and by building our story across multiple channels, in real time, in the real world.

There are challenging categories. And then there’s Air Travel.

Last year the International Air Transport Association estimated that the $716bn global industry would turn a profit of just $4.3bn (0.6%). As a consequence, every single ticket sale is ruthlessly fought over.

This isn’t a category where you see significant sales jumps – yet the Kiwi Sceptics increased online booking volume by 8.5% YOY, making it the most successful campaign Air New Zealand has ever run.

Kiwi Sceptics didn’t just build sales, it also built the brand; increasing the number of people who see Air New Zealand as ‘Real and genuine’ by 8% and the number of people who see the brand as ‘Warm and naturally engaging’ by 7%, growing brand preference by 3 points.

Through content views, integration with Lara Bingle’s prime-time reality TV show, and media our campaign reached 14m people (about 2/3 of the Australian population).

Our campaign also generated over $1m in PR coverage and in excess of 120 pieces of coverage across TV, all major news sites, digital, print and radio (including coverage on TV stations that competed with Lara's TV show)

And social engagement during the campaign period increased from 1.3% to 13.2%.

All demonstrating that branded entertainment can indeed be a strategic instrument, able to benefit a business’ bottom line.