Branded entertainment is enjoying continuous growth in Australia. Recently, we’ve seen brand story-telling move beyond TV, and into digital, mobile and social platforms. In particular, faster internet connection speeds and the unprecedented growth of smartphone and tablet devices, mean digital and social content can live and entertain in their own right, as well as complement on-air activity.

To the disadvantage of branded content is the relatively high production costs in Australia versus other countries like the U.S. and UK. Australian networks prefer to seek out cost effective imports from overseas rather than create, produce and market Aussie shows from scratch, but these imports do not offer Aussie brands much branded content opportunity.

When networks do look to create local content, they often need help funding production which can mean great opportunities for brands.

In terms of regulation, the commercial free-to-air TV industry is regulated by the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice and is made up of industry and government regulators. Their primary focus for branded content is ensuring paid content is clearly distinguishable as it is promoting a product or service. Agencies and production companies work closely with the networks to ensure they stay within the guidelines.

Jacob’s Creek and leading Australian TV Network, Channel 7, worked hand in hand to push and pull wine-lovers to our content. Drivers were used across on-air, social, online, editorial and bloggers to encourage consumers to tune in for more of our story.

A consumer promotion further engaged consumers and gave them a chance to be a part of the story. Real people were invited to experience the brand and feature in the content we developed.

We made sure that before, during and after the campaign, we always had a story to tell and were leading consumers to the next chapter.

In a market that rarely sees brands funding entire TV shows, the Jacob’s Creek Reserved for Friends TV special gave the brand a much needed boost and viewers some much needed local content that they could relate to and be proud of.

By campaign’s end, and with no other activity in market, we saw a 9.6% sales growth year on year, a significant increase for the brand.

We also saw brand preference jump from 5% to 21% - an impressive spike in the market. And 41% of wine drinkers polled after the campaign activity said that Jacob’s Creek Reserve was a “brand I would take to a dinner party” up from 33% before the campaign’s start. Proving a real perception shift.

Via social media, we were feeling the love too. We became the #1 most engaging Facebook page in the alcohol category in Australia (a market known for its love of beer) and achieved an average Twitter engagement rate of 2.95% (well above the industry average of 0.99%).

The true success, though, is in the repeats. Jacob’s Creek Reserve is coming back into market with more brand funded content and events mid-2014 for an even bigger and better year.