Most of the Branded Entertainment to date in Australia has been web based content or straight up product placement – not entertainment developed around a brand strategy.In 2010 the 4 Australian free to air commercial networks – 7,9,10 and SBS, all added digital channels, vastly increasing the amount of advertiser supported programming available to consumers. There are now 16 free to air channels in a market of 21m people.The free-to-air networks consider a show successful if it pulls over a million viewers an hour. Their digital channels need about 300,000 viewers to win a time slot, and cable can range from 15,000 for non-sports shows up to 150-300,000 for blockbuster event shows.Australians have always been early technology adopters. The fractured media landscape and the challenges of pitching brand-funded shows to the networks has pushed advertisers to the internet as a viable cost per eyeball way to measure return on investment for branded entertainment. As advertisers move from a model where they supply a car as a consumer promotion on a game show into branded shows, where the ‘channel’, story, character or situations are built around a brand agenda, there is tremendous scope for long-form storytelling.

As well as web banners asking the consumer to ‘Meet the Extras’, a national TVC prompted viewers to visit ‘The Extras’ website to find out more about the standard features, that are anything but standard. The website contained our series of comical films, the 30' TVC and details about the actual features found in the car. Kia's 100,000+ Facebook friends were also sent daily updates introducing each character with insightful, topical information.

Since launching only 2 months ago, this campaign has contributed to:-45% increase in sales in the month following ‘The Cerato Extras’ launch over the previous month (Note: This is not a new or improved model, it is exactly the same car that was for sale the previous month) -60% increase in hits to Cerato website pages following The Cerato Extras launch over the previous month -4.42 minutes spent on the new Cerato Hatch ‘Meet the extras’ page, compared with an average of 37 seconds on the generic Cerato hatch page in the 3 months prior to the new launch -250% increase in test-drives booked in month following The Cerato Extras launch over previous month -60% increase in brochure downloads in month following The Cerato Extras launch over previous month.-Needless to say, the consumer loves this campaign.