To ensure a share of shrinking ad-revenue advertising agencies, production companies, media agencies, publishers and broadcasters have all moved into the increasingly competitive branded entertainment space. With a small domestic audience and competition from larger overseas markets that have the advantage of scale, there is increasing pressure on the quality and cost for Branded funded content within Australia.

In the past Branded entertainment in Australia has often been seen as an opportunity for longer ads. With an abundance of content available on multi-platforms from all around the world, Australian audiences will no longer stand for that.

Traditional brands have been slow to re-calibrate what is an accurate measure of success in this space. Creators of all advertising and content in Australia are experiencing the pressures of savvy, connected and selective audiences that are unwilling to watch traditional ads. They will only engage with stories and content they choose. A brand's tone of voice, what it stands for and the emotional connection it has with people have become more important measures of success in the long term.

Studio’s extroverted, stylish and ahead of the curve male audience made it a perfect partner for the Paceman audience. The MINI Paceman art series was an attractive content piece for this audience, who gravitated to the unique representation of art pieces that ran as both 60sec and 120sec interstitials across the Studio network. Each artist helped promote their unique art pieces and the MINI Paceman to their loyal social networks garnering overwhelming support and coverage. Visitors to the Paceman Store were drawn to the store by content produced with various publishers including the bespoke ‘The Pace’ magazine within Men’s Style.

The results have been exceptional, not only for Paceman but for the brand itself. For the campaign period, April through June 2013:

•National editorial media coverage amid strong global interest in the campaign

•13% of men aged 30 – 49 saw the Paceman campaign on air at least 3 times

•More than 2.4 million impacts through broadcast, online and outdoor

•Strong social media engagement with 6,300 likes and more than 50,000 people reached

•15% of Sydney people 18+ saw the Mini Paceman billboard an average of 7 times

Gabrielle Byfield, Brand Communications Manager at MINI Australia said: “We were impressed with Vizeum’s understanding of the target consumer, and the way that Vizeum and [our agencies] worked together to create a campaign that is unlike anything we’ve done with our brand before.”