Branded entertainment is allowed at commercial stations, and largely prohibited on the public TV stations by media legislation. Branded entertainment has shown a huge increase in professionalism over the last years. From late afternoon programming (cheaply produced with low ratings), branded entertainment has evolved to a valuable media opportunity, with high rating prime time programming being made accessible. TV stations, radio stations, online and print titles have created departments to accommodate the increase in demand. Moreover, they increasingly have their own in-house creative agency, designed to create new opportunities and to expand on existing branded entertainment projects.

However, there are restrictions to branded entertainment. We cannot directly stimulate sales, so new price information, distribution information, and anything that might be aimed at driving sales, is prohibited. Usage of material from commercials (even characters) is not allowed. This goes for in-programme branded entertainment as well as branded entertainment only associated with a program (eg. so called billboards). In addition, the amount of exposure and the emphasis with which a brand utilised is limited.

Advertisers increasingly make use of branded entertainment as they experience its effectiveness and learn how to use branded entertainment to achieve objectives.

Besides the ‘branded’ part through bill boarding, station promo’s and so on, branded content is only valuable if it is relevant content. How to create relevancy to viewers of the most successful talent show ever?1.Offering backstage content through Vodafone owned V-reporters2.Inviting viewers to talk about the show on social media through V-reporters postings3.Launching an app so the audience can participate like never before, even straight into the live shows and promoting the app in the show and Vodafone stores4.Driving the social conversation and bringing app results back into the Vodafone Red Room during shows.

In a country of 17m inhabitants, a 3m viewership per episode is a massive success. A market share of over 50% during prime time is what most advertisers can only dream of. In addition, it shows how the consumer enjoyed it. However, the success of the show is of no value if we would not have leveraged that success for Vodafone. Business results and marketing communication goals have been achieved. Equally important, the reach of the project also meant that company pride rose. An unplanned, but very welcome side effect!•Market share: +6.4% (2011)•Data subscriptions: 3% of TV-audience bought as a result of TVOH (approximately €43m turnover)•Relevant image parameters changed (index: viewers with sponsor association versus non-viewers):•“Vodafone makes mobile internet simple and easy to use” (233)•“Vodafone offers the best mobile internet experience” (213)•“Mobile internet by Vodafone is really something for me” (216)•Talent show: best watched ever•Sponsor association: 65% (benchmark 39%)•Mobile site: 957,000 visits•Videoviews: 12.5m•ThuisCoach: 650,000(!) downloads; 600,000 active players, being 1/5 of viewers•Social media: 400,000 followers•#TVOH: weekly worldwide trending topic