The branded content and branded entertainment phenomena are enjoying a coming of age in France as more and more brands – especially consumer brands – devise their communication strategies around these techniques.

The French luxury goods industry has led the way, with luxury digital brands in particular fully embracing the ‘branded content’ approach to sharing their heritage, and showcasing what differentiates them from the competition. In fact, luxury goods manufacturers are the only ones to have taken on board this model for all aspects of their communication strategies. Others have tried it out, but only in a limited and fairly conventional way (via short-term plans).Yet it is clear that in recent years brand content has evolved from one-shot content to a fully-fledged system of content consisting of a long-term editorial strategy spanning diverse points of contact and aimed at telling the brand's story and building lasting relationships with customers.Experience, innovation and genuineness are all part of the overall positive image, helping brands build and sustain customer loyalty*. In France, branded content is evolving to become much more ‘brand culture’ focused.* 72% see brands that create content as innovative. 84% want to learn something in exchange and 94% expect objective content. "Internet user perceptions and expectations regarding brand content" Yahoo Studio.

We began by conceiving a live experience: we sent out a team to engage with young people on the streets, inviting them to put on headphones and listen to a new band. Their reactions were put together in a documentary with a music sound track produced by the avant garde DJ collective C2C was added.At the same time, we invited five artists to compile a playlist, which was delivered via state-of-the-art interactive bus shelters. Passers-by could come along, plug in their headphones and choose from a playlist of over 100 songs. An application let people download the playlists to their mobile phone.We also set up a temporary pop-up radio station in the heart of Paris : For three days, around fifty artists, bands, DJs, producers, creators and actors came together to talk about music at a radio studio that opened out onto the street.

Aired live via the dedicated room on www.Vice.com and open to everyone via a QR Code posted on the windows looking out onto the street, La Radio could also be listened during the month at the same address.This operation was covered of course on Facebook (1,000 views) Twitter (300 tweets) and posts by the artists involved.La Radio successfully supported efforts to reposition the Carte Musique as a positive way of discovering new music. It also provided an excellent source of high-quality musical content for the 12-25 year olds, far removed from the negative image of the French Hadopi anti-piracy law.Last but not least, it allowed the Ministry of Culture to be seen right in the heart of one of the most popular media channels among youngsters: Vice & vice.com.