Branded content is quickly becoming one of the best ways for brands and people to connect. While still in the arena of advertising, as long as it is clearly identified that the content is coming from a brand, whether through airing their YouTube channel or noted with a disclaimer, it widely accepted and embraced by audiences, publishers, regulators and beyond.

While the term “branded content” is widely used across the advertising industry, its definition is presently a work in progress. And without a concrete understanding of what the practice entails, the U.S. sector of the industry has, to date, been unable to establish official regulations in the same way that it has for traditional advertising models.

Regardless, organizations such as the Federal Trade Commission, the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have respectively proposed ‘best practices’ for the creation and implementation of branded content. And while their opinions differ in numerous respects, one principle remains at the forefront of each proposition: that transparency is key to the success of content marketing.

As with traditional print, television, out of home, and even banner advertising, it has been proven that branded content must be utterly conspicuous in order to foster a relationship between the affiliated brand and audience that is grounded in trust.

And until a set of concrete regulations is created and enforced, it continues to be up to creative shops, themselves, to balance absolute creative freedom with the responsibility to self-regulate.

Human Ignition is a 4 part documentary series that imagines the future of Formula 1 racing. In the world of F1, technology is its most tightly guarded secret. Creating a captive audience of global fans clamoring for any glimpse into what’s under the hood.

As a premium sponsor of the Lotus F1 team, Burn wanted to connect with the racing audience through the topic is craves most, the technology of speed.

But in a sport dominated by category giant, Red Bull, and little opportunity to show any innovative technology used in this season’s racecars, we needed a new way into the conversation.

Through an unprecedented F1 undertaking, we brought together creative visionaries from both in an out of the sport to design an epic new future for F1. More than a simple sketch of what racing could be like, we used real racing data and physics models to explore the imminent future awaiting Formula 1. We broke the sport down into its' 3 fundamental elements, the car, driver and track, and working with creative powerhouses like Harald Belker (designer of the Tron Light Cycle and Batmobile), showed the world what the future of F1 could be like.

In 3 episodes we took fans on a unique journey inside the processing of designing the future. Hearing from the Lotus F1 drivers, scientists and engineers, and seeing how each element in racing works together to harness the forces of speed.

In a final fourth episode, we captured the Human Ignition Live event at the Barcelona Grand Prix. Where we fused the entire project together in a groundbreaking 3D Oculus Rift experience, literally putting the fans in the driver seat of the future.

The content inspired the core audience to question and interact the burn team. The audience voiced their excitement and the “Human” component of the series is what drove the viewer to watch the next episode. Youtube comments such as “Fantastic! Amazing production representing the actual innovations of technology in F1, great work. I really started watching F1 in the end of the 80's and what i've seen so far in terms of technology advance really is something fantastic, what an era!?” and “very interesting.... would f1 be as cool with humans vs AI cars? yes!?”

The program was extremely successful because of our “Discovery” approach. Our audience love and believe in the original content we create. We were able create an idea based off of imagination. The campaign's success was measured by viewership. Human Ignition series reached over 5,341,481 YouTube video views. We were able to reach a broader audience through not only social media activation but Marshmallow Laser Feast's large following.

This 4-part documentary style series is an excellent example of what branded content can be. Airing on the brand’s YouTube channel, the story driven series featured the BURN sponsored Formula 1 car and team, all in the service of showcasing the BURN brand as innovators in the sport.

At the core, the series wasn’t simply content for content sake, but used the context as a platform for creative ingenuity that actually influenced the development of Formula 1 racing.

By following the story of 3 creative visionaries re-imagining the future of F1, we entertained the viewer while showing the brand’s commitment to the sport and exemplified the qualities it stands for; passion, creativity and excitement.