Abstract
This article considers the rise of branded entertainment within the contemporary marketing and media environment. Specifically, it examines how mobile phone marketing in the UK has sought to engage consumers and perform the social use of mobile technology through multimedia ad campaigns with an inscribed entertainment value. Focusing on brand campaigns for 3G mobile services that borrow explicitly from reality television (T-Mobile) and Hollywood film (Orange), the article explores the concept of branded entertainment in relation to the ‘popular imagination’ of mobile communication in the late 2000s. In doing so, it examines the particular relation of flash mobs to the production of brand community.
Highlights
This article considers the rise of branded entertainment within the contemporary marketing and media environment
According to Adam Arvidsson, ‘one of the most important and fundamental trends in contemporary consumer society is the progressive inclusion of consumers in the processes where value is produced around products and brands’ (2008: 326). This trend was clearly demonstrated by T-Mobile in its ambition to connect mobile users; it developed an integrated media campaign that used television and new media to facilitate the work of brand community building
This article examines how strategies of branded entertainment have been deployed in the selling of mobile phones, in particular third generation (3G) mobiles that have the capacity to deliver multimedia/data services through high-speed broadband internet access
Summary
This article considers the rise of branded entertainment within the contemporary marketing and media environment. Keywords Branding, entertainment, mobile phones, flash mobs, performance, digital media, affect
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