For Broadcast October 21, 2010

Integration, diversity and convergence are driving the latest TV deals.

Integration, diversity, convergence - once upon a time words like this had little to do with the television business, nowadays we seem to talk of nothing else.

Right now, the spiel is something like this: in order to maximise your convergence opportunities, you need to increase the diversity of your distribution and integrate brands more directly into content. Wow, it certainly feels good to put all those buzz words into one sentence. But what does it actually mean?

FremantleMedia is remaking itself into one of the best examples of how all this strategic gobbledygook really works. At Mipcom recently, the indie giant bought 60% of @Radical.media, a US company that specialises in producing branded entertainment that works hand-in-glove with various clients like Honda, IBM and Nike.

It makes TV shows and content on all kinds of media platforms, turning Fremantle into one of the industry’s newest buzz phrases: a ‘transmedia’ producer. Tick the boxes marked integration and diversity.

This week, Fremantle has upped its stake in Canadian games maker Ludia to 80%, after the two companies announced a The Price Is Right HD game for the iPad. Tick the box marked convergence.

And, if you want further proof that the times are a changin’, what about MTV Scratch? Created earlier this month, it is an in-house advertising agency that will work directly with brands like Pepsi and Microsoft so the music channel can offer services from research and product development to design and original content-making, all targeted at MTV’s sweet spot: young people aged 10 to 28. Some traditional advertising executives are going to have to learn to spell ‘disintermediation’.

The good news is that these deals and tie-ups are showing real signs of making a difference to the industry. Certainly FremantleMedia’s moves in these areas put pressure on other indies like Endemol, Shine and All3Media to sort out their own brand and transmedia strategies, and the new team running ITV should also be taking notice.

How indies and broadcasters work with brands is changing faster than you can say ‘product placement’. It’s true that the bulk of the money is still in the spot ad market, but the shift to transmedia, driven by digital distribution, is inexorable. Brands are looking for more effective ways to reach their audiences and are creating content that puts them directly in contact with consumers.

Urban myth says that Kodak’s advertising agency suggested a storyline to the producers of Mad Men, the slick show about Madison Avenue in the 1960s. In the segment, ad man Don Draper pitches Kodak’s carousel projector for slides, and the result is a lovely piece of TV. It is also a seamless bit of brand integration - except that Kodak didn’t pay for it. It didn’t even pitch the idea.

The show’s writers came up with it on their own. So the question is, would it have made any difference if Kodak had paid for the brand integration? Now that’s worth thinking about.