The US Army wants to show potential recruits what it means to be "Army Strong." Just as the largest branch of the American military has pretty much stayed apace with advertising genres in the four decades since it became an all-volunteer force, the Army is now launching a reality-type branded-content TV series to relay that message in a different and thorough way.

Enlisting actor Ricky Schroder and his production company, the US Army has produced "Starting Strong," a series that follows 10 young men and women visiting Army installations such as Fort Bragg and Fort Sam Houston and finding out from soldiers about different military occupational specialties as they consider whether to join the force, according to the New York Times.

"We still have to advertise," Mark Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for marketing, told the newspaper. "Everything's changing, and we can't depend on TV commercials, print and radio anymore." As the young people who are its recruiting targets increasingly "watch TV for content" and avoid commercials, he said, "we had to find a way to become content."Continue reading...

How appropriate is it that Jaguar has finally released its much anticipated branded short film Desire at the very same time that a fictional Jag representative on the hit show Mad Men is arguing for foregoing a "national ad campaign in favor of hard driving sales ads at the local dealer level?"

The Desire film is absolutely a national brand-making campaign and by no means a "hard driving" sales push of any kind. It is not meant, in the Mad Men dealer's words, "to move metal." It's too bad then that Jaguar's real-life branded film is so poorly targeted since Mad Men set the brand up with such a meatball opportunity.

For months, the auto-watching world has wondered about the Jaguar mini-film. When the music video tie-in from Jaguar music partner Lana Del Rey was released on Valentine's Day, it sucked up attention. The video has since logged over 300,000 views.

The full, quarter-hour mini movie is now here and it's hard to argue that Jaguar's Desire isn't a rather naked attempt to recreate the themes of BMW's decade-old iconic branded film series The Hire.Continue reading...

Syfy and Dodge are taking TV and gaming to new bandwidth with an exclusive dual-screen brand partnership. The branded entertainment will tie together Syfy's new series Defiance and Dodge's auto lineup.

Dodge’s Charger and Dart are featured in the television show debuting April 15 while the Dodge Challenger stars in the online video game which launched April 2 on PS3, Xbox and PCs. 

Two Dodge Chargers, with exterior modifications befitting a futuristic storyline, are the hero vehicles driven by main character Nolan (Grant Bowler), Defiance’s "law-keeper," and by the sixth episode, they become main characters in the story. "While 'Defiance' is set in the year 2046, the featured Dodge Charger stays true to its DNA,” said Tim Kuniskis, President and CEO Dodge Brand in a press release. “It has timeless performance and technological capabilities needed to survive in a futuristic world, while the Challenger video game integration allows enthusiasts to interact with the iconic muscle car in ways they might not have imagined possible."Continue reading...

Ahead of its April 19 release date, the HTC One is making its debut Friday in a series of branded entertainment videos for the "Facebook Phone," which features the fully-integrated Facebook Home app for a social experience like no other.

Seizing the growing value of branded entertainment, Turner Broadcasting and Funny Or Die have partnered with HTC on a short-form comedy sketch featuring James Van Der Beek (Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues fame) to promote the HTC One across TBS, Adult Swim and truTV as well as Conan O'Brien's TeamCoco.com beginning the week of April 15.

A riff on The Bachelorette, Van Der Beek hosts a dating show featuring the HTC One and competing bachelor contestants—Smart Phone, Flip Phone, Rotary Phone and ‘90s Phone—all vying for a beautiful HTC One bachelorette.Continue reading...

Paying it forward and even Random Acts of Fusion are such five-minutes-ago concepts. Now Toyota, on behalf of its Prius Plug-in hybrid, has launched what it calls the Positive movement in the UK—the "movement brightening Britain with a car that runs on electricity, fuel and positivity," as a press release puts it.

Star of the "movement" is fashion blogger Caroline Burke, an expert in body art, fashion and beauty who's known as Burkatron. In a new film that Toyota has debuted as part of the campaign, Burkatron is seen outfitting random passers-by with fashion accessories and vintage finds in the Boxpark in East London.

"Caroline's blog is about sharing things, all to do with fashion," Mark Norcutt and Laurnce Quinn, Toyota creative directors at Saatchi & Saatchi, said in the release. "For her positive idea she used her contacts to donate clothes, then was able to go around and collect them all in the Prius"—all while, in another act of positivity, taking advantage of the car's zero emissions in the all-electric mode that has a range of up to 15.5 miles.Continue reading...

Branded content is the hot new thing. Prada is the latest to the game with a short film directed by indie darling Wes Anderson and starring French actress Léa Seydoux.

Anderson is best known for charming films filled with twee sensibilities such as Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums. But Anderson is actually an old branded content auteur.

For the short film Prada Candy L’Eau promoting the brand's new Prada Candy fragrance, Anderson shared directing duties with Roman Coppola, son of directing icon Francis Ford. It's not the first teaming of the pair; Coppola joined Anderson in 2010 for a Stella Artois spot that feels oddly familiar to the new Prada film. Check it out below and see how it rates against other Wes Branderson projects.Continue reading...

At 30 million views, does it matter if it's real? Pepsi MAX's branded viral hit "Test Drive" is set to pass the 30 million mark on YouTube and the brand is beginning to roll out edited versions of the video for TV that will drive back to the longer original online. But at 30 million views, how many who would want to see a disguised Jeff Gordon take a used car salesman for a spin haven't yet seen it?

"Test Drive"—created by the TBWA\Chiat\Day LA agency—is Pepsi MAX's second branded viral to surpass 20 million views on YouTube. Two of the brands other videos are well over 10 million combined—an astonishing record of branded content success. branchannel spoke with the brand and the creator behind Pepsi's other viral hit, Uncle Drew, about branded content and their (secret) next project.Continue reading...

LUNA Bar is rebranding itself as a “thought leader” on women’s nutrition, and expanding its reach to include dieters.

Its six "Debunking the Diet" webisodes, hosted by "Funny or Die" writer/actor Erin Gibson and nutritionist Tara DelloIacono Thies, premiered this week with a focus on weight gain and late-night eating.

The spots support the brand's new tagline, "Feed Your Strength," and are appearing on Luna's Facebook and YouTube pages as well as health-related websites, The Huffington Post and Daily Candy.  Other campaign messages include “Moderation, not deprivation” and “Strong beats skinny.”Continue reading...