"Building & Protecting Brands Through Entertainment Marketing"

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Should I Use An Agency For Entertainment Marketing? By Ian McQueen

Many companies treat entertainment marketing as an afterthought. They hire media buying agencies, ad agencies, PR firms, promotion companies... Entertainment marketing agencies? Not so much!

Unlike any other form of advertising, there are more marketing folks with little or no experience who truly believe they can handle sophisticated entertainment marketing programs on their own. Is this true? Absolutely not! Now, it does depend on what your expectations are. If you expect the same results you would get by using a PR company full-time, you are living in a fantasy world. If you are fielding incoming calls from production and sending out product randomly hoping for the best, then go for it! The truth of the matter is you need experienced professionals if you expect favorable results. Do you randomly send out print ads to publications hoping they will include them in upcoming issues?

The bottom line is that if you are looking to utilize entertainment marketing as a key component of your marketing strategy, you have two options. One option is to hire an experienced entertainment marketing agency that will implement and execute a comprehensive program based on your advertising and promotion objectives. The second option is to hire an experienced in-house entertainment marketing executive who will work exclusively on brand integration and product placement-nothing else. Either way, you will be in control of your brand partnerships with high profile entertainment properties.

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