Branded content can fetch sales while delivering brand recall, says Sameer Saxena of TVF

Branded content has become the need of the hour for marketers. A few marketers believe that doing branded content with the objective of fetching sales leads is a bad approach. Others say that if done in the right manner, branded content can also help fetch sales leads.

Case in point here is TVF’s original web series ‘Tripling’ in 2016 for Tata Tiago where the story wouldn’t have been possible without the car. The seamless brand integration did wonders for Tata Tiago and the success was evident from the sales lead generated through this series. Riding on the success of the season one, TVF has returned with all new season of Tripling but in association with self-drive car rental brand Drivezy.

BuzzInContent.com asked Sameer Saxena, Chief Content Officer and Head, TVF Originals, if brand recall and affinity is enough or do brands also look to fetch sales via such associations? 

Quoting TVF Tripling Season 1 where the series had Tata Tiago on board, Saxena said anybody who had watched the show wanted to go out and buy a car. Saxena said, “Branded content affects the sales numbers. Brands want to fetch sales while brand recall is something that also happens.”

Too much of a brand on the face of viewers in branded content would spoil the content and less of it will not bring brand recall. But to strike the right balance between brand integration and content is necessary.

“Brand in the show should fit organically. The moment a brand goes into the face, it would be a typical TVC. When the audience watches the show, it should notice the brand and should not get disrupted with the brand integration,” he said.

Marketers are evolving when it comes to brand integrations in content. Saxena said they have now realised the potential of digital and how to operate it. Brand integration has to be seamless and subtle in that way. And to make it seamless, a creator should have creative freedom.

Saxena said, “There is never interference from brands on what kind of integration or creative should be going out. Brands have certain objectives that are to be achieved.”

Saxena said it is not the right approach for creators to think that brand integration might hamper their stories.

“If there is a story that a creator wants to sell, and also has a brand to integrate, creators should think of a scene, sequence or a character that can merge well with the brand. As a creator, it is your challenge to conceptualise, to write and to think about how you can integrate a brand seamlessly,” concluded Saxena.