The impact of entertainment marketing: new funding streams

Brand Entertainment Marketing Working Day II emphasised the emerging opportunities for audiovisual financing through consumer brands

The second edition of Brand Entertainment Working Day, presented by BCMA Spain, Film Madrid, Film Financing Market and Mediabrands, brought together marketing and audiovisual experts in a series of round tables on new strategies for financing production and redefining its impact on audiences.

The panel debate "New avenues for financing" brought together leading experts, who analysed the emerging opportunities in audiovisual financing through consumer brands, investment funds and venture capital. This session addressed how brands and investors can become key actors for production and drive creativity and innovation in the sector.

Ralph Haiek, Chairman of Screen Capital's Investment Committee, is betting on the creative business. "We invest money in films and series when they are about to start shooting and need money. Brands need the content as much as the content needs them because it's hard to get viewers to the cinema these days."

On theother hand, Poncho García-Valenzuela, CCO of Mediabrands Content Studio, explained that "promotion and entertainment marketing are necessary. Sometimes the problem is not the quality of the films, but that people are not attracted to them and brands can support them through campaigns and a communication plan for the benefit of all parties."

For Miguel Villaruel, managing director of Publicies Rebellion, "the clear trend is for the market and brands to evolve. We are at a stage where the market needs links, such as actors, to help move titles forward. Brands are restless to connect with their audience."

Finally, Jordi Mendieta, partner at Film Financial Market, was very critical, stating that "I think debates like these are what we need. Brand marketing is nowadays essential to get projects off the ground."

The second talk of the day looked at the impact of entertainment marketing in the digital age. Sergio Ortega, director of Industry Relations Europe at GEMA, was the moderator of the talk and was grateful for offering a space to debate a key topic in the audiovisual sector such as entertainment marketing.

"We are subjected to many daily impacts, so the film and television industry has a lot of competition when it wants to communicate its products," said Sunde J. Sastre, founding partner of CØLLAGE and Co-Director of the Master's in Entertainment Marketing at ECAM.

Pilar Toro, CM of Filmin emphasised that we talk a lot about the number of advertising impacts but "we also have to talk about the amount of content that is produced. And the fact is that behind every project there is a creator who thinks that their work is very good."

According to Alvaro Castán, Partner of The Branded Content Agency, "in entertainment marketing there is marketing on one hand and entertainment on the other, and we try to work on connecting them without either being intrusive in the other's world."

Xiomara García, General Coordinator of Film Madrid said he saw "that entertainment brand marketing is not very present in an audiovisual project when it starts and they almost remember it when it is finished. A producer or production company does not think about how they are going to sell their work and there is a lot of work to be done to raise awareness on this point, as they need to start working on the marketing of their project as soon as possible."

In addition, Poncho García-Valenzuela, CCO of Mediabrands Content Studio and NachoCámara, Head of Brand Entertainment at IPG Mediabrands Entertainment, focused their talk on sport entertainment and analysed the keys for analysing brand building from entertainment with the "Classic Golf Cup" to explore how sport events can be a key platform for brand building, generating memorable experiences aligned with consumer values.

Generative artificial intelligence and 2D animation

In another of the round tables, Sonia Rico, one of the most prestigious marketing directors in our country; Primo Vázquez, head of business at Legalitas; Gonzalo Ortiz, founder of Singularity Spain; Yago de la Sotillya founder of Glassy Films and Ramón Azofra CEO and founder of The Summer Agency addressed the revolution that artificial intelligence has brought about in content marketing, as well as the ethical challenges, creative opportunities and new strategies.

The use of artificial intelligence is born out of a desire to be faster and more efficient in some of the processes that are not creative. More and more tools are becoming available to facilitate the post-production process for many companies.

On the other hand, in the talk "BCMA (Branded Content Marketing Association Spain), the home of branded content", Ricardo Zafra, president of the non-profit association, spoke in a relaxed manner about content production and the work of the association.

The Second Brand and Entertainment Marketing Working Day established itself as an essential space for professionals in the sector, offering a forum for debate and networking where the trends that will mark the future of the industry were explored.

Under the Gaming and immersive experiences label, Sonia Díez, professor at EVAD, gave a masterclass on 2D animation to learn how to create anime characters and Sergio Navarro on how to design characters frame by frame. Finally, FREEPIK and the agency Credo offered a workshop on how to adopt generative Artificial Intelligence without leaving creativity aside.

Once again, in the experiential area, attendees were able to take part in a demonstration of extended reality content, viewed in VR, with a selection of 360 stereoscopic pieces and a meetup between the public and participants.

Last day of activities tomorrow


Tomorrow will be the last day to enjoy the final activities of La Villa del Mar, such as workshops on cryptocurrencies in the audiovisual industry, narratives for video games and new demonstrations of extended reality content.