Playground: Branded content is a respectful way to generate brand messages

Xepus Ginebra, CEO of GroupM México, chaired the I Can’t Believe It’s Not An Ad panel with Alejandro Berman, Brand Director of Heineken; Jorge del Villar, founder and CCO of Cultura Colectiva; Daniela Chaparro, General Manager of Playground Americas; Sergio Cisneros, Brand Strategy director for LatAm of Vix, on the last day of the Advertising Week LatAm in Mexico City.

“Millennials and Generation Z are not anti-brand or anti-corporate, but have a great ability to detect bullshit.” With this phrase, Chaparro began his participation and he stated that at Playground they made an effort, together with brands, to generate honest content that has value.

“This year, there has been double-digit growth of branded content. We have gradually seduced clients so they see that branded content is a respectful way to generate their messages,” said Chaparro. She presented a success case with their client Amstel Ultra, with which they managed 1.2 million views and 15.7 thousand interactions with just a single, seconds-long video.

Jorge del Villar, for his part, explained that in Cultura Colectiva they define themselves as “a language to inspire”. The formula that has resulted for them is to manage their contents to awaken emotions, feelings, actions or to be part of a movement. In his opinion, the foundation of this content has to stand out organically. “For us, the metrics that have the greatest importance is time, how much they dedicate to watch the content. Last year, we grew 65% in sales and most of it came from branded content, not from programmatic”.

For his part, Cisneros highlighted the challenge it is to help brands understand that branded content has the ability to bring a return on investment. “Content is a comprehensive part of the strategy. The brand is the star, showing its values and at the same time presenting other topics that don’t have so much to do with the product.”

On the advertisers’ side, Berman expressed that, in his opinion, the purpose of making branded content and aligning it with the strategy must be clear: “There must be scale and relevance.”