The Portuguese market is smaller compared to other European countries, which means that there are fewer players and even tighter budgets than what they already are worldwide. In this context, branded content rises as an alternative to find more financing to develop projects. However, not any branded content will guarantee a show’s success. Patricia Louro, Executive Producer, and Raquel Nunes, Content Director, from Endemol Shine Portugal, talked with Señal News about the new trends in branded content in Portugal.
Patricia Louro mentioned that the local production does not fall behind despite these barriers: “We have to deliver with the same quality, the same results (as in other countries) are expected, and we continue to do so, we are succeeding. It seems to me that Portugal has the characteristic that with very little, it manages to do a lot, with little money and little time. We have very strong and very good teams.” The executive emphasized that the teams’ vast experience allows them to shorten production times, hence shorten the costs. On this, Raquel Nunes added: “That is why it is so important that we invest in people, because we will continue to work like this. And people have to be very smart and prepared to understand everything, all the phases of program production, so that they know how to do it with quality, but with very little time. And that is the secret that lets us deliver good products, good entertainment.”
Louro highlighted the importance of branded content and advertising for the financing and return on investment of projects. However, the key is that the brand is integrated with sense to the content: “It is the perfect and organic integration within the content. In other words, we don't put brands just for the sake of it. They have to make sense. Audiences don't want to watch branded (content), they want to watch a TV show, and brands increasingly want to communicate more directly to their audience, and they want to do it in a way that is subtle.” As an example, Nunes mentioned a recent branded content from Shine Iberia Portugal, “Mistura Beirão”, a cocktail contest show created in partnership with premium Portuguese liqueur Licor Beirão and broadcaster TVI, which launched in June. “Brands want a more organic integration and that's great for us because we want integrations that are not necessarily a spot,” she added.
According to Louro, the shorten in budgets has moved companies to find very strong-selling contents: “Our attention has to go to making very strong programs that give very strong results now, that give us good data and that are cost-efficient, that you can record many (episodes) per day or that can be longer to broadcast for more time.” Given this, flexibility is key, and having backup plans for the project is what can make the difference on whether it becomes a reality or not. Nunes added that, with the surge of branded content as a way to finance projects, creativity is now focused on how to organically integrate brands into the content to make it look and feel natural.
Both executives highlighted, as Carlotta Rossi Spencer, Head of Branded Entertainment Business Development at Banijay, said, branded content is being seen with better eyes nowadays. “That's what we have to work on, because to keep making good content we need the brands to trust us, and at Endemol Shine we already have years of building trust from the market, which is very important for them to trust us with their brands and the development of projects. That's why it's very interesting for us because we are not completely in the hands of the brands, but they are also open to hear us,” said Nunes.
Looking into the future, Louro and Nunes explained that streaming platforms will become a goal for brands to appear, since nowadays they are still focused mainly on the top broadcaster in the country.
By Diego Alfagemez and Federico Martinez
