Sydney Opera House pushes into branded content
The Opera House is to created a branded content property intended for platforms including online, TV and mobile.
Marketing and communications director Victoria Doidge told Mumbrella that she had asked agencies to pitch for a TV campaign, but agency Three Drunk Monkeys had come back with a bigger idea.
She said: “They came back with a branded content idea around the democratisation of creativity.” She described it as “a cool concept that is a call to arms for the creative industries.”
As well as making ads, Three Drunk Monkeys has developed TV shows including adland comedy 30 Seconds with Zapruder’s Other Films and My Family Feast.
Doidge said: “It’s my belief that brands won’t talk about advertising in five years time, they will only talk about content. We would be crazy not to leverage the content that we have access to.”
The Sydney Opera House is a major marketing operation it its own right. It has a marketing budget of $10m along with partnerships with the likes of Foxtel, SBS, JCDecaux, APN Outdoor and Fairfax. It also has an agreement with new arts channel Studio to use the Opera House as a preferred filming venue.
The Sydney Opera House is already experimenting with making content available online, with a beta edition content section on its website called PlayAs well as announcing Three Drunk Monkeys for the branded content, which will come to fruition towards the end of the year, Doidge said that Moon Communications Group will collaborate on brand strategy and advertising campaigns.
She said: “Moon are leaders in brand identity and their influence is indelibly reflected in leading Australian brands such as Westfield, Jetstar and Westpac. Their strategic and analytical approach to expressing brand personalities will be critical for us in both taking our stakeholders on our brand journey and ensuring we maximise returns across our multiplicity of spends”.
Three Drunk Monkeys CEO Mark Green said: “Sydney Opera House does not have an issue with brand awareness. However the breadth and diversity of activities at the House is not recognised by locals. It’s our job to position the House as a place of contemporary culture as well as the high arts. ”
Sydney Opera House also works with Razor for media planning and buying and Tequila for digital.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Sounds exciting. I look forward to seeing what “a branded content idea around the democratisation of creativity” will spawn!
Good work, Opera House and 3DM. Besides producing a bespoke, integrated, (old fashioned) ad campaign might cost a whole lot more to create than the “branded content” that the opera house can generate. Doidge is right. Content creation is everything. Then let the specialists adapt it for their chosen media. I’ll watch that space, so to speak.
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Really, to me it sounds like fluff designed to
impress people who don’t know any better.
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This is the stuff that gives advertising the reputation is deserves and reduces the credibility of marketing with boards and CEO’s. First the agency – this was a pitch and they obviously gave this a lot of thought – in an age where advertising agencies are bleating about the value of ideas, you’re giving them away to idiot marketing managers in the pitch. And lets face it Charles is right the marketing director here has been a magpie and gone for the shiniest idea.
A brand consultancy – OMG what could they possibly add to the equation. Bill Gates said that a “brand is what your customers say after you’ve sold them your product.” There will be endless workshops and brand models – if we’re a car what car would we be etc. If you have a brand problem just change your line up of entertainment.
The two smartest venues in the country, Glen Street and Carriage Works don’t have a $10 million budget and worked out ages ago that marketing was about CRM. They used all the available tools including social media to communicate with their audience and they focussed on putting on great entertainment. People worked out for themselves whether they were interested on not. Carriage Works build a great community around the venue and Glen Street is the most successful theatre in the country.
The Opera House is already about content creation, this is a complete waste of money. What could a good outcome possibly look like? More bus on seats? people paying more to go? More revenue because it’s used more. This idea looks more like the ego of the Marketing Director than an outcome for the stakeholders.
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Hi Opera Buff,
Just on your last point, the “good outcome” would in this case being exactly the sort of further community involvement you refer to at other venues. As I understand it, that’s what’s behind this plan. As you correctly say, it’s not about bums on seats.
It’s probably a bit early to judge the strategy, when they haven’t shared it publicly yet. From what little I know, I think it’s a very interesting idea.
It may be worth withholding judgement until they can show the results.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
whoa ease up the cliches marketing person. sounds like some has mashable on their RSS and actually believes the hype.
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$50 it lasts less than 12 months – BudTV anyone?
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Always with the criticism, never with the wait and see
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Tim – I wonder the point of community involvement if it does not lead to some kind of commercial outcome. At the end of the day what else is this stuff for.
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