Title	DAY & NIGHT
Brand	E-PLUS MOBILFUNK
Product/Service	BASE
Category	A03. BRAND OR PRODUCT INTEGRATION INTO AN EXISTING PROGRAMME OR PLATFORM
Contributing Company	EL CARTEL Munich, GERMANY
Media Agency	INITIATIVE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Entrant Company	INITIATIVE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Production Company	FILMPOOL Berlin, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Lukas Brocks	Initiative	Innovations Executive
Jörn Illing	Initiative	Unit Head Innovations
Christine Steinert	Initiative	Client Service
Klaus Laddey	Initiative	Executive Director
Nina Lück	El Cartel Media	Project Manager
Martin Wendler	El Cartel Media	Project Manager

The Campaign

Since 2010 product placement is legal in Germany as long as the brand integration respects some restrictions: The format has to be a fictional program or light entertainment. The integration has to be logical to the viewer and must not communicate any price or promotion whatsoever. Episodes featuring product integrations must also feature a corresponding statement. Furthermore the brand must not include the product placement in its communication, e.g. making it a part of a raffle. And of course the formats editors remain free regarding decision making processes. Regarding our product placement of BASE in the TV Show “Berlin – Tag & Nacht” (“Berlin – Day & Night”) we had to overcome a whole different restriction: The writers and editors of the show are extremely cautious as their fan community on Facebook (over 3.3 million fans) is somewhat suspicious towards product placements or “covert advertising”. “Berlin – Tag & Nacht” did not want to take the risk of losing their community inside a shit storm. So in our case, subtle communication got a totally new meaning.

Results

Because young people prefer competitors over German Telco brand BASE, the campaign in fall 2013 ought to focus on the segment of young adults (20-29y) in addition to the classic TV flight for adults (20-49y). To push brand awareness within this segment, BASE wanted to position itself as “brand for young people”. But as young people distrust direct sales communication and rather rely on their social communities and opinion leaders we had to find an indirect and subtle way of communicating authentically in order to move BASE into the relevant set. Staging BASE inside of Germany’s largest interactive community should not only grant access to role model driven and authentic communication within an opinion leader environment but also combine a Facebook community with the high reach of a popular TV show. Our idea: A multi-screen product placement on all three channels of the show: TV, Facebook and their mobile app. But since BASE is a service provider and cannot place a concrete product, their Berlin flagship store, the “BASE_camp”, was used as filming location and integrated into the daily action. Over 6 months, in 22 TV-episodes and with up to four characters, the BASE_camp became a dynamic hub and the brand a daily companion for the vivid story. 10 video and photo posts featured key moments of the BASE storyline on Facebook. And branded app features pushed the second screen interaction within the “Berlin - Tag & Nacht” community: A branded quiz challenged the communities’ knowledge about the characters of the show and the “BASE Trophy” raffled prizes for the most interactive users who registered for participation measured by check-ins, posts, likes, chat activity, followers and postings within their own Facebook communities.

By choosing “Berlin – Tag & Nacht” we identified a TV show that is already very successful and is something very unique in the German media landscape: The story is actually happening on Facebook (> 3.3 million fans), gets aired as a daily summary on TV (> 1 million viewers) and the viewers are highly active on the second screen (> 1.5 million app downloads). Furthermore, as “Berlin – Tag & Nacht” is perfect for a harmonious and organic product placement of BASE (a brand for the daily life of a community) we let the placement evolve by itself.

The multi-screen product placement on all three channels of “Berlin – Tag & Nacht” (TV, mobile app and social media) harmoniously integrated the brand into the daily life of the characters and had a significant impact on all set goals Unaided brand awareness: + 105% Relevant set: + 129% „BASE is a brand for young people“: + 50% affirmation Furthermore, the product placement – especially on Facebook – did not attract negative attention within our target audience which is another evidence of the fit between brand, show and viewers as well as the coherent story around the characters and the BASE_camp. The interaction was measured by posts and comments on Facebook and by successful participation of the app raffle features: Over 222.400 likes, almost 7.500 comments on the branded posts and over 10.000 participants emphasize the advertising effect of the multi-screen product placement.