03 Feb 10

Branded Content goes to the Oscars ™

By Andrew Niven, MediaCom Beyond Advertising

They may be ‘good with food’ but they’re also pretty good with branded content. This week the Co-operative backed feature film ‘Burma VJ’ (assembled by Danish director Anders Østergaard from the video footage of citizen journalists who braved the wrath of the military regime in Burma) was nominated for Best Documentary at the American Academy Awards. 

This success for the Co-op is no accident. As revealed by Michael Fairclough (the Co-op's Head of Community and Campaigns) at last year’s Edinburgh International Television Festival, the Co-op has an involvement with branded content dating back to the 1930s when Benjamin Britten was composing soundtracks for their ‘brand’ films. More recently, as part of their ‘ethics in action’ strategy, the Co-op have been involved with the marketing and distribution of movies such as ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, ‘Black Gold’ (revealing the plight of Ethiopian Coffee Farmers) and ‘Vanishing of the Bees.’ They have also set up the Tipping Point Film Fund that aims to generate a new and sustainable fund for feature documentary development, production and campaigning.

Sourced from: Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Oscars.com.