(This short animation has English subtitles)
Due to the rapid development of digital marketing and branding, a great number of new forms of marketing emerge and converge with media. There is a recently new form of branded content in South Korea, which is hilarious short animation.
What is Hilarious Short Animation?
The hilarious short animation is using an ironic way to present a short story in usually no longer than 10 minutes. The hilarious short animation is uploaded on YouTube, which is accessible to people. The ironic and humorous content and short length successfully attracted young people and the hilarious short animation became a way for them to kill time and entertain themselves. In this case, some companies whose target group is young people will invite creators and sponsor their hilarious short animations to put product placement in their videos. The above YouTube link is one of the examples of hilarious short animation which was sponsored by PlayStation to promote their game consoles.
The Convergence of Marketing and Hilarious Short Animation
There is a convergence of marketing and media, specifically, sponsored hilarious short animation is based on the selling product to present its story, which is what Hardy called ‘native advertising’. Native advertising allows advertisements to adapt the forms and user experience related to the context in which they are put. Unlike the traditional form of marketing, hilarious short animation is a media form to present a funny story and leave a strong impression of the brand to its audience.
Havens and Lotz pointed out that it is important for media creators to find a balanced point with viewers and advertisers. The creators of hilarious short animation successfully found their way to attract the young audience and promote sponsored products. The PlayStation branded content would be a suitable example to demonstrate the excellent convergence of marketing and media. Although most of the dialogue in the animation is about disguising the PlayStation as a router and not telling the truth to the man’s wife. The creator did straightforwardly list the appealing selling points via a little boy’s lines. By composing a story like this, the content creator successfully told a ridiculous and funny short story and at the same time, he managed to demonstrate the attractiveness of the product.
(image courtesy: YouTube)
A Broader Trend in This Convergence of Marketing and Media
This form of product placement shows a broader trend in the convergence of marketing and hilarious short animation. Surprisingly, this converged form of marketing and media is unexpectedly popular among young people. The young audience loves to watch sponsored hilarious short animations, even if they know there is a product placement in it. The reason for this might be the quality of the sponsored short animation is high. More significantly, the story greatly digests the selling points of the product, making the story flow naturally and stay in its iconic style.
By integrating marketing and media, companies started to find out that it is a favourable strategy to let creators have the flexibility to produce content with marketing ideas. Differing from professional advertisements, hilarious short animation seems not to have a too strong intention to persuade people to buy things. As mentioned earlier, even though people know it contains product placement, people still treat it as a funny short story to watch; under this circumstance, people will be unconsciously affected by this form of marketing and have a decent impression of the brand. To some extent, it accounts for the reason why this convergence of marketing and hilarious short animation has been a broader trend in recent years.
Another good example to watch!
(This short animation has English subtitles)