Attention holding

Once a corporate haven, advertisers' Web sites now provide their customers with an online experience of their brands, and the more content they include the better. At irn-bru.co.uk, teenagers are offered an audio-visual sensory experience of the orange fizzy drink through games, downloads and other tailored fun. Atmospheric sounds welcome older users to Johnny Walker's Green Label site, where they can navigate around the lush landscape that produces the whiskey. And over at Lynx's new lads-oriented Feather site, there's entertainment of a more titillating variety.

As broadband usage has increased, advertisers are finding new ways to push consumers online and, once there, make them stay as long as possible by giving them an engaging experience.

Corporate channels have tended to be "too ego-centric", according to Michael Wood, MD of Cocojambo Branded Entertainment. "They're far more about you than the audience," he says. "But a shift is happening and will only become greater."

The online space is an open book for brands to create an experience that resonates with their core audience groups. Car brands were some of the first to enter the branded content arena, with BMW launching its films channel and Volvo building intrigue around its brand with its 'Mystery of Dalaro' campaign. But as brands find success, all categories of advertiser, from financial services to FMCGs, are finding online content an opportunity for them to express themselves.

"All aspects of today's advertising and marketing strategy have previously been based on the idea of limited channels," says Wood. "Now we have an area of infinite channels and the only way a brand will navigate it is by creating a defined world around the brand."

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