Tag: branded entertainment

Lacta: Love in Action

Following the grand success of Lacta’s interactive film in November 2009, Kraft Foods and OgilvyOne Athens set out to create yet another integrated campaign for Lacta, Greece’s leading chocolate brand. This time, instead of producing another love story themselves, they set out to create one with their audience.

Kraft Foods and OgilvyOne crowdsourced a 27-minute branded-entertainment film, involving the audience in everything from writing to casting and styling the actors. Some even popped up as extras in the finished film. During filming, audiences were kept updated through the campaign blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Here is a 3 minute video case study on the same.

Then on Valentine’s Day the film was aired on Greece’s top TV channel and online, with great success.

What makes this more than “UGC”

The smart leap is that the audience is not just submitting stories. They are being pulled into the messy, high-signal parts of production. Decisions that normally sit behind closed doors. Casting, styling, and creative direction. That raises commitment, because participation shifts from “I sent something” to “I helped shape what shipped.”

In European FMCG branded entertainment, letting people influence production decisions can turn a single film into a sustained participation loop that runs for weeks, not minutes.

Why this lands

This works because it gives people a credible reason to keep coming back. Not to watch ads, but to follow progress, vote, debate, and see whether their influence makes the final cut. The film becomes the payoff, but the real engine is the journey. A public build, meaning a production process made visible as it develops, turns pre-release into its own entertainment.

Extractable takeaway: If you want long-lived attention, make the audience’s role structural, not decorative. Put participation into decisions that change the output, then publish visible progress so people feel their involvement has weight.

The commercial intent underneath

Lacta gets what a standard Valentine’s spot struggles to buy. Time, conversation, and emotional ownership at scale. The brand also stays relatively in the background, so the entertainment is allowed to carry the attention while the association builds quietly.

The real question is whether the audience is helping shape the asset or merely reacting to it.

What to borrow from participatory production

  • Open up real decisions. Voting on meaningful choices beats asking for comments.
  • Show progress publicly. Updates and behind-the-scenes keep momentum alive.
  • Let contributors appear in the output. Even small “extra” moments create powerful ownership.
  • Build a finale moment. A premiere date gives the whole participation arc a shared finish line.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Lacta “Love in Action”?

It is a crowdsourced branded-entertainment film initiative where audiences contributed to and influenced key parts of the production, from story and casting to styling.

What makes this different from a normal brand film?

The audience is involved before release and in decisions that shape the final output, so the build process becomes part of the entertainment.

Why run it across so many platforms?

Because production is a multi-week narrative. Different channels support different behaviours. Updates, voting, sharing, and behind-the-scenes participation.

Why is Valentine’s Day a strong launch moment?

The theme is culturally aligned with love stories, and the calendar creates a natural deadline and shared viewing moment.

What is the main risk when crowdsourcing content like this?

If participation feels cosmetic, people drop out. The audience needs visible proof that their input changes outcomes, and the process must be curated so quality stays high.

Erdinger: Drinking and Driving, the 0% Twist

A car rolls through the city. A police stop follows. The officers lean in, looking for the usual “roadside donation” and the driver plays along, calmly offering a beer.

Then comes the punchline. The beer is positioned as 0% alcohol, so the “gotcha” is not that the driver outsmarts the law, it is that the product truth flips the entire situation into a clean reveal.

The prank is the plot, the product truth is the twist

This is staged like a short documentary. A mockumentary, meaning it borrows the signals of documentary realism to make a scripted idea feel “found” instead of “made.” The setting is described as a downtown South American city where traffic stops double as bribe fishing.

In consumer marketing, the fastest path to shareable attention is often a single product truth turned into a public situation people can retell.

How it works: build tension, then release it safely

The mechanism is simple and replicable:

  • High-stakes setup: alcohol control and a police stop.
  • Social friction: the uncomfortable “what will they do” moment.
  • Unexpected compliance: the product is positioned as 0%, so the driver is not “escaping,” he is “within the rules.”
  • Clean release: viewers get to laugh without carrying guilt, because the punchline is anchored in the product claim, not reckless behavior.

In regulated categories and global consumer marketing, this kind of “responsible twist” lets you stage tension without training the audience to celebrate harm.

The real question is whether your product truth can carry the punchline without turning the audience into accomplices.

Why it spreads: it gives viewers a story, not a slogan

People do not forward “great taste” claims. They forward a scene they can summarize in one line. “These guys offer beer at a breath test, and it is fine because it is 0%.” That is the whole viral unit. It also lands because the audience recognizes the broader trope of roadside authority and awkward power, then the brand resolves it with a disarming, responsible reframing.

Extractable takeaway: Build the retell first, then design the twist so it resolves on a defensible truth that gives the audience a guilt-free reason to share.

What the brand is really selling

The visible message is “0% alcohol.” The deeper intent is permission. This is the right move because it makes responsibility the payoff, not a disclaimer.

It positions the beer as a choice that fits social moments where you want the ritual, not the alcohol.

That matters because “non-alcoholic” is not only a functional attribute. It is a situational benefit: it lets the product show up in contexts where a normal beer is a bad idea.

Steal the 0% twist structure

  • Start from a product truth that can survive scrutiny, not a vague brand value.
  • Choose a situation with instant stakes so the first five seconds do the work.
  • Design a moral “safe landing” where the audience can enjoy the twist without endorsing harm.
  • Make the retell obvious by ensuring the story fits in one sentence.

A few fast answers before you act

Is this encouraging drunk driving?

No. The joke is engineered to resolve on “0% alcohol,” so the brand can claim compliance rather than celebrate recklessness.

What is the core creative mechanic here?

It converts a product attribute into a plot device. The “0%” is not a line at the end, it is the hinge that changes what the scene means.

Why does the documentary style matter?

Mock-documentary cues create believability quickly. Viewers process it as “something that happened,” which increases watch-through and sharing.

What makes the idea portable to other categories?

The structure is generic: tension, social friction, twist, relief. Any brand with a defensible “safety” or “permission” truth can map onto that arc.

What is the biggest risk when copying this approach?

If the “safe landing” is weak, the audience reads it as promoting harmful behavior. The twist must clearly reframe the situation as responsible, not as a workaround.

Lacta: Love at First Site

Last year Lacta Chocolates came up with a web based interactive love story called Love at first site.

The concept plays like a prequel to Lacta’s TV storytelling, but it moves the experience from “watching” to interactivity. Viewers influence how the romance unfolds on screen.

From spot to story world

The smartest move here is format, not flash. Instead of squeezing emotion into 30 seconds, the brand expands the narrative into a longer, web-native experience that rewards attention.

This is branded entertainment in the literal sense. The story is the product, and the chocolate brand is the reason it exists.

The mechanic: viewer choices, not passive viewing

The interactive layer is simple. The film presents moments where the viewer decides what happens next, and the story adapts accordingly.

In FMCG brands, lightweight interactivity can turn a familiar romantic story into a repeatable personal experience.

Why it lands: the audience earns the ending

Romance advertising often asks you to believe in a feeling. Interactivity does something more persuasive. It lets you participate in the feeling by making small decisions that shape the couple’s path.

Extractable takeaway: If your brand wants emotional recall, let the audience co-author a few key moments. Even limited choices can create a stronger sense of ownership than a perfectly produced linear film.

What the brand is really buying

This kind of execution buys time and attention, but it also buys intent. People who choose to play are signaling they want to stay with the story. That’s a different relationship than a forced impression in a TV break.

The real question is whether this marks the beginning of a new form of branded entertainment. Kudos to OgilvyOne Athens.

What to steal for your own interactive story

  • Start with a narrative hook: if the story is weak, interactivity will not save it.
  • Keep choices meaningful: fewer choices with clear consequences beat many shallow clicks.
  • Make the first interaction fast: reduce friction so curiosity turns into participation.
  • Design for replay: structure the story so a second run reveals something new.
  • Measure beyond views: completion rate, replay rate, and branch distribution tell you if the story actually works.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Love at First Site” in one sentence?

It is a web-based interactive love story where viewers make choices that influence how the film’s story unfolds.

Why does interactivity matter for branded entertainment?

Because it turns attention into participation. Even small decisions create a feeling of ownership that improves recall and word-of-mouth.

How do you keep interactive films from feeling gimmicky?

Make the story strong without interactivity, then use choices at emotionally important moments where outcomes feel clearly different.

What should you measure to judge success?

Completion rate, average time spent, replay rate, and how many people explore multiple paths. Those metrics indicate engagement, not just reach.

What is the main risk with this format?

Friction. If the first interaction is slow or confusing, people drop out before the story earns their attention.