Network Ten is looking for a slice of the $200 million branded content pie, launching a partnership with Context Media to offer advertisers branded content opportunities, and to show shareholders another path to revenue.
Ten's creative solutions team Generate will work with Context Media to identify opportunities for marketers to "more closely align their brands with television and online content and to create new connections with consumers".
The partnership will run through all Ten's assets, including its Ten, Eleven, One channels and the Tenplay digital platform.
The effort on the Context Media side will be headed up by Brian Gallagher and Peter Jenetsky, and Ten's network sales officer Louise Barrett said it was a coup for Ten to secure Gallagher and Jenetsky's services.
"Brian [Gallagher] has created more hours of branded content than any other person in Australia and was one of the pioneers of the branded content sector, which now turns over more than $200 million a year on television alone and is growing rapidly," Barrett said.
Ten said the move would demonstrate that while the media market was becoming more fragmented by the day, broadcast television still offers brands an engaging mass-market medium platform.
“This partnership is about developing sustainable, long-term models which help broaden Ten’s offer to advertisers and capitalise on Ten's massive storytelling ability across all of its platforms," Gallagher said.
“Ten is a driver of the expanding branded content marketplace. It recognises the importance of doing business beyond the 30-second paradigm and we’re delighted to have been able to form this innovative partnership with them.”
While not part of the deal, viewers will get a first glimpse of what Ten's new focus on branded content could mean when a series of spots for Toyota's filmed with Modern Family's Ty Burrel airs.
The idea came from Toyota's media agency TMS, which was keen to explore new ways to sell the Kluger.
Then Ten's creative team, Generate, came up with scripts for the spots which will feature Modern Family dad Phil Dunphy extolling the virtues of the Kluger as part of Toyota's "Great Place to Raise a Family" campaign.
Network Ten's results will be released to the Australian Securities Exchange on Thursday.
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