Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance July 2021 K7.Media Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance K7 MEDIA Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance 1. Introduction 3 2. Making Finance 'Sexy'… and Comprehensible 5 Attracting the Young 5 Jargon-lite… 9 Through a Modern Lens 10 3. Demonstrating Purpose 14 Helping the Individual 14 Helping Businesses 16 Helping Society 20 4. Challenges to Overcome 26 It’s pretty dry… 26 Financial reputation and compliance 26 Industry processes 27 5. Interviewees 28 Brendan Dahill 28 Pete Fergusson 28 Samantha Glynne 29 Graham Hayday 29 Vicky Kell 29 Anthony Ng 30 Karen Ngui 30 Amanda Murphy 31 Lasse Nikkari 31 Nick Parnes 32 Paul Tremain 32 Simon Wells 32 Roberta Zamboni 33 About K7 Media 34 Page 2 of 34 July 2021 Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance K7 MEDIA 1. Introduction Earlier this year we published an in-depth look at the world of Brand Funded Programming (Brand Funded Programming: Why It Matters Now), examining the combination of factors which are coming together to benefit this area currently. A timely convergence of Covid-induced financial pressures, alongside the diminishing impact of traditional advertising spots in a world of proliferating VOD platforms, has led both broadcasters and brands to put renewed effort into finding new ways to co-fund and co-develop original, entertaining programming, and we spoke to industry experts across the globe to find put more about the rewards and challenges of BFP in different territories. We’ll be updating that global overview in due course, but in the meantime we’re issuing some shorter spotlight reports looking at a series of different themes in this area. Our first examines the brand category of Spending and Finance - from banking and personal finance brands, to small business support and ethical investment. While the brands in this sector have a long track record in content sponsorship, what’s changing is their growing interest in using longer-form programming to tell their stories. At the same time their ever-present need to woo the next generation of spenders and savers is being met with increasing interest by a young audience whose financial aspirations now encompass everything from entrepreneurship to cryptocurrency trading and investment advice on TikTok. Once again we’ve talked to those involved in BFP around the world, with insights and a few select case studies from the UK, Australia, Russia, Asia, Finland and Italy. In the interests of examining the key drivers, trends and challenges in this category, our examples include some sponsorship partnerships and digital branded content, as well as pure broadcast BFP. Page 3 of 34 July 2021 Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance K7 MEDIA Authors CLARE THOMPSON - Non-executive Director Clare is Non-Exec Director at K7 Media, regularly writing and presenting on global content trends for their international broadcast and production clients, and at festivals around the world. Alongside this she runs development and pitching workshops, team training sessions and channel/ commissioning strategy projects for clients including the BBC, Channel 4, ITV Studios (UK & US), Endemol Shine, All3Media and MTV, and for all the major Chinese broadcasters through the University of Westminster’s China Media Centre. She consults on the development slates of several indies in France, Ireland, and London; and in Scotland via the Screen Scotland Focus scheme. Clare’s background is in entertainment and factual entertainment development: in-house at ITV from 2000 - 2008, she headed up their Entertainment Development team, steering work on international formats and returners like Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, before moving over to run internal innovation unit Imagine. In recent years she has also Exec Produced documentaries including Girls With Autism (ITV) and Trafficked in Suburbia (YouTube’s Real Stories channel). VICTORIA DE KERDREL - Asia Pacific Consultant Victoria has spent the past 10 years in Asia working on numerous co-production projects with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS). Previously, she worked for BBC Studios for 10 years in a number of key European roles including a stint in the Paris office where she ran the factual co-production business in France. She currently represents K7 Media in Singapore. HANNAH BARNES - Australasian Consultant Hannah joined K7 in June 2020 from Australian channel group Foxtel, where she was the Group General Manager for Foxtel's Lifestyle Group linear, SVOD, BVOD and digital platforms. With over 20 years’ industry experience, Barnes has enjoyed an extensive career working across the UK, US, and Australian media markets, including time spent working for Sky and Channel 5 in London. Alongside her main gig working for K7 Media Hannah's hands-on approach consulting with various production and media companies in Australia and NZ gives her an intimate perspective on the markets. Page 4 of 34 July 2021 Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance K7 MEDIA 2. Making Finance 'Sexy'… and Comprehensible For most brands operating in the world of finance, the biggest challenges are how to make quite dry financial products ‘sexy’, and also comprehensible, particularly to younger audiences. ATTRACTING THE YOUNG For this reason, in the past, many banks have looked to align themselves with content from which they borrow these youthful, more glamorous values. As Samantha Glynne, Global Senior Vice President of Branded Entertainment at Fremantle, says, “Finance brands have always been attracted to BFP and sponsorship of entertainment content. Credit card companies in particular work well, with brand pillars around things like ‘living life to the max’.” Samantha Glynne Global SVP Branded Entertainment In Italy Fremantle had bank Intesa Sanpaolo sponsoring X Factor for four Fremantle years as a headline partner, until the sponsorship was taken over by Axa Insurance last year. Intesa Sanpaolo wanted to target millennials and developed specific financial products for them. They had a strong presence on air, associating their logo with the X Factor contestants and this increased their brand awareness from the first year onwards. Another huge element of their sponsorship was ticketing for B2B and B2C customers, with hundreds of tickets made available for each X Factor show through contests and their Rewards App. Additionally they had concerts in bank branches every Friday with the eliminated contestant, plus friends, family and audience members booking online to attend. At the end of the series a huge event, promoted all over Italy, took place in Intesa’s headquarters in downtown Milan, with original songs performed by the show’s stars, and compered by its main host. All of the extra content and the concerts were produced by Fremantle as part of the sponsorship package. Says Roberta Zamboni, the Fremantle Italy Branded Entertainment Director responsible for the partnership “It’s definitely the case that institutional brands like banks and insurance are most interested in music and talent series, they need the glamour, and ways to engage with those younger audiences, but also families with children who view.” Roberta Zamboni Wavemaker (part of WPP) is Intesa’s media agency, and carefully tracked the Branded Entertainment Director bank’s return on their investment - including brand awareness, brand equity, Fremantle Italy and how many people were opening accounts (apparently 5000 a week during Page 5 of 34 July 2021 Brand Funded Programming in Spending and Finance K7 MEDIA the show’s run). By all accounts the partnership delivered what they wanted, but after four years Intesa decided to switch to supporting charities and sustainability causes when Covid hit (there’s more on this type of funding migration later in our report). “Axa Insurance then came in wanting more or less the same package, if a little smaller, with a desire to motivate their staff with tickets as incentives, and also to engage that same, younger customer base. Previously they had sponsored The Voice in Italy, so it was a natural switch for them” explained Zamboni. But these are still straight sponsorship packages around existing formats in the entertainment genre. Other banks have been more daring in creating bespoke BFP content to ‘sex up’ their brand and financial products. One example was Beyond Money for Santander (2017), created by Ogilvy - a 17 minute, Pedro Almodóvar-esque film, set in a near future where you can sell and buy experiences stored in your memory, and focusing on a woman who trades her most significant moments, including her first kiss and wedding day, for money. Beyond Santander put a lot into the film, with a top director (Kike Maillo), one of Money Almodóvar’s favourite actresses (Adriana Ugarte) starring, a red carpet premiere, posters in the banks, and a campaign where they gave away amazing experiences as rewards. The film won the 2017 Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Entertainment and helped make the brand attractive, as they’d hoped, with 12,426 attendees on the first day of the film’s cinematic release, 7.5 million online views during the first week, and the fastest product sign-up rate (for its 1/2/3 Smart Account) in Santander’s 160-year history. But what’s also changing is how much more willing brands in the finance Vicky Kell category are to actually invest in shows which get into the 'nitty gritty' of money. BFP Consultant As BFP consultant