The Plot Is the Pitch

September 1, 2006 - New York Times

THERE are short films, and then there are very short films. How short? Six films on a Web site that is scheduled to go live today run 60 to 90 seconds each — about as long as it takes to brew a cup of espresso.

Those running times are no coincidence: the Web site (espressoshorts.com) is sponsored by the appliance maker Krups to promote a line of espresso makers being introduced in the United States. Krups also plans to circulate “Espresso Shorts,” created by film students at New York University, on Web sites like video.google.com and youtube.com, and to underwrite a series of movie-related promotions that include a sponsorship of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

The short films are another example of a trend that is remaking the marketing landscape, known as branded entertainment. Rather than just buying commercial time during TV shows — for 30-second spots that viewers often skip or zip through — advertisers are paying to commission programming that incorporates products into the plot lines.

Such sponsored programming also gives advertisers more control over the environments in which their pitches appear. Compare that with the problem faced by marketers planning to buy commercials during the new season of “Survivor” when they learned that the producer, Mark Burnett, would divide the teams along racial and ethnic lines.

“We need to find other, interesting ways to communicate with consumers,” said Steve Jones, marketing director at the North American unit of Krups in Medford, Mass., which is part of the French company Groupe SEB.