The Onion's Rick Hamann and the Completely Foolproof Guide to Branded Content
Key Takeaways
”Brands should be able to speak to different companies in different ways. The manner in which you’re speaking can change without changing what you’re speaking about.”
– Rick Hamman
The Onion, a satirical publication that began as a free newspaper and eventually went digital, might seem like a curious choice for brand sponsorship. The irreverent publisher uses adult language and pulls no punches with celebrities, public authority figures or brands. However, The Onion attracts a sizable captive audience of tech-savvy Millennials, a group brands are desperate to engage, whose apathy (or outright enmity) towards conventional advertising has made them an elusive target. Rick Hamann, head of content at The Onion, shared three tips for effectively partnering with the publication that could be applied to publishing relationships in general:
- No. 1: Let the funny people be funny. The application process to write for The Onion is a grueling one: writers submit portfolios of their work to be reviewed, and the publisher chooses two to three writers from a pool of thousands for low-paying intern positions. After six months of interning, writers that “make the cut” become contributing writers, working in a freelance capacity for two years, after which one or two of the funniest writers are offered a full-time position with the brand. This is to say: your brand manager is probably not funnier than the staff of The Onion, and should let them do their job. When a QSR brand rejected The Onion’s suggestion for branded content, electing to post something its brand team had written instead, fans of the satire site immediately outed it as advertising, and the backlash was substantial. Conversely, when comedian Seth Meyers launched a new late night talk show on NBC, the network allowed The Onion to create a series of videos in which it claimed the “Seth Meyers character” had been killed off Saturday Night Live ala Game of Thrones in order to create a “spinoff” talk show. The videos were disseminated via social, creating significant awareness for little investment.
- No. 2: Don’t make a commercial. The marketer mindset is tough to diverge from, but partnerships with The Onion that look, sound, and feel like ads have proven to be very ineffective. The publisher’s audience has been advertised to more than any other group of consumers in history, and they actively hate it. When brands ease up on the advertising and create content that features, but isn’t all about their product, Millennial consumers are much more likely to engage. When computer tech brand Lenovo partnered with the NFL, it wanted to spread the word to younger consumers in a creative, unorthodox manner. Lenovo contacted The Onion and essentially gave them free rein to create content. The result was “Fantasy Online College,” a series of videos (that eventually became a content hub owned by Lenovo) that featuring fantasy football team owners behaving like NFL team owners, with their own training facilities and scouts, all powered by Lenovo technology. The content was entertaining and featured Lenovo products throughout, but never felt like a call to action or traditional ad. As a result, Lenovo enjoyed a boost in awareness and brand affinity.
- No. 3: Know when to say, “brought to you by.” Occasionally a brand will approach The Onion without a specific campaign or idea, simply wishing to align with the publisher on a project. Retail brand 7-Eleven sponsored The Onion’s coverage of the 2012 presidential election, which won a Peabody Award and generated significant press, both for the publication and 7-Eleven. Consumers appreciated the fact that 7-Eleven never injected brand messaging into the content, which was instrumental in the brand’s improved perception among Millennials.
Source
"The Onion's Rick Hamann and the Completely Foolproof Guide to Branded Content." Rick Hamann, Head of Content at Onion, Inc. UNIFY 2015 Conference, 10/7/15.