Recently I’ve been giving a lot of thought to digital content, content strategy and what makes truly good content. Fittingly I stumbled across a series of short videos featuring local bartenders making signature cocktails. These videos are made for tv and web distribution. At first glance this type of unorthodox (for this market) marketing should get me excited but I find them painful to watch for the simple reason that the execution could be so much better.

These are the points of my rant:

10 separate sponsors are way too many to properly execute a branded content strategy.

Mixologists/ bartenders seem uncomfortable with their lines and often make “cheesy” comments either ad-libed or scripted.

Live read ads and long winded brand plugs to explain why a sponsored ingredient is used seem out of place.

Gratuitous product placement which actually blocks the view of the bartender working.

In an attempt to justify the spend to their sponsors, the creators have crammed too many touch points into the videos and are sidelining the actual content.

Logo snapshots when the product is used inclusive of the brand tagline which breaks the flow of the video.

The instant replays are unnecessary and overused.

And then I discovered this!

This appears to have been the pilot episode which was shopped to the sponsors as proof of concept. Though it carries a different show title the theme music and design characteristics point to this as the root idea.

Effortless presence and delivery of lines.

Clean video flow.

Compelling blend imagery and monologue.

Product placement was not as overpowering because there was only one, however it could have been tempered and still be as effective with clever camera angles.

Mixologist was able to fit in the live read at the end for the benefit of the sponsor.

Kudos to the creators for having produced a flawless piece of content and then completely deconstructing it beyond the point of utility. What you are left with is a very long commercial.