Turner Broadcasting on Monday unveiled its new branded content studio for marketers titled Courageous, just weeks after its upfront presentations to advertisers in the spring.

The initiative, which will produce content to run across CNN’s and HLN’s platforms, allows Turner to work with brands to create long-form multimedia stories designed to share marketing messages through compelling storytelling. Although the stories will be packaged like traditional editorial content, they will be clearly identified as sponsored. The initiative reflects marketers’ desire to participate in more native advertising.

“Now we can offer marketers the opportunity to harness the value proposition of CNN like never before,” said Dan Riess, executive VP of integrated marketing and branded content, in a statement. “CNN … has two fully distributed television networks as well as CNN Airport Network, one of the largest digital and social audiences in the world, and a true global footprint. Combine all of this with CNN’s video storytelling heritage and it’s clear why Courageous is an important step as we build on Turner’s existing content marketing capabilities for our clients.”

Courageous is headed by vice president and group creative director Otto Bell, who joined CNN to lead the studio in March. Bell most recently served as the creative director of Ogilvy Entertainment. Bell reports to Michael Shapira, senior vice president and head of integrated marketing for CNN Ad Sales.

Read more: The Wall Street Journal, TVNewser

Brief Take: While news traditionalists may raise their eyebrows at native advertising, sponsored content can be just as compelling as traditionally produced content.

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