By Nathen Mazri, Marketing and Brand Director, Veyron Investment LLC, Dubai

Living in a digital ecosystem where 80% of the population is on mobile, has given rise to a new market, an appmarket. Almost 12 hours is spent on Facebook daily, inconsecutively, of course and 2.5 hours on different apps daily. Where is the market heading? What must brands do? What is the world coming to? APP-Robots indeed!

The shift of attention from mass traditional media to smaller screens in the palm of your hands is dramatic and account almost 40% of marketing budgets going to digital campaigns. From billboard to mobile display banners and from TV to MV including branded content videos online, click-on-ads on Youtube and mobile apps shifting the customer attention and changing the advertising industry radically as brands are engaging with customers on mobile every minute. Now, customers need every second!

Advertising is now dead, and content is growing strong! The time has come where brands must turn from the powerful copywriter David Ogilvy to Quentin Tarantino, powerful script writer to creating storytelling content. The brands’ attention must also shift from advertising to entertainment/content as customers’ attention has shifted dramatically.

Brand Entergagement

Brands must now entergage rather than engage with customers through mobilevision (MV) instead of television (TV) by speaking with the customers or so called users today and not speaking to the customers similar to 3000 messages of advertisements do on a daily basis.

Entergagement = entertainment + engagement

Entergagement (noun) Entergage (verb):

Newly founded and proactive Mazri integrated marketing mechanism or digital brand activation for marketers to reach an audience in the new era of mobile in an uncalculated entertaining and engaging manner on one platform.

Entergagement consists of the following below brand activation or marketing tools that must run simultaneously with user engagement features such as real-time chatting, call-to-action, voting, collecting, redeeming, following, liking, sharing and other engaging elements all in one platform.

The entertainment tools necessary for Brand Entergagement are as follows:

• Branded Content
• Product Placement
• Program Sponsorship
• Script Development

Content is king when it comes to entertainment to connect with customers’ minds and win their hearts. Ask Hollywood! They will tell you how content has helped create movie franchises and loyal fans globally as Hollywood films reach more than 300 million viewers across their distribution channel globally. Movies have become a huge brand licensing industry. What can we learn from Hollywood?

Product placement has become an original marketing tool to nurture brands and connect with customers as well as branded content where stories in various genres such as drama or comedy has been found favorable for global brands such as Starbucks placement in major Hollywood sitcoms and films such as Devil Wears Prada and Sony laptop in Bond movies or Mini Coopers in Italian Job. Who can forget that branded fueled content? Emirates has been sponsoring major football leagues on a global scale connecting with a wider audience and athletes.

Now, that you have your relevant entertainment strategy planned, marketers must start thinking of way to not just entertain the customer, but also engage with them simultaneously, increasing feedbacks, customer retention, and conversion rates from mobile to sales. Brands must now start speaking with customers by engaging with them the same way they already engage on mobile through various known features such as the most popular app feature is: collecting coins. Users love to collect and redeem vouchers or special discount coupons. If brands can entertain users through original content and not advertising as well as interacting by chatting or sharing some mobile app elements, then brands can quickly climb the advertising ladder from Brand Awareness, Brand Liking, Brand Preference, Brand Conviction to Brand Purchase all at the same time. Now that is what I call creative-efficiency and cost-efficiency!

Marketers must comprehend the user behavior, user trends, app market, and why users use what they use on mobile in order for brands to reach the users efficiently without disrupting their customer experience, but rather entertaining them and enhancing their journey. If you don’t, well simply SKIP AD! Also with the rise of Ad Blocking, users have become much more sophisticated with technology more than digital agencies. We don’t have to outsmart them, we must join them buy speaking their language through not advertising, but entertagement.

Where to Entergage?

Marketers must now develop platforms rather than creative briefs. The way for marketers to entergage is on mobile apps or website by partnering with Entergagement platforms such as Entergage by Mazri Pictures, the world’s first entergaging platform, where brands, users and celebrities come together. A less sophisticated and easier way for marketers can adopt the brand entergagement in their strategy is by creating story telling content with engagement features to connect with an audience hosted on your website powered by user engagement features to keep your customers intrigued and interacting with your brand.

Brands will be able to finally entergage on the new mobile app and smart tv app called Entergage MV hosting the original new tv show The Brand Guru produced by Mazri Pictures in Dubai with Dubai Film and TV Commission and Dubai Studio City. Users will finally chat with brand profiles in real-time ensuring feedback while watching the show fueled with product placement and branded content in an entertaining and relevant manner without disruption to the customer experience. Users can also collect coins for every engagement made in the app. It is a revolution for the advertising and entertainment industry!