Oprah's and Dove Soap's Internet Monetization and Branding Strategy

Oprah is one of the smartest entrepreneurs in the world and has one of the most recognizable brands and her team works hard to protect and grow her brand. As a Baltimore native, I would like to think that it was the water that Oprah imbibed during her long stint working in Baltimore that prepared her for success. Right after she left Baltimore for Chicago she became a world wide superstar. Some other former Baltimoreans who became successful after leaving Baltimore include: Babe Ruth, Barry Levinson, John Waters, and Nancy Pelosi so I hope my water theory is true because it gives hope to all former Baltimoreans (myself included).

My two year old son is very musically inclined and enjoys watching and singing and dancing to various music videos that we watch together on Youtube. A couple of weeks ago, my wife started watching with our son a clip from a recent Oprah show that included the cast from Glee singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin". For about a week they went to Youtube to watch the clip.

All of sudden the clip they were watching disappeared and a message appeared stating that the clip was removed due to copyright infringement. My wife then went to Oprah.com and found the clip. However, on Oprah.com, there was a 30 second Dove commercial that had to be watched before the cast of Glee's rendition of Don't Stop Believin was played. The web page that contained the Glee clip was fully branded by Dove. In addition, Dove was a sponsor of the actual episode that aired the performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and is a sponsor on Fox.com's Glee home page.

Even though it appears that Oprah and Dove fully branded the entire user experience they both missed out on creating a Social Media 360 Deal. This was an internet brand campaign and not a social media brand campaign. To learn how to fully monetize your social media assets you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

Entertainment Social Media Branding Contracts

Branding products and services and how the law protects your brand is extremely important in the social media age. Recording artists, writers, and film makers are utilizing social media to create their brand and to include other brands in their work to attract the attention of corporate sponsors.

Recently, a New York Times article discussed how some entertainment contracts include specific branding clauses and that some talent feel pressured to include certain brands in their work to attract sponsors. Television product placement is not new. During most live television programs the announcers usually state throughout the program that the show or event is sponsored by xyz company. One of the most famous movie product placements was Reese's Pieces in the movie E.T. in 1982. When I watched the movie as a child I had no idea that this was a product placement. However, as an adult I would expect that most adults who watch the movie know or should know that including Reese's Pieces prominently in the movie was a big advertising coup for Hershey.

Under the recently revised FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising "material connections" between advertisers and endorsers must be disclosed. However, I am wondering when is this threshold actually met? For example, if an artist includes a brand in his work in the hopes that the brand will end up sponsoring his work, and then the brand eventually sponsors the artist's work does this connection need to be disclosed since the original work was not created with a "material connection" between the artist and the brand? If an artist posts his original work on Youtube or another social media website before there is a "material connection" but later a corporate sponsor is attracted to the project does the artist now need to disclose this sponsorship?

These are some of the many legal issues that the social media age has created. Constantly changing technology will only make these issues more difficult to analyze. To learn more about these issues you may contact me at http://www.shearlaw.com/.

Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.