Steve Heyer at Madison and Vine Conference

Steve Heyer, now at Starwood Hotels, continues the branded content discussion.

From Ad Age (sub required:)

Success in the branded entertainment space will ultimately require “definition of inventory, ideas and guts,” Mr. Heyer said. But it also requires advertising agencies, media buyers, Hollywood reps and middlemen to work together and stop worrying about “who gets credit and fees and get them to serve me,” he said. “I wish they would take the charge and remember why we’re here. Everybody’s being held hostage by everybody else. Everybody needs to get grounded in whose problem they’re solving. If you’re solving the customer’s problem, they’re solving their own.”

Marketers should also stop worrying about what to call branded entertainment. “The labels are very destructive,” he said. “Nontraditional media,” he added, “reads scary. It reads risky.” And too many deals can backfire. “Ubiquity is very overrated,” Mr. Heyer said. “The real challenge is to feel scarce. That creates value.”