Will Griffin On the Launch of DoD

Will Griffin, the President & COO of Simmons Lathan Media Group, responded to my post Simmons & Co. Launch Video On Demand Service with some comments about the launch of DoD.

Among other things, he addressed my question about what was meant by the use of such terms as "authentic branded entertainment" in the initial press release. As it turns out, that's meant to indicate their focus on brands that have a history of sponsorship and advertising in relationship to hip hop, such as Coca-Cola, General Motors and Reebok.

While I know that won't satisfy everyone's take on authenticity, especially those who label themselves hip hop purists, from a marketing perspective it seems like a reasonable way to discuss what's happening with DoD. Actually, though I have mixed feelings about branded entertainment, i.e. product placement, that's definitely where marketing is going. With the development of such phenomenon as TiVo, online ad banner blindness and, for the old school, leaving the room to get a snack during commercial breaks, advertisers are having to struggle to do their thing.

To some degree, I think that DoD represents another example of how hip hop is in the forefront of alternative forms of marketing, as it has been with street and buzz marketing, from street teams to mixtapes. And, though branded entertainment has raised concerns from a variety of folks including the Writers Guild of America, I don't think there's any question that it will be one of the major growth areas in advertising in coming years.

Will seems like an approachable and communicative guy so check out his rather informal comments following my earlier post. Hopefully I'll be able to follow up with an email interview at a later date after I get a chance to check out what they're doing.