NBC’s CTRL With Nestea: Innovations In Branded Web Content

Digital advertising is getting trickier by the day as banner ads no longer hold the attention of most people who see them, having been exposed to them for years now. Internet users are more discerning than before, and only the most compelling content will make them look twice. How does advertising make a mark in this scenario? Enter online shows. Advertisers have had some success with them in the past: young urban clothing brand Golddigga in the past and Transport for London currently, have sponsored different series and episodes of the online show Sofia’s Diary on Bebo, which targets 16-24 year olds.

NBC’s new online show CTRL, currently playing, is the latest example of advertising via online shows, but with a difference – it is more in the realm of branded content. CTRL is a short film that showed at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, starring Tony Hale of Arrested Development fame. The online version of the show incorporates sponsor Nestea (owned by Coca-Cola), and tells the story of a badly-treated office employee who finds that he has the power to manipulate people using his keyboard after he spills Nestea on it at work (the web version’s storyline of course has no relation to the actual short film!). A Nestea bottle is displayed prominently in certain shots, where relevant. Via liquidawesomeness.com, viewers have the chance to look at what is supposed to be a live feed of some of the characters, and can create their own Nestea-influenced stories led by the characters by selecting from one of multiple options for the story to progress.