TV content is often sponsored, why not movie promotional content?

It occurs to me that we’re often reading about the sponsorship of online or mobile promotional content for television shows by major brands. Whenever a series is launching online webisodes or is bringing short-form content to mobile networks it often comes through the largesse of sponsoring brands.

So why not the same for movies?

The answer, I’m afraid, is that it’s too infrequently that there is any ancillary content produced around a movie. There aren’t short episodes that lead into the movie’s story or anything like that. But the production of content like this, while it would necessitate an additional cost, would also open up opportunities for both big studios and independent filmmakers to pursue some of those sponsorship dollars or other strategic partnerships.

Couple that speculation on my part with a report that professionally produced short form video is expected to be the recipient of over $75 million in advertising revenue this year and you can see the opportunities that are out there for producers thinking along these lines. Of course that’s assuming the video ad market doesn’t tank when ISPs fully roll out bandwidth caps, a scenario eMarketer is predicting could turn to reality.