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BEN Group Inc. is an entertainment AI company that integrates brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content with guaranteed ROI. BEN Group consists of the world’s largest influencer marketing business; the world’s largest product placement, promotions, and licensing agency; and TubeBuddy, the largest platform to help YouTube creators optimize their audience and channel growth.
With its proprietary AI and platform, BEN is the first and only company using machine learning and deep learning neural networks to identify high-impact opportunities for authentic, non-disruptive product placement and influencer marketing. BEN combines its AI with 40+ years of data, entertainment experience, and a team of industry experts to connect brands with the right audiences and content opportunities in meaningful ways. BEN works with the world’s top brands, including Microsoft, General Motors, Unilever, Tencent, and General Mills.
BEN in the News
Forbes
“Investing in product placement is the ultimate cheat code for the advertising industry. Audience attention is split between viewing platforms, making it impossible to reach all viewers with a single ad. If a brand advertised against the content, instead of being integrated into the content itself, it would have missed out on the long tail’s immense opportunity. — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreGlossy
“When we shifted Bond’s preferred drink from a martini to a Heineken or his vehicle from an Aston Martin to a BMW Z3 Roadster in order to launch that auto, those changes in brand preference still felt authentic to the character, while also making a statement about those brands.” — Erin Schmidt, Chief Product Placement Officer, BEN
Read MoreAd Age
“The upside of streaming integrations, beyond linear TV, is that you have this long tail of viewership impact, so there’s so much opportunity that comes from making [an appearance] inside of the content.” — Erin Schmidt, Chief Product Placement Officer, BEN
Read MoreDigiday
“What we’re seeing is that integration teams or branded content teams within linear networks are starting to have a revenue number they need to hit separate from the ad sales team. The industry is shifting. There are more opportunities to finance content and not be restricted to the 30-second spot because inventory is more limited.” — Erin Schmidt, Chief Product Placement Officer, BEN
Read MoreBloomberg
“[Product placement] is the next frontier of advertising. Because of all this data, you can get way more impact and guarantees that people are actually seeing the content you’re in.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreLuxury Daily
“We are definitely in a new age of advertising. Consumers are becoming increasingly ad-averse and more and more companies, including fashion and beauty brands, are looking for ways to reach consumers in ways that don’t rely on traditional advertising.” — Caressa Douglas, SVP of Global Strategic Partnerships, BEN
Read MoreForbes
“With ad exhaustion and skipping at an all-time high, influencer marketing is an impactful way to earn audience attention, creating positive and unique advertising that breaks through the noise. If brands can utilize the positive power of influencers in an authentic, organic way, they can leave a lasting impression on audiences while creating joy in the midst of the daily scroll.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreForbes
“Live streaming is growing rapidly and, if brands hope to capitalize, they’ll need to act quickly and purposefully. Brands that execute targeted, authentic campaigns can drive awareness and achieve maximum ROI.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreForbes
“In a sea of content, using AI is nonnegotiable for brands. By leveraging structured and unstructured data, AI easily sifts through the vast landscape of creators and content and accurately provides recommendations within the influencer ecosystem that will yield the most ROI. This data equips brands with the necessary knowledge to execute impactful, authentic campaigns that better resonate with audiences.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreForbes
“2021 is poised to be the year of the livestreaming wars, with audiences tuning into streams from gamers, musicians, influencers and more. To stand out, marketers should leverage live streams with natural e-commerce tie-ins. For example, livestreamed fashion shows or unboxing videos can include links to featured items; brands can sponsor virtual festivals—the possibilities are endless.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreForbes
“The media and entertainment industry is experiencing massive change by way of decentralization, or the shifting of power from a few large companies to niche platforms and content creators. The explosion of streaming services and social media platforms is just the first wave of decentralization.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreWomen’s Wear Daily
“There is a unique opportunity for brands to come to the table with producers and say ‘What are you working on, how do we create an alignment where a brand can create all the looks in a series, then day and date drop it and have those looks come out?’” — Erin Schmidt, Chief Strategy and Client Service Officer, BEN
Read MoreDigiday
“These brand partnerships provide what Fortnite’s player base considers a true value: the opportunity to play as an iconic character they want to play as without feeling like they are being advertised to.” — Cameron Partridge, SVP, BEN
Read MoreAdweek
Generation Z remains the coveted audience for platforms, but Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of BEN—which uses artificial intelligence to provide product placement across platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and YouTube—believes Instagram will use Reels as a way to maintain its older audience and, if the feature proves successful, it will be implemented on the platform of parent company Facebook as well.
Read MoreAdAge
“Immersive experiences are shifting from en vogue to in demand… I believe audiences are craving immersive experiences across entertainment that actively respond to them. Achieving this milestone will require entertainment companies, social media giants and tech developers to bring technologies like eye scanning, biometrics, blockchain, augmented reality…” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreAdAge
To effectively reach ad-averse audiences, brands must integrate products directly into influencer, film, television and streaming content. With more content produced every day, marketers must use AI to filter and identify the most effective partnerships. This combination of human expertise and technology will inspire authentic ad campaigns…” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreCNN
“People go to TikTok to be entertained and to have some sense of normalcy. It’s probably risky for creators to get super political, and the audience is younger.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreeMarketer
“The pandemic has created a lot more innovation in the influencer space. Influencers have realized that when they can’t produce their typical content, they need to do things differently.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreRolling Stone
Most people in the music industry work one job at a time; Jake Terrell works at a Venn-Diagram intersection of three things: corporate branding, creative directing, and artist marketing. Terrell is the senior director for music and partnerships at BEN, an AI-based company that works with brands and artists to identify ad opportunities and drop product placements into projects like music videos.
Read MoreAdweek
“YouTube’s mastery at discovery, viral potential and monetization sets Shorts far apart from experiences like Instagram Reels and makes it a worthy challenger to take on—and steal market share from—TikTok.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreAdAge
“I see now as the time to invest in more [influencer marketing] variety, support the small businesses and entrepreneurs we call content creators, and foster creativity and dialogue where we can.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreAdAge
Content-overloaded audiences are increasingly ad-adverse — 86% of viewers skip through ads and 47% utilize ad-blockers. To compete, marketers need to invest in data-driven brand integration strategies to get products directly into content efficiently, and at scale. Artificial intelligence can sort through millions of opportunities to pinpoint the best integrations for brands, helping them beat the ad-blocker curve.
Read MoreLos Angeles Times
“This isn’t [NBCUniversal’s] first rodeo. They’ve been a leader in the streaming space for quite awhile and they know how to program for wide audiences and very-niche lifestyle channels. And they have been incredibly supportive of their advertising partners,” said Stephanie Dade, SVP of global content and operations.
Read MoreTubefilter
BEN has the ability to create custom algorithms for each advertising campaign it runs. Those algorithms pare through influencers, searching for creators (and audiences) who would be genuinely interested in promoting specific products. Its AI also sorts influencers based on the overall health of their social channels, a process that involves weighing their number of followers against their amount of engagement, including views, likes, shares, and comments.
Read MoreBusiness Insider
“Musicians and other celebrities are now acting like influencers, seeing what the buzz is about on platforms like TikTok. Content creators should be creating more now than ever before, even if they are making less money. The creators that are innovating today and connecting with their audiences will be remembered.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreTubefilter
BEN’s core business involves using artificial intelligence networks to match brands up with the creators that best suit them. The company is well aware that people don’t like ads, so it focuses on what it calls “non-disruptive integrations,” where a brand and its products are wrapped into an influencer’s content, rather than flashed to viewers in a preroll ad or in content that’s wildly different from what a creator would normally post.
Read MoreThe DRUM
As display advertising spend moves away from media titles, investments in brand-sponsored content has continued to rise. Ricky Ray Butler, Chief Executive of BEN, explains why.
Read MoreAdAge
With a reliance on audio and meme culture, TikTok stands apart from other social media platforms, making it more alluring to prospective audiences. Content discovery is another differentiator. TikTok populates content based on user preferences, with videos featuring everything from top influencers and viral hashtags to trending dances and challenges. This unique model encourages creativity from influencers looking to spark the next trend.
Read MoreADWEEK
By empowering content through integrations and partnerships, brands can develop lasting, rare relationships with creators as well as consumers. Brands that authentically and strategically integrate into a new YouTube channel or a star-studded social media livestream have a greater likelihood of driving positive brand associations and purchase consideration.
Read MoreThe DRUM
“There are more influencers now than ever before. I remember when I first started, I was able to count on two hands the amount of influencers that had over a million followers. Today, I cannot count, there’s literally millions of them… So, because there’s this decentralization of content, there’s more data now than ever before and specifically, unstructured data.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreBusiness Insider
Last year, influencer marketing agency BEN helped connect Electronic Arts (EA) with YouTube star David Dobrik for a sponsored Lamborghini giveaway video and social-media campaign that drove 18.9 million views and over 3.3 million total engagements.
Read MoreCNN
Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of influencer marketing firm BEN, said once a song goes viral on TikTok, it sees huge spikes on other streaming services such as Spotify or YouTube, which “directly translates to money in the artists’ and labels’ pockets.”
Read MoreGlossy
“Fashion week used to be a closed-door event for society’s elite, only accessible to the general public through roundups, recaps and red carpet appearances, but with platforms like TikTok and Instagram, online access is growing tremendously.” — Ricky Ray Butler, CEO, BEN
Read MoreDigiday
Electronic Arts was honored with the Best Live Moment award for its work with BEN on the Apex Legends launch. The duo harnessed the audiences of gaming influencers, who shared livestreams of their Apex Legends gameplay on Twitch, YouTube and Instagram.
Read MoreAdAge
The new policy, which rolls out this month, provides primary caregivers who’ve worked for the company for more than one year with 16 weeks of leave—without having to use any PTO—plus four transition weeks, during which time employees are able to work from home as needed. Non-primary caregivers receive four weeks and also have the option to take an additional four transition weeks.
Read MoreNew York Times
But marketing executives like Ricky Ray Butler, the chief executive of the product placement company Branded Entertainment Network, are enthusiastic about the possibility of inserting brand-name products into streaming shows based on data generated by interactive programming. Actually being able to do so, he said, may still be a long way off.
Read MoreBrand Storytelling
With the help of BEN, EA partnered with Youtube star David Dobrik for a sponsored video and social media campaign to promote the game and precursory app. BEN facilitated the connection between EA and Dobrik, who has a global audience of 14.6 million subscribers.
Read MoreTubefilter
At BEN, Carle will focus on using the company’s data and proprietary artificial intelligence models — which map out influencer marketing strategies and predict their ROIs — to match brands and content creators with advertising game plans that fit their needs
Read MoreNew York Times
Typically travel influencers try to avoid taking sides in geopolitical matters. “A lot of creators I know aren’t political. They’re all about having fun and adventure and experiencing new things,” Mr. Butler said. “They’re not thinking about politics, they’re thinking about the lifestyle.” Still, he said, they should be careful not to engage in propaganda.
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