Brands on the agenda at Content 360

The 27 short-listed producers and designers were chosen from 285 candidates across the competition's eight categories by digital commissioners from Content 360's partners: the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting & Communications Commission (BCC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and OgilvyInteractive Worldwide.

This year's competition drew almost 400 project entries in total, and was notable for the upsurge in pitches for the branded-content category ‘Using the Power of the Brand for the Power of Good', created by advertising agency OgilvyInteractive (more than 100 submissions in 2008 compared to 42 the previous year). There was also strong interest from traditional industry players such as Endemol and All3Media International, a finalist this year in the BBC's category ‘New IPTV Concepts'.

International appeal

The competition has widened its international appeal, with 42 countries participating in 2008 compared to 36 in 2007. Slovenia, South Africa, Finland and Norway are all making their first appearance among this year's 11 finalist countries.

"The continued success of the Content 360 competition demonstrates the need for traditional media to meet today's digital creators. We are excited to bring to MIPTV the latest content ideas for audience participation, social networking, personalisation and interactivity, across all digital platforms,” said Ted Baracos, director of Digital Media, Reed MIDEM.

The finalists of the Content 360 competition will be in Cannes to pitch their projects before an audience and a jury made up of executives from the audiovisual, digital and advertising sectors.

The winners in each category will be announced on 10 April during the Zapping Show hosted by Ray Cokes. MIPTV featuring MILIA continues to recognize creativity with the successful pitches sharing prize money worth €113 000 in development financing.

To discover the 27 finalists of Content 360, go to www.miptv.com/en-gb/content_360.cfm.

To contact the finalists and other participants of Content 360 on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7762071741.

The website is www.miptv.com.