what is Branded entertainment?

Branded entertainment, also known as branded content or advertainment, is an entertainment-based vehicle that is funded by and complementary to a brand's marketing strategy. The purpose of a branded entertainment program is to give a brand the opportunity to communicate its image to its target audience in an original way, by creating positive links between the brand and the program.
Anything you do outside of work, money spent on activities outside "necessary" is entertainment. When you have internet access from home, but you go to the local coffee/internet cafe to surf the web, that's branded entertainment. For example, people don't go to a coffee shop and sit for 2 hours just to drink coffee, they go to a coffee shop to enjoy the jazz, the people, and the coffee. Branded Entertainment is the "sexy" new approach to connecting with your consumer-- "Two decades ago there was a fear that TV commercials would be less relevant as VCRs became ubiquitous. Today, right now, the issue is the fact, not the fear,"
History and purpose
Branded entertainment started with the advent of television in the 1950s, and many programs were sponsored and tied to one specific sponsor, like the early "soap operas". As advertisers began to shift to thirty second commercials, the practice began to fade until the late 1990s. Today they have become the way for advertisers to let their messages come across in a "not so commercial" way, e.g. product placement or Advertiser funded programming.
The recent increase in branded entertainment is one of the consequences of the fragmentation of media and the decline in the power of the traditional 30-second TV spot. Traditional forms of advertising have become less and less effective in reaching consumers fragmented over hundreds of channels and with the introduction of new methods of delivering programming, such as internet streaming and digital video recording devices such as TiVo. Advertisers are going back to the branded entertainment methods of the early television industry to increase the exposure their advertising gets and to create stronger ties between the program and their product.
Branded Entertainment is not simply product advertising or product placement - branded entertainment is a piece of entertainment that perfectly aligns with the brand attributes, and is a reflection of the advertiser's brand personality. A piece of branded entertainment for Jack Daniels, for example, doesn't need to feature a bottle of Jack Daniels it merely has to fit within the entertainment preferences of its audience, to stick the experience of the entertainment to the brand, then it could be distributed on the Jack Daniels site - making it branded entertainment.
On a larger scale , the movie industry have embraced this new medium wholeheartedly , most recently with movies such as "Transformers".This has proven to be very well thought out effective Brand Integration. There are many people who say they are experts in branded content and while the Americas in particular are highly developed in this the UK and Europe lag behind - companies in the UK are often able top provide part of the solution but not all - in order to create effective Branded Entertainment a company must offer all the attributes of marketing agency and programme maker - there are very few companies that offer this.