The recent high profile examples of projects that blend entertainment and marketing also represent a blending of traditional roles, wherein the lines between production company, agency, and client are redrawn to varying degrees.

One of the latest examples is the LostChange.com effort on behalf of Levi's Silvertab brand, Sony and Motorola. Lost Change is the third installment of Silvertab's Web-inclusive branding campaign and brings together some of the players who worked on earlier campaigns, dating back to the launch of the Silvertab brand over 10 years ago.

The campaign incorporates print, in-store and other media with an online experience centering around a group of Silvertab-clad, Motorola and Sony-gadget toting friends and the adventures that follow the chance acquisition of a bag of money. The Web component incorporates 12 story-driven episodes, as well as interactive games and e-commerce capabilities, all of which serve to provide an extended, entertaining experience while showcasing brands and select products.

The live action footage for the Web episodes was directed by Albert Watson (who also shot the print campaign), out of New York-based Cyclops, which, together with Mitch Kanner's Idea Bridge brokered an array of agency and production talent and resources in executing the project. The project entailed an interesting collaborative effort between Silvertab, Motorola and Sony agencies, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Ogilvy & Mather, and Y&R, as well as a number of other players from across many disciplines. Consumers interested in purchasing some of the gear shown in the episodes, for instance are ultimately directed to the Web site of another project participant, JC Penney, and Web distributor Atom Films highlights the Lost Change Web content on its own site. Music is provided by Silvertab-sponsored band Black Eyed Peas, who have written a score for the Web show which will be released later as a CD "inspired by the film Lost Change" (the full story on Lost Change will appear in the next issue of Boards).

But what is equally interesting is what projects like this one - and like BMWFilms.com and others - mean for roles of and financial relationships between production company, agency and client. In the case of LostChange.com, Cyclops president Mike Jurkovac described the funding of the project as a departure from the traditional commercial budget arrangement, and more like a "Hollywood Model," akin to a producer shopping a property around looking for foreign rights buyers.

With the number and scope of branded content projects increasing, it will also be interesting to note what other business models emerge for the production company, whose role as supplier and keeper of the means of production blends the into that of content producer/co-production partner.

Perhaps there are some other tenuous analogies to be found in Hollywood. As long form production companies/big studios have for some time been increasing their presence in distribution (in a recent newspaper article, Disney's Michael Eisner placed a huge emphasis on his conviction that the company stick to its strength as content creator, but at press time he was also in the process of shelling out for a cable player, Fox Family), the ad industry's version of big studios (agency networks), through consolidation, have increased their presence in every level of the marketing continuum. The next step for them is to look at increasing their presence in production by buying their way into production companies, which are themselves much wider-reaching entities these days.