Over at the A+E Networks Peter Olsen, the company’s executive vice president of ad sales, has been working on a particular dilemma, writes Jon Lafayette in B&C [Note: some of B&C’s content is behind a firewall and you may be asked to pay for it.]

That dilemma is: How to take “big tentpole events” shown on the company’s various channels, such and A&E and History, “ ‘and make them more like multiplatform franchises,’ Olsen [asks]. History’s answer [has been] short-form story-telling extensions that advance the stories and work on the platform they’ll appear on, whether its video-on-demand, digital or mobile.”

Olsen added, the story says, “I don’t think we expect too many people to sit with their iPhone and watch an hour-long episode of ‘Vikings.’ But watching a five-minute compelling piece about your favorite character that’s a real story lends itself to mobile.”

The article continues, noting that “History’s advertising marketing group helped create a video journal for Athelstan, the popular priest character from ‘Vikings.’About a dozen short-form pieces are being produced. The vignettes will run separately online and on mobile, and then be combined to create an hour-long special that will air on the network, helping History recoup its investment in creating the content. Verizon will be a key sponsor of the special, but spots from other advertisers will run as well.”

To read a lot more details about this very interesting article on branded content, we urge you to click on the link, above, which will take you to Lafayette’s original piece.