Short Film by Target Draws Big-Name Talent

By TANZINA VEGA

Target on Tuesday will announce its most ambitious foray into so-called “branded entertainment,” a 12-minute-long film, “Falling for You,” that will showcase more than 100 home, beauty and fashion items the company is promoting for the fall season.

The film will be doled out to viewers in three episodes, with the first making its debut on Oct. 2 online. Subsequent episodes will debut on Oct. 4 and Oct. 9.

“For us it was innovation, taking it to that next level,” said Shawn Gensch, the senior vice president of marketing at Target. “We have a great story that we want to share.”

The film stars the actors Kristen Bell, Nia Long and Zachary Abel, and was directed by Phil Abraham, who was nominated for an Emmy this year for his work on “Mad Men.”

The film tells of two Target employees, Ms. Bell and Mr. Abel, who flirt and compete with each other. In the first episode, Ms. Long, the couple's bo ss, gives them an assignment to create a campaign for the Target fall collection. The winning idea will debut on Oct. 10 at a live event in New York City.

Items featured in the video will appear on a sidebar on the right-hand side of the screen. Users can click on a “heart” icon to purchase the item and on a “share” button to post to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Billy Jurewicz, the chief executive of Space150, the Minneapolis-based agency that worked on the video, said that while the video was meant to encourage shopping and sharing content, the sharing and shopping tools were purposely left to the side of the main screen so they would not interfere with the video.

“We want to keep it a little bit more authentic and a bit in the background,” Mr. Jurewicz said.

Ms. Bell described the rise of branded-content projects as “a necessary investment” needed to get the financing for creative projec ts. “You can't really just sell entertainment any more because no one will pay for it,” Ms. Bell said.

A branded film like “Falling for You” is different than other forms of advertising because it is “less pushy” than product placement or traditional television spots, Ms. Bell said. “I do think that as actors we have to understand the fact that no one watches commercials any more,” she said.

Tanzina Vega writes about advertising and digital media. Follow @tanzinavega on Twitter.