Let's put storytelling at the heart of branded entertainment

Consumers are savvy people. With all the pressure on brands to show up authentically in recent years, audiences are more switched onto those that lack credibility and behavioural truth. 

So, when it comes to branded entertainment in short-form content, it’s high time we focus on telling culturally relevant stories over shoehorning in products and services. 

Success in building genuine connections with consumers now hinges on knowing what a brand’s place in the cultural zeitgeist is. It’s become more about telling stories rather than direct selling – and short-form content is a fast-growing way of doing this. 

Success in building genuine connections with consumers now hinges on knowing what a brand’s place in the cultural zeitgeist is.

It has become a language of social and digital platforms that people speak to everyday. This might feel like a big shift for marketers, but it’s an exciting one. Brands are speaking to a new generation of platform-native consumers and there has never been more demand for great content. With that, there’s a fresh opportunity to foster deeper connections with audiences through high-impact storytelling. 

Above: Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive saw the brand, Formula 1, as not just a sponsoring brand, but the heart of the show.

Entertainment, education, escapism 

Any brand’s short-form content has got to tick one of the three boxes for consumers to seek it out: entertainment, education or escapism.

You don’t need me to tell you that no one is proactively looking for a product plug, but there are other - more creative - tactics brands can use to drive awareness and loyalty using short-form content. It’s just got to be audience-first. So, how do you go about getting this right? You create content that would never have come to life without the brand behind it. 

With the brand already embedded into the story, [Drive to Survive] didn't need any product placement that would jar with the viewing experience.

Think Formula One’s Drive to Survive as a prime example. The documentary – a first-of-its-kind behind the scenes spotlight on the World Championship – literally wouldn’t exist without F1 at its core. With the brand already embedded into the story, it didn't need any product placement that would jar with the viewing experience. It was a totally authentic look at the brand that no one else could offer. 

Above: Beckham, the Netflix documentary about the superstar former footballer, put his brand front and centre and saw an eventual collaboration with Uber Eats. 

It’s not about you 

The series was a solid lesson for marketers on integrating a brand into educational – and binge-worthy - short-form content. It offered something that dyed-in-the-wool fans could obsess over, while also driving mass awareness with new audiences. In a similar fashion, Beckham got people talking about Posh and Becks everywhere from pubs to WhatsApp groups; spring-boarding memes to a whole new generation and a brand partnership with Uber Eats. 

Consumers say that a brand has the capacity to make what they’re watching even better, but it doesn’t always have to be about the brand.

Research shows that when customers feel connected to a brand, more than half of them (57%) will increase spend. Sephora’s The Beauty of Blackness, which honed in on colourism within the cosmetics industry, didn’t put the beauty giant front-and-centre of the narrative. It was driven by the commitments Sephora has made (giving 15% of annual spend to black owned businesses), which in turn amplified its values and connected the brand with consumers who shared its ethos.  

The film was so true to Sephora’s values that it would make consumers proud to buy from the brand, crucial in an age where consumers are so fast to call out lip service.