Creating culture through Oscar-worthy entertainment

This week’s Oscars marked the end of a particularly gripping awards season. 

To make a terrible pun, the races for the gongs have been one battle after another, driven by the sheer quality of talent and work coming out of Hollywood. And it's a conversation that’s broken free of cinephile circles.

 Audiences don’t think in channels, they follow worlds and intellectual property they love. 

Look at HUNTR/X, for example, the fictional K-Pop Demon Hunters girl group that became an unexpected cultural phenomenon last year. K-Pop Demon Hunters won best animated film this weekend - no surprise given that the singers behind the film performed at the Oscars ceremony, the BAFTAs and headlined the Brits in recent months. 

A new group, formed from an original screenplay which has totally dominated culture across film, music and global fandom; the band is a litmus test for how audiences think about entertainment. Audiences don’t think in channels, they follow worlds and intellectual property they love. 

Among this thirst for new entertainment, brands have an opportunity.

Above: The track Golden, from K-Pop Demon Hunters, picked up the Best Original Song Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. 

The shift to IP ownership

A recent study by WPP Media and Oxford University found that earned, shared and owned touchpoints outperform paid by 300% when the consumer is actively looking to purchase. It’s a perfect challenge to the world of advertising: simply sponsoring culture isn’t enough. It’s time to stop interrupting the entertainment and start becoming it.

Brands already own IP in their brand codes: the associations consumers already have with their products and their brand storytelling. For many, the biggest question when looking at branded entertainment is how to tell an authentic, entertaining original story with these established codes.

Simply sponsoring culture isn’t enough. It’s time to stop interrupting the entertainment and start becoming it.

Barbie is the north star, blending blockbuster power with audiences’ existing connection to the infamous toy. The movie became the highest-grossing film in 2023 and made the bubblegum-pink brand unmissable in culture. This year, F1 targeted similar success. 

Following the sport's hit with Netflix series Drive to Survive, F1 took the leap into film and made over $600 million at the box office, earning four nominations at the Oscars to boot. This is brand-first entertainment perfected. It’s art and advertising in the same breath. And in the case of F1, it has brought countless brand partners along for the ride.

The most forward-thinking brands are pivoting from a model of renting audiences to owning them. Lego and Red Bull have done this for well over a decade. We’re even seeing board-level roles appear, such as Gap’s recent appointment of Pam Kaufman, their first ever Chief Entertainment Officer. We’re entering the era of brand-owned IP.

Above: The recent F1 movie starring Brad Pitt is "brand-first entertainment perfected".

Format thinking

This isn’t an opportunity limited to those with a blockbuster budget. Any brand interested in taking the leap simply needs to embrace entertainment’s long-serving stalwart, the format.

Take it from me. We worked with Jet2holidays on its collaboration with ITV to bring stories of celebs travelling to screens in The Great Escapers. Cancer Research UK told the stories behind some of the leading scientists fighting the disease in Channel 4’s The Cancer Detectives. Both brands recognised the inherent storytelling power behind the services they deliver each day.

From podcasts to YouTube, episodic series that integrate brand codes into genuine entertainment are winning. 

However, this isn’t just a TV play. Social formats and access to creators as talent are lowering historic barriers to entry. From podcasts to YouTube, episodic series that integrate brand codes into genuine entertainment are winning. Nationwide’s recent collaboration with Mail Metro Media to create its podcast, Spent, is a great example of this. They are building libraries of evergreen content that educates, inspires and entertains, turning casual audiences into a subscribed community.

By creating owned IP, brands build a tangible asset. They move from the quick sugar rush of a campaign spike to the long-term equity of a loyal, subscribed audience. A one-off reactive post fired off into the social abyss might land on occasion, but successful formats are an engine. Repeatable, recognisable structure for content that creates an appointment-to-view with an audience. A format turns a brand into a channel.