Success depends on a few things

One, the entertainment has to be good. For audiences to willingly gravitate to a brand-fueled movie or series, they need to be made by different types of creatives. Outside of the celebrity-backed companies, most ad agencies aren’t made up of people who are conventionally trained in entertainment development, packaging or longer-form storytelling.

Secondly, the brands need to get a lot out of their investment. This means you need an entirely separate engine of a company dedicated to executing their goals. This is a major opportunity because the brands have incredible global reach. If activated properly, they could really change the calculus of how something performs.

Imagine if HBO’s docuseries 100 Foot Wave were powered by a brand like Corona that has aligned with surf culture for decades. HBO would have had both a marketing partner and a passionate audience of beer drinkers, who make up 46% of the U.S. population. We have to imagine this is valuable to a streamer when they are working with decreasing marketing budgets and an abundance of content choices. A brand like Corona could really help a series break through the noise.

So how do we get more brands to see themselves as studios and get them excited about the ROI of making their own entertainment? We (the audience) already see them that way. I think of Stanley Tucci’s character’s quote in Devil Wears Prada: “What they created was greater than art because you live your life in it.” The same can be said for the brands we use and love because we have memories attached to them.

Let’s take those emotional touch points across sports, music, culture, food, fashion, comedy and social interest, and build entertaining stories that can become not a replacement but a more resonant alternative to commercials.