Brands creating their own TV formats

A wide range of companies have launched mockumentaries, comedies, competition and dating formats online.

Thanks to the internet, anyone and everyone has the opportunity to build an audience. And this of course applies to brands too. Currently there is a big new trend emerging where rather than using marketing content to build audiences on social platforms, increasingly we are seeing brands creating their own TV-like editorial stories and shows.

As

Lia Haberman

summarises, the view from some brands is they aim to ‘be the show, not the ad break’.

The expansion of brands into TV-like online content creates challenges as well as opportunities for TV producers. After all, these brands might need experienced production partners to help deliver their ambitions. Equally, they may look to a wider market than just TV producers to deliver these projects: marketing and creative agencies, plus of course creators who have media businesses and an existing online following themselves.

There are numerous examples where brands have done just this, in a way that can be quite disruptive to TV broadcasters’ relationships with specific audiences and also possibly with advertisers. A great example is Foot Asylum, the trainer retailer, where they created TV-esque YouTube content targeting a specific young demographic. Spend time on their channel, and you can track the progression from short videos seven years ago featuring KSI and Yung Filly doing unboxing of new shoes, fitness training or shopping; through to multiple TV-length formatted returning series.

If you put a TV broadcast into the mix of these campaigns, then this also presents opportunities as well as challenges for those in TV production. If a brand wants to include linear TV or VOD as part of their activity, then this naturally could open the door for potential partnerships with TV producers with the track record of delivering to networks. However, this could encourage marketing and creative agencies to deliver these shows, therefore adding more competitors into the already highly pressured TV commissioning market.

This post runs through seven recent examples which demonstrate how certain brands have developed their own TV-like formats.

In a way, this is the same direct to consumer argument that is relevant for production companies; which is, the internet is all about creating direct relationships with audiences. If you have a direct relationship with audiences then why not try to foster a deeper connection with them? And what better way to do that than through entertainment and editorial storytelling?