How to make brand coproduction work

Brands and media agencies want to tie up with premium content, and producers see the collaboration as an opportunity to finance their projects. But there are a few things that need to change first.

Brands and media agencies were just starting to get their feet under the table of coproduction for big-budget content when the explosion of subscription streaming and its originals model all but drove them out of the game.

But then the industry’s foundations shook and that conversation has been revived with more urgency than ever before, because we’re now in a very different industry landscape.

The trends in the content world are now all too familiar: global streamers have realised that the subscription model alone was not paying for the party, producers were then clamouring for alternative ways to finance their projects, and along the way a voracious and demanding viewer was spawned who, in order to stay in front of the TV and not spend their leisure time elsewhere, demands more and better content.

Secuoya Content Group’s CEO Raúl Berdonés told C21’s Content Americas earlier this year: “The platforms have opened to windowing when a year ago it was unthinkable. They are still asking for the money to go down, and for that we are going to have to get along with the brands. That’s what’s next. Strategic alliances? For production studios, the next allies are advertising agencies. That’s where we will win the game again, or at least be in the game.”

“In Hollywood it’s already happening,” adds Pierluigi Gazzolo, CEO of TelevisaUnivision-owned Latin American streamer ViX. “There are a lot of films that have a brand that co-finances and appears on screen in a very indirect and very creative way, and sometimes it doesn’t even appear. It’s a trend that we definitely need to bring to TV series. We are already talking to agencies that do this. The world of content and advertising must unify. Eventually they will be almost 100% dependent on each other.”

The good news – and it feels good to write this in the face of so many apocalyptic headlines recently – is that on the other side of the table the trend is in favour: brands’ interest in the universe of content and entertainment is only growing.

“Advertising is increasingly challenged, due to saturation, ineffectiveness and because it is already transparent to the user, who knows how to skip it or not pay attention to it. Brands know this and are starting to divert money to things they see that work for them. They are investing more and more in content simply because of that: it works for them,” says Luis Miguel Calvo, head of content at sports and entertainment representation agency You First.

In Spain, where You First is headquartered, TV advertising spend in 2023 was €1.735bn (US$1.85bn), while branded content spend was €550m. But the trajectories are opposite: compared to 2021, the TV advertising figure has seen a 4% drop (2021: €1.79m) and branded content has enjoyed a 31% growth (2021: €416.7m).

Branded content, however, is only one of the possible approaches between content and brands. And the future is much broader, say experts, who see the evolution towards branded entertainment or even branded media.

“Branded content is all very well, but it’s the brand talking about itself. In branded entertainment, however, it is the story that talks about the brand. The protagonist is the story. It seems like a subtle difference, but it’s not,” says Miguel Villarruel, CEO of Publicis Rebellion.

Publicis Rebellion is, in fact, one of the most interesting new players in this ecosystem. The content division of the global media and communications agency Publicis Groupe was launched at the end of 2022 with one leg in Spain and another in Mexico.

Their proposal, Villarruel explains, was not to present themselves to the market as a production company but as a coproduction partner. “Production companies know how to produce stories much better than we do. But we can enrich the projects and help them become reality.”

While many producers welcome the entry of brands and agencies into production, there are more than a few who express their misgivings, seeing them as an investor that should limit themselves to investing, and even better if that money comes at the end, filling the last financial gap.

So are we facing what is likely to be a major paradigm shift in content funding models? The short answer is yes. But for that to happen, producers, brands and platforms have to break some of their own paradigms first.

“If the perspective is ‘give us your money and don’t bother us too much’, the relationship is never going to work,” Calvo says.

“It’s just the other way around,” adds Javier Martinez, director of You First Originals, a division that produced sports docuseries such as Ona Carbonell: Starting Over and the International Emmy-nominated Alexia: Labor Omnia Vincit, both with brand partners. “We see them as a great opportunity and as a player to support us, because it generates more value and, at a time when it is so difficult to stand out, it offers new assets that amplify the promotion of your content.”

Partly in anticipation of these issues, Publicis Rebellion decided that the first project it would embark on as coproducer would be the Spanish scripted series La Ley del Mar, a social drama produced by Studio60 for the public broadcaster RTVE.

“It was a message: Rebellion comes in supporting an independent production company with a great social story. I am not a bank. I’m someone who really believes in the content, who wants to be part of the adventure, to do relevant things and add value. If I am invited just to put money in, I’m almost not interested in being there,” warns Villarruel.

That added value that Publicis Rebellion can bring to the table includes creative teams around the world, legal teams, know-how to connect content with audiences and, quite crucially, long-standing relationships with broadcasters and other potential windows around the world.

With the comedy series Atasco as its second project underway as coproducer, and Onza and Prime Video attached for Spain, Rebellion’s next step is to invite the brands Publicis works with to integrate into the content.

For production companies, the risk of not adapting to this new landscape could be very high.

‘The really interesting model, the one I think will be there in five years’ time, is when the brands start actively producing, as a driver of the industry. And the production companies that don’t see this will probably be replaced by them. Because brands can learn how to produce. The economic potential of the brand and its arrival on the platform, which will open doors for it, will not need the production company,” warns Calvo.

And no, this is not a futuristic scenario. Brands such as LVMH, P&G, Yves Saint Laurent, BMW and Red Bull are aware of the power of connecting with their audiences through relevant stories and characters, and have already created their own production studios.

“The hardest thing for brands is to abandon the tactical and think strategically,” says Villarruel, referring to his model of quarterly or annual commercial targets. “The series has a different rhythm and by the time it’s released, your product will be obsolete. It’s about connecting with brand values, not specific campaigns.”

The deodorant brand AXE and the clothing brand Quiksilver, for example, understood this very well when they integrated respectively into the Netflix dramas Sex Education and Stranger Things, not within the series themselves but within the digital content around their universes, characters, themes and, of course, audiences.

As a third part of the relationship, streamers and channels are also not without barriers to overcome. Many producers with experience in working with advertisers agree that there is a shortage of people who speak the agencies’ language in commissioning teams. “Logically, corporate structures move at a slower pace than the market itself, and these connections are still missing,” says Calvo.

But it is enough to see the job offers related to advertising that streaming platforms regularly post on LinkedIn to understand that it is only a matter of time before the gears are oiled.

So the table is set. And, as what seems to be the mantra this year, the fittest will get to eat the most.