London-based branded content specialist Gramafilm is plotting a major factual entertainment formats push having begun its move into TV last year.

Gramafilm branded content in production

Phase one of Gramafilm’s three-year plan began last year when the prodco bolstered its creative team by hiring a trio of executives who previously worked together at BBC Studios (BBCS) and Monkey Kingdom.

Eddie Evelyn-Hall joined the company as creative director of development, reporting to Gramafilm owner and director James Morton-Haworth, with a remit to lead development of its entertainment and fact entertainment slate.

Meanwhile, Laura Amure and Jamie Cowell both joined as development executives to develop a slate of formats that are being shopped at all kinds of different buyers, from traditional broadcasters, to streaming services, to social media giants.

Gramafilm was established in 2008 to create branded content and campaigns for clients including Red Bull, YouTube, Amazon, Google and LG. Evelyn-Hall is keen to replicate the success the company has had in the branded content space on TV and streaming, particularly in the US.

Eddie Evelyn-Hall

Appointing a head of fact ent is on the cards, as well as a head of documentaries – to tap into the “credentials and respect” that a successful doc draws – alongside an exec in LA to represent the company in Hollywood. “We’ve recently just got an agent, so we are now in the US, peddling all our formats over there that have started to get traction in the UK,” says Evelyn-Hall.

Fact ent is a broad church and now encompasses dating and reality shows such as Love is Blind, Married at First Sight and The Circle that are proving popular with streamers and the younger demos they attract. While “thought-provoking” topics are within Gramafilm’s wheelhouse, Evelyn-Hall doesn’t believe the prodco will ever focus solely on something that is completely “hard-hitting and serious.”

The lines between branded content and TV programming have been blurring for years now, with broadcasters such as Channel 4 in the UK now regularly looking to tie up brands with commissions to reduce costs. Gramafilm has previously worked with The Story Lab, a company ultimately owned by advertising giant Dentsu, and Evelyn-Hall is clear the intention isn’t to create “an hour-long advert.”

Evelyn-Hall expects the lines to continue to blur over the next three years, with Gramafilm looking to make the most of the relationships it has with both brands and broadcasters, mixing more than a decade of commercial know-how with its growing editorial experience.

But what will this mean for how rights are split and will we, for example, start to see major brands joining the likes of Red Bull in rocking up at markets shopping their own formats? Could a food brand be behind the next Come Dine With Me?

James Morton-Haworth

“From our experience so far speaking to brands, I don’t think they would be that bothered about shopping the format. They’d be more interested in having the back end, for sure,” says Evelyn-Hall, suggesting that splitting the spoils will be the way forward.

“Content with a purpose” is key for the former head of development at Sony-owned, Brighton-based prodco Electric Ray, who believes the next few years will see some commissioners continue to recognise the importance of representing the marginalised on mainstream TV.

“We want to try to continue that because it’s important to break down barriers in entertainment and a really good example of a show that is doing that at the moment is Drag Race. It enables conversations around gender, identity, sexuality and figuring out who you are,” says Evelyn-Hall.

Meanwhile, although YouTube’s original content group is set to be wound down, other platforms such as TikTok and Snap are only set to grow in importance to the format industry over the next three years, according to Evelyn-Hall.

That’s despite growing evidence showing that too much social media is damaging for our mental health. But Evelyn-Hall believes the original content plans of such giants of social media are designed to address this, rather than send us further down the rabbit hole of so-called doom-scrolling.

“A lot of the programming that especially Snapchat is looking for explores that space. And if you look to Snapchat’s mandate, it would be diverse voices, so I think they are aware of what their responsibility is. We would always try to make responsible programmes, even if it’s in an entertaining way. We would try to be thoughtful and push things forward,” says Evelyn-Hall.