- Hollywood production companies are stepping up to help big brands make high-end entertainment.
- Brands are trying to get consumers’ attention as traditional ads are getting ignored.
- Insider rounded up the production companies that are getting the most traction with brands.
It’s not just Mattel — lots of big brands are turning to Hollywood-style films to reach consumers who are increasingly ignoring traditional advertising.
Marketers want to make high-quality filmed entertainment that could sell to a big streamer or other distributor, but most lack the know-how or connections with distributors.
Enter the production companies. For brands with a few million to spend, there’s a growing number of companies pitching their ability to make films worthy of a Netflix or Apple TV+.
They run a spectrum, from producers like Ben Silverman who have been doing brand work for a decade or more, to more recent arrivals like Issa Rae’s Hoorae and Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, which started branded content studios in the past year. Many have hired people from the ad agency world who speak the language of marketers, and some are actively courting Madison Avenue.
“Hollywood creatives are taking more of an interest in working with brands than ever before on the development of premium content,” said Julian Jacobs, UTA partner and co-head of UTA’s entertainment marketing arm. “There is a recognition that great stories can be told with and inspired by a brand’s purpose. ‘Barbie’ is another validation of this.” Only a small subset of production companies have the capabilities to deliver on this promise, though, he added.
Brand dollars to the rescue
Driving the interest is that while traditional ads are losing their efficacy, marketers are seeing high-profile examples of films about brands airing on big streamers like Netflix and Amazon.
“In the past year, we’ve had a half a dozen incoming calls from brands asking, ‘What is our version of “Air” and how should we be thinking about it?'” said Marc Gilbar, who runs the brand division at Imagine Entertainment.
The money is welcome at a time when streamers are trimming their content budgets. Producers say marketer dollars help them make and sell more projects, whether by helping them get a great writer or fund a sizzle reel.
Some are also looking to brand films to offset some of the revenue they’re losing in the dual Hollywood strikes. (Brand films are often unscripted and thus aren’t governed by the Hollywood unions.) They also see brand work being a positive for below-the-line workers who are idled by the work stoppage.
And artistic talent that might have grimaced at the idea of making what they considered a long commercial has come around.
Production and management company Anonymous Content has produced such films as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and Oscar winner “Spotlight” and reps A-listers like Samuel L. Jackson and Emma Stone.
It also has made films for the likes of Adobe, IBM, and WhatsApp through its 5-year-old division, The Lab.
Getting talent to sign on was hard at first, said Zac Ryder, cofounder of The Lab. “‘How is this not going to be just a long commercial?'” was the attitude, he said. Resistance subsided after Anonymous got filmmaker Olivia Wilde of “Booksmart” fame to direct a short film for HP in 2020, “Wake Up.” Today, he said, The Lab is one of Anonymous’ fastest-growing units. “We’re the division everyone gets excited about.”
Doing brand work isn’t risk-free. Brands typically come in expecting to be able to measure branded entertainment the same way as traditional ads, and the metrics are lagging. Many just want their film to be on Netflix, whether that’s realistic or not. Some also want to take an approach that’s too commercial. The brand usually has the final sign-off on a project, but producers insist they turn away projects that seem too overtly promotional.
Here are 13 companies getting the most traction with brands and distributors, listed alphabetically.
Anonymous Content: Founded in 1999 and majority owned by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, Anonymous Content has been making brand films since 2018, leveraging its talent-management arm. Earlier in August, it launched “We Are Ayenda,” a half-hour documentary on Prime Video for WhatsApp that tells the story of the Afghan Girls National Soccer Team and their escape from the Taliban; a doc series “Full Bleed” for Adobe is being shopped to streamers.
Boardwalk Pictures: The Emmy-winning production company behind Netflix hits like “Chef’s Table” and “Cheer” also has a brand division led by head of storytelling Caitlin McGinty, formerly of Relativity Media and The Story Lab. Notable projects include “The Show” and “The Show: California Love,” features about the making of the Super Bowl halftime shows, which were produced with Pepsi and aired on Showtime. It’s also done projects for REI, Unilever, and Marriott.
Box to Box: The UK sports production company led by award-winning producers James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin became a household name with its Netflix docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” in collaboration with Formula 1. The show has been credited with introducing the sport to a whole new audience of fans around the world. It’s since done deals to make shows for a variety of other sports including the World Surf League and Major League Soccer.
Hartbeat: Kevin Hart’s company is best known for its brand work that consists of short-form projects, like a web series for Lyft featuring celebrities including Hart himself pranking riders as a Lyft driver, and a short film for Sam’s Club, “Merry Like This,” that ran in theaters last winter. In 2022, Hartbeat hired Disney exec Brian Price, who was behind “Merry Like This,” to accelerate its work with brands like Lyft and Chase Sapphire.
Hello Sunshine: The media company started by Reese Witherspoon to make female-centric content, Hello Sunshine is also considered by industry insiders a sophisticated branded entertainment maker. Head of brand partnerships is Zoe Fairbourn, who worked on marketing deals at The Weinstein Co. and Relativity Media. Notable projects include “Fair Play,” a film about gender inequality for P&G, that aired on Hulu.
Imagine Entertainment: Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s production powerhouse is also a branded content juggernaut. Led by Marc Gilbar, its brand division’s highlights include Unilever’s “Dads,” a 2019 doc on fatherhood that was directed by Ron Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, and ran on Apple TV+; “Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker” that sold to Paramount+; and “The Day Sports Stood Still” (HBO). “The future we envision at Imagine is one where brands can participate in the telling of their own stories,” Gilbar said. “They just have to be aware of the compromises they’re going to have to make.”
Propagate Content: Ben Silverman has long evangelized working with brands, going back to 2003 with “The Restaurant” reality show starring Rocco DiSpirito and later “Biggest Loser,” sponsored by the likes of General Mills and Subway. His current company, Propagate, expanded to form a branded content division in 2018 through an investment from merchant bank Raine.
Saville Productions: Rupert Maconik’s Saville has made countless films for large brands with big-name filmmakers like Werner Herzog and Barry Levinson. Examples: “Own the Room,” a doc for Shopify that sold to Disney+, and Herzog’s “Lo and Behold,” for software company Netscout, that sold to Magnolia. Part of Maconik’s pitch is that he sells all his projects to streamers and other large distributors, which is a big consideration for brands. “Brand-sponsored films can recoup money and have measurable marketing results that move the needle if done right,” he said.
Sugar23: Oscar-winning Michael Sugar (“Spotlight”) has been pitching himself to marketers over the past year to help them make content that entertains rather than interrupts. Since working with Time Studios to produce Trevor Noah’s “Turning Point” for Procter & Gamble, he’s been helping Anheuser-Busch parent AB InBev build an entertainment division and working with multiple Fortune 500 companies including consumer brands it couldn’t name. CAA and Wieden + Kennedy vet Matt Rotondo helms the brand division, but Sugar promotes the work as a team effort: “We think of the whole company as a white-label apparatus.”
Time Studios: The iconic publisher’s film arm under Mike Beck and Alexa Conway has its roots in unscripted projects that draw from Time’s journalistic heritage. It also actively brings that approach to brands. Recent projects have been for Procter & Gamble and include “Turning Point” for MSNBC films featuring Trevor Noah (MSNBC) and Time 100 and Person of the Year specials for ABC and NBC, respectively.
Tribeca Studios: The branded content studio pitches brands access to its award-winning and connected Hollywood creative talent, distribution expertise, and a festival at which to showcase their work. Led by EVP Kate Oppenheim, Tribeca Studios’ projects have included “We Could be King” (ESPN2) for Dick’s Sporting Goods and P&G’s Queen Collective series (BET). It’s secured distribution for brands via Netflix, HBO Max, and CNN.
Ventureland: The company was started in 2020 by filmmaker Kerstin Emhoff and director Paul Hunter, whose indie production company Prettybird is known for doing buzzy ads for brands like T-Mobile. Led by Oscar-winning producer John Battsek, Ventureland produces a range of content types. In the brand realm, recent projects include Abbey Road Studios doc “If These Walls Could Sing” that went to Disney+ and “Rise,” a film about women entrepreneurs for Stacy’s Pita Chips.
Westbrook: Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s media company is helping REI with its big entertainment ambitions, including a feature on the all-Black Mount Everest expedition that’s set for release on a major streamer this year and leveraged its SVP and docs head Jannat Gargi, who came from Vice Studios. It also has a separate division, Westbrook Media, that has made premium content for Pinterest, Meta, and Logitech; Samsung-sponsored reality show, “Exposure,” aired on Hulu in 2021.
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