Branded entertainment is the oldest trick in modern marketing and, in 2026, the most underused. A tyre company invented the world’s most famous restaurant guide. A brewery invented the world’s best known book of records. A toy company made a film that took $1.45bn at the box office. None of them bought attention. They made something people chose to watch, read or queue for, and put the brand at the heart of it.
This report looks at branded entertainment with the numbers attached: the size of the market, the evidence that it works, the examples worth learning from, what it costs and a practical plan for brands that want to stop renting attention and start earning it. It sits alongside our reports on creator marketing and whether TV advertising is still worth it, and goes deeper on series, films and brand owned shows.
The short version
- Branded entertainment is content people choose. It is a film, series, show, live event or publication funded by a brand and judged by the audience on its entertainment value, not an ad slot they are forced to sit through.
- The money is real and growing. Product placement alone reached $29.6bn globally in 2023, with TV taking 70% of it, and PQ Media expected a further 12% rise in 2024.
- The screens have shifted in its favour. YouTube is now the UK’s second most watched video service and TV is its main screen in the US, while global streamers cut scripted commissions by 24% in early 2025.
- The evidence is positive but often old or self reported. Nielsen found 86% recall for branded content versus 65% for pre roll, and Channel 4 found consistent lifts in awareness, consideration and trust. Measure your own work rather than leaning on headline studies.
- Formats beat one offs. The brands that win, from Michelin to Red Bull to LEGO, built repeatable formats and owned channels. A series compounds; a single film fades.
What is branded entertainment?
Branded entertainment is content created or funded by a brand that people watch, read or attend because it entertains or informs them, with the brand built into the story rather than bolted on in a break. When Cannes Lions launched its branded content and entertainment category in 2012 it defined the work as the creation of, or natural integration into, original content by a brand. That is still the cleanest definition we know.
In practice it covers a wide range of formats: feature films such as The LEGO Movie and Barbie, documentaries such as WhatsApp’s We Are Ayenda, short fiction such as Hyundai’s Night Fishing, live spectacles such as Red Bull Stratos, recurring YouTube series, podcasts, magazines and even books. What unites them is the test the audience applies. Nobody skips to the end of something they chose to watch.
What is the difference between branded entertainment and product placement?
Product placement puts a brand inside someone else’s content: a drink on a talk show desk, a car in a chase scene. The producer owns the story and the brand pays, or supplies products, to appear. UK broadcasters have been allowed to run paid placement since February 2011, when Nescafé Dolce Gusto became the first brand placed under the new Ofcom rules. Branded entertainment flips the ownership: the brand funds or originates the story, so it controls the idea, the talent, the rights and, increasingly, the distribution.
| Advertising | Product placement | Branded entertainment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the story | The brand | The producer or broadcaster | The brand, often with a studio or broadcaster partner |
| How people meet it | Interruption in a break or feed | Inside a show they already chose | They choose the brand’s content itself |
| Typical length | 6 to 60 seconds | Seconds on screen | Minutes to hours, often a series |
| What you measure | Reach, frequency, recall | Exposure value, recall | Watch time, returning viewers, brand lift, sales |
| How long it lasts | As long as you pay | As long as the show is watched | Can compound for years on owned channels |
Advertain summary of common definitions. Many campaigns mix all three.
Branded content and branded entertainment are often used interchangeably. We use branded content as the umbrella term, which includes articles, social posts and sponsored creator videos, and branded entertainment for the long form, story led end of the spectrum. If you want the creator side of that spectrum, our creator marketing report covers it in depth.
Why branded entertainment matters more in 2026
Three shifts have moved branded entertainment from a nice to have to a serious line in the media plan.
1. The TV screen now belongs to everyone
In February 2025 YouTube said TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the US by watch time, with viewers watching more than a billion hours a day on TV sets. In the UK, Ofcom’s Media Nations 2025 found that YouTube is the second most watched service, behind the BBC and ahead of ITV, with people spending 39 minutes a day on it at home, 16 of them on a TV set. Over 55s did 42% of their YouTube viewing on TV sets in 2024, up from 33% a year earlier. A brand can now publish a series that plays on the same living room screen as a broadcaster’s, without buying a slot.
2. Streamers are commissioning less
Ampere Analysis found that the major global streamers cut scripted TV commissions by 24% year on year in the first half of 2025, from 318 titles to 242. Fewer commissions mean tighter budgets and more appetite for funded partners. That is why deals such as AB InBev’s multi year global partnership with Netflix, which covers title integrations and live events, and WhatsApp executive producing The Seat, a Netflix documentary on the Mercedes F1 team, are becoming normal rather than novel.
3. People avoid ads and reward culture
Ad filtering company eyeo counted 912 million active ad filtering users worldwide in Q2 2023, up 11% in 18 months (vendor research). At the same time, Edelman’s 2025 brand trust report found that 73% of people say their trust in a brand would increase if it authentically reflected today’s culture, against only 27% who say trust rises when brands ignore culture and focus on product. Entertainment is how brands take part in culture rather than interrupting it.
How big is the branded entertainment market?
There is no reliable global figure for branded entertainment as a whole. The estimates that circulate, some running to hundreds of billions of dollars, rarely name a method and we do not use them. The best measured slice is product placement, which PQ Media has tracked for two decades. Its latest release put global product placement spending at $29.6bn in 2023, up 12.3%, with TV taking 70.1% ($20.6bn) and film 11.9% ($3.5bn). The US accounted for 56% of the market, and Germany and the UK were each approaching $1bn.
Global product placement spend, $bn
Placement value can also be estimated rather than paid. Concave Brand Tracking valued the brand exposure in Stranger Things 3 at $15m, with more than 100 brands on screen, even though Netflix said none were paid placements. That is the point of entertainment: the most valuable exposure is often the kind nobody could have bought as an ad.
Does branded entertainment work? What the evidence says
The honest answer is yes, with caveats. The most cited head to head study is still Nielsen’s 2016 analysis of more than 100 pieces of branded content, which found average brand recall of 86% against 65% for pre roll, with higher lifts in affinity, purchase intent and recommendation too. It is a decade old and publisher focused, but the direction has not been seriously challenged.
Branded content vs pre roll: brand recall and lift, %
The largest UK dataset comes from broadcast sponsorship, a close cousin of branded entertainment. Channel 4’s Sponsorship Rocks study covered around 240 sponsorships, 666 research waves and more than 400,000 viewers over 15 years. It found average lifts versus non viewers of 8 points in awareness and consideration, 7 points in brand perceptions and 6 points in trust. Sponsorships that ran for two years or more delivered 20% more consideration than one to two year deals: consistency pays. An earlier Channel 4 study reported that its branded shows delivered 29% higher brand perception than a standard linear ad.
Channel 4 sponsorship: average uplift vs non viewers, percentage points
Two cautions. First, much of this research is commissioned by the platforms and broadcasters selling the inventory, so treat it as a strong signal rather than proof. Second, averages hide a wide spread: dull branded content does nothing. The only evidence that should change your budget is your own brand lift, search and sales data, which is why we recommend designing the measurement before the first shoot. Our guide to measuring brand awareness sets out the methods.
Branded entertainment examples that changed the game
The best examples fall into four groups. Each teaches a different lesson.
The long game: publications that outlived their purpose
The first Michelin Guide in 1900 ran to 35,000 free copies, designed to get motorists driving and wearing out tyres. Michelin began charging for it in 1920, and more than 30 million copies have since been sold. The Guinness Book of Records first appeared in 1955 with 50,000 copies given to pubs to settle arguments, and has sold more than 134 million copies. John Deere’s farming magazine The Furrow, founded in 1895, still reported more than 550,000 readers in North America in 2018. Each solved a real problem for the audience first.
“Man only truly respects what he pays for.” André Michelin, explaining why the Michelin Guide stopped being free in 1920
The blockbusters: when the product becomes the franchise
The LEGO Movie cost $60m to make and took $467m worldwide in 2014, 7.8 times its budget. LEGO’s 2014 revenue grew 13% to DKK 28.6bn, and the company named the film’s product line a significant contributor to the strong sales growth. Barbie went further: an estimated $145m budget and $1.45bn worldwide box office in 2023. Mattel reported Barbie sales up 16% and doll sales up 24% in constant currency in the following quarter.
Brand led feature films: budget vs worldwide box office, $m
Mattel’s chief executive Ynon Kreiz was clear about the strategy afterwards: “We are here to build film franchises.” Few brands can play at that scale, but the principle scales down: build an idea that can return, not a single spike.
The live moment: events built for the stream
When Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space in October 2012, Red Bull’s Stratos stream drew more than 8 million concurrent viewers on YouTube, the largest live stream audience the platform had seen. The event was the content; the brand was the reason it existed. Red Bull Media House, set up to make and sell that content, was producing more than 600 pieces a year by 2014 and licensing them to broadcasters and platforms.
“What we do always has to come with some form of paycheck, whether advertising, licensing or a coproduction deal.” Werner Brell, Managing Director, Red Bull Media House
The award winners: short form craft with long form ambition
Cannes Lions’ Entertainment Lions Grand Prix is a useful guide to where the craft is heading. Hyundai’s Night Fishing, the 2025 winner, is a 13 minute thriller shot entirely on the seven onboard cameras of an IONIQ 5, with the brand only in the end credits. It played in Korean cinemas and drew more than 46,000 cinemagoers in five weeks. The product is the camera, the story is the ad.
| Year | Entertainment Lions Grand Prix | Format | Entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Supercell, Clash of Clans “Clash From The Past” | Anniversary campaign for a mobile game | 774 |
| 2024 | WhatsApp, “We Are Ayenda” | Documentary on Prime Video | 762 |
| 2025 | Hyundai, “Night Fishing” | 13 minute short film released in cinemas | 735 |
| 2026 | adidas Originals, “Original Forever” | Three minute film for the 2025 Oasis reunion tour | 656 |
Sources: Cannes Lions 2023, Contagious 2024 and Campaign Brief Asia, Cannes Lions 2025, exchange4media 2026.
Cannes Entertainment Lions entries by year
Entries to the core category have fallen four years running even as the work has improved. Our read: fewer agencies are making true entertainment, which leaves more room for the brands that commit.
Brand owned channels: the new home of branded entertainment
The biggest change since Stratos is distribution. A brand no longer needs a network to reach a TV screen. The most successful brand channels on YouTube now rival media companies in scale, and they were built on formats, not campaigns.
Brand YouTube channels: subscribers, millions
Red Bull’s channel has passed 29 billion views across more than 7,000 videos. LEGO’s has more than 28 billion. Neither got there through one viral hit. They publish recurring formats that fans return to, and they treat each video as a programme rather than a placement. YouTube itself is leaning in: its CEO’s 2026 letter to creators set out ambitions for beautifully produced, TV quality programming, and Shorts alone now draws 2 billion hours of viewing on TV sets each month.
This is the work we do every day. Our series Eye Wonder for Disney XD reached more than 20 million views across Disney XD, Disney+ and DisneyNOW, and we took the Paul Ribot channel from zero to 30,000 subscribers in 75 days. The lesson from both: a clear format, a recognisable host and a publishing rhythm the audience can rely on. If you are starting from scratch, our guide to starting a YouTube channel for business covers the setup, and you can see more of our projects on our work page.
How much does branded entertainment cost?
Budgets range from modest sums for a single YouTube episode to nine figures for a feature film, so the useful question is not “how much” but “how much per hour of attention, and for how long”. Some published reference points: Chipotle’s four part Hulu comedy Farmed and Dangerous cost about $1m in 2014; The LEGO Movie cost $60m; Barbie an estimated $145m. Most brands will sit at the low end of that range, and they should.
The three costs that matter
- Production. Talent, crew, locations, post production and music. This is the cost most brands budget for and the one they over invest in for a single launch film.
- Distribution. Paid promotion to seed the first episodes, partner fees or a broadcaster or streamer deal. Under investing here is the most common reason good content is never seen.
- Time. Formats need runway. Channel 4’s data shows sponsorships running two years or more delivered 20% more consideration than shorter deals. A series judged after three episodes rarely gets the chance to compound.
Judge it on cost per hour watched
A simple way to compare branded entertainment with advertising is to divide the total cost by the hours people actually spent with your brand. As an illustrative example: a six episode series costing £300,000 that earns 2 million views at an average of 8 minutes watched delivers about 267,000 hours of attention, roughly £1.12 per hour. A 20 second ad would need to be watched 48 million times, all the way through, to match those hours. The maths will not always favour entertainment, but it makes the trade off visible. Pair it with brand lift and search data to judge quality, not just quantity.
Who pays: brand, partner or audience?
The most sophisticated players make entertainment pay for itself. Red Bull Media House licenses content and sells advertising; Mattel shares in box office; DICK’S Sporting Goods turned its films into a studio, Cookie Jar & A Dream Studios, with two Sports Emmys and distribution through ESPN. In the UK, Channel 4’s branded content arm 4Studio reports that its Mission: Accessible series for Visit Britain drew almost 11 million views (self reported). Most brands will fund their entertainment as marketing, but it is worth asking from day one whether a broadcaster, platform or co funding partner would share the cost.
A seven step plan for brands starting in branded entertainment
- Start with the audience problem, not the product. Michelin solved “where should we eat on the road”. Guinness solved pub arguments. Write down the question your audience wants answered or the feeling they want, then find where your brand has a right to be.
- Choose a format that can repeat. A series, a recurring live event or a returning host. Formats build habit, habit builds subscribers and subscribers lower the cost of every future episode.
- Decide where it lives. Your own YouTube channel for long term compounding, a broadcaster or streamer for reach and credibility, or both. The TV screen is open to all of them.
- Keep the brand in the story, not on top of it. Night Fishing put the brand in the end credits; the product was the camera. Integrate what your product does rather than how it looks in a pack shot.
- Hire for craft. The audience compares you with professional entertainment, not other ads. Writers, directors and editors who make shows are worth the premium.
- Budget for distribution and time. Plan paid seeding for launch episodes and commit to a run long enough to learn, ideally a season of six to ten episodes.
- Measure what entertainment is good at. Watch time, returning viewers, subscriber growth, brand lift, branded search and, where you can, sales. Agree the measures before you shoot.
If you want a sense check on a branded entertainment idea, our team works with brands from first format to final cut. Get in touch.
