For years, most brand involvement in television and digital video has followed a familiar pattern: brands buy advertising around the content.

Sometimes that means TVCs. Sometimes sponsorship idents. Sometimes product placement. 

But the most interesting partnerships are now moving a step further.

Instead of sitting around the story, brands are increasingly helping to fund the story itself.

This is not a new idea. Brand-funded entertainment has existed for decades. What has changed is the context in which these partnerships now sit.

Why the moment is right

Three structural shifts are reshaping how entertainment gets made and funded.

First, audiences are increasingly fragmented. Viewers move fluidly between broadcast television, streaming platforms, YouTube and social media. Traditional advertising still plays a role, but it is no longer the only way to reach scale.

Second, commissioning budgets are tightening across the industry. Broadcasters and platforms remain essential partners, but production companies are increasingly exploring additional funding routes to bring ambitious ideas to market.

Third, creators and talent have built their own audiences. The most successful creators now operate more like media companies than influencers, with formats, recurring series and loyal communities.

Taken together, these changes create an environment where brands can play a more meaningful role in entertainment itself.

Attention, not interruption

Traditional advertising interrupts what audiences are already watching.

Entertainment does something different: it earns attention.

When a brand helps fund a show that audiences genuinely want to watch, the relationship with viewers changes. The brand becomes part of the experience rather than something that sits outside it.

This is particularly powerful when the brand’s role feels natural within the format.

Lifestyle shows, competitions, factual entertainment and creator-led formats all offer opportunities for brands to appear organically within the storytelling. The most successful partnerships feel authentic to both the audience and the brand itself.

The difference between placement and participation

There is an important distinction between placing a brand within a show and designing a format where the brand has a meaningful role to play.

Product placement can work well in the right context. But it is often limited in what it can achieve.

By contrast, when a brand is involved early in the development of a format, the partnership can shape the show in ways that feel natural rather than forced.

This approach opens the door to deeper integration, longer-term partnerships and a much more coherent connection between the brand and the audience.

The brand becomes part of the narrative fabric of the show, rather than simply appearing within it.

A growing opportunity for brands

For brands looking to build cultural relevance, entertainment offers something increasingly rare: shared attention.

A successful show creates a moment that audiences experience together, whether on television, streaming platforms or digital channels. When a brand plays a meaningful role in making that show happen, the relationship with viewers becomes far more powerful than traditional advertising alone.

For many brands, the question is no longer whether to explore entertainment partnerships, but how to do so in ways that feel authentic to both the audience and the format.

Where Showrunners comes in

Showrunners works with production companies and brand partners to develop entertainment formats where these collaborations make sense creatively as well as commercially.

Our focus is on identifying ideas that can bring together producers, platforms and brands in ways that benefit everyone involved - most importantly the audience.

Because when the partnership works, the result is simple:

Great ideas reach audiences. And brands become part of the story.