Your Favorite Brands Are Launching Entertainment Departments to Sell You What Exactly?

The Business of Culture

Hi chat! I’m currently sitting at home with a dining table full of mics and filming props as I’m headed to Florida this weekend for one of those “super secret” influencer projects. It’s really not a secret but I’m trying this new thing where I’m keeping the work mysterious and important. Because that’s what Severance taught me. Except I haven’t watched the Severance finale yet, though I have been able to successfully avoid spoilers, minus that dance number. But context is key and I don’t have it at all, therefore when I finally do watch the finale, I know I’ll still be entertained!

Sold myself a good hair day

And this actually leads me nicely into this week’s topic. Okay it doesn’t at all but I’m relying on a loose segue here, because today we’re talking all about entertainment. But not just your run of the mill entertainment. No no, today we’re going to discuss an entertainment trend I’ve been watching develop over the past six or so months and I’ve been itching to start a conversation about it.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: We are on the brink of brands diving full force into standalone entertainment. That’s right, original content, as a massive marketing tactic. And of course it wouldn’t be The Business of Culture if we didn’t acknowledge the goals of driving engagement and building a loyal audience through entertainment. KPIs! KPIs! KPIs!

Lately I have been seeing more and more brands, mostly beauty and lifestyle brands, shift resources and budget towards a standalone entertainment strategy. Like for real, we’re seeing beauty brands launch full on entertainment departments. No surprise here that e.l.f. Cosmetics is a primary example of this, as they just launched an entire entertainment division, e.l.f. Made — tasked to create content around music, movies, gaming and sports. Their first venture into the entertainment world was to develop a full album drop for an original GRWM (that’s Get Ready With Music) content series.

And it’s led me to ask: Does the future of brand strategy exist without standalone entertainment or are brands about to over index on original content with the ideals of it driving their bottom line?

Now I am aware marketing and advertising have been in the content game for a long time. And I am aware that social media blurred the lines between marketing, advertising and entertainment. We are all familiar with the Duo Owl, Liquid Death partnership stunts and whatever Sour Patch Kids, Nutter Butter and sometimes Dunkin’ are trying to do.

But brands are beginning to take this one step further and double down on that “entertainment as a means of marketing” strategy. Case in point, Tower28, who recently launched a sketch comedy series – The Blush Lives of Sensitive Girls — to promote their blushes. Produced entirely as a social first, original content series, Tower28’s Director of Marketing, Alex Kalatzis, shared the intent is to place “big bets” on producing high quality, social first content vs. the UGC or influencer generated lofi content we’ve seen trending for the better half of a decade.

Earlier this year, Sephora released a docuseries, ‘Faces of Music’ celebrating beauty and music alongside and available on Hulu. The original content featured interviews of popular artists, while they played with makeup, spoke to the artistry of their makeup choices and yes, promoted products available at Sephora. Of all the content pieces, this one really brought me back to the days of glossy print magazines and your good old fashion advertorial.

I also think you could consider a recent original series as an almost reverse Uno play in this emerging category. Because Netflix partnered with Meghan Markle on her ‘As Ever’ brand through the TV series, ‘With Love, Meghan’ and promoted the upcoming brand launch the day the series dropped. The products were heavily featured on the show and as we now know, sold out on her website in less than an hour. I’d assume that as true brand partners, Netflix is profiting off of a percentage of sales, so talk about scoring a piece of the lifestyle pie and using entertainment to drive your bottom line.

Brands are definitely looking to build a fresh and successful recipe to speak to and engage with their audiences. So is the entertainment strategy another tactic to “test & learn” for a year? Or is there real longevity here? And is this venture currently anybody’s game to lose?

I have some thoughts…