Can you discuss any recent or upcoming projects that you are focusing on?

We are focusing on several projects at the moment and the interesting thing about branded entertainment is that each project is different – nothing is ever the same! We are working on various projects: for the Riyahd metro, for a big frozen goods brand, on neuroscience in relation to sports champions, and another one is a movie/documentary for a high-end hotel chain. In the territories, the first season of Hairstyle from Shine Iberia performed well and landed in five countries, and this is always a good basis for further discussions; the second season of Maitre Chocolatier from Banijay Italy is in the works; and Electric Robin’s The World Cook season 2 is available on Prime Video.

With the rise of digital platforms, how has the landscape of branded entertainment changed?

We know that the total media spend worldwide reached $897.26 billion for 2023, with digital spend making up a significant portion of this. With digital advertising spend worldwide set to hit $836 billion by 2026, companies everywhere, big and small, are pouring their resources into ever-expanding marketing efforts. The ongoing challenge is how to meet every customer on their channels, at the right time, and with a personalised approach. Branded entertainment is not tied to the rules of traditional TV. Digital can sometimes be the best choice for brands who want to reach specific target audiences and see a better return on investment. The other advantage is that content on digital is not tied to slots; we can think about different durations, number of eps, how they’re dropped… this is a definite advantage when working with brands. Source

Could you share insights into the latest trends or innovations that have caught your attention?

Innovation will come from brands that push boundaries and catch consumers’ attention by getting really creative with visuals, sounds, video, and motion design. According to Veda Partalo, Former VP, Global Head of Marketing at Spotify and current Artlist board member, “Brands are approaching 2024 with two polarising needs — the need to innovate and push boundaries (largely driven by AI) and with the need to balance their risk-taking and keep their brand safe and stable in the long-run (driven by recent press). How brands balance these two opposing trends will depend on the creators they collaborate with and the worlds those collaborations open up.” Authenticity and personalisation are paramount.

How do you see the future of branded entertainment evolving and are there any key challenges you’ve encountered?

At the moment, branded entertainment is in a state of chaos: no real rules, no widely-accepted and recognised way of measuring success, and very little clarity on what constitutes branded entertainment. There is also internal competition between editorial and commercial teams, extreme fragmentation of talent and content, as well as competition, mainly due to the multiple and varying originators of creativity and content.

As the Chair of Banijay Elle, have you observed any noteworthy initiatives within the industry aimed at boosting gender diversity and representation?

AllBright is doing a great job in supporting and bringing women together, from leadership development programmes to exclusive workshops and networking events. For International Women’s Day, we also partnered with WAWA and Parrot Analytics to offer valuable data insights on the gender gap within our industry and joined forces with Fremantle and All3Media, for the first-ever Women’s Networking event to connect and elevate women in film and TV. It was a great success and I look forward to having more collaborations across our networks.

What is your favourite branded campaign?

That’s a tough choice. There have been many that have changed the way we look at branded entertainment. The Beauty Within series from Dove was a real gamechanger culturally and it is still a great example of how impactful brands can be. One of my favourite is an older campaign from 2013, called The Beauty Inside by Intel/Toshiba. I also had a lot of fun watching Electric Robin’s Live Italian for Birra Moretti.