Major brands are increasingly adopting Hollywood-style storytelling, launching in-house studios and commissioning films, series and other entertainment to reach audiences whose viewing habits have fragmented. The shift matters because it creates a growing source of work and funding for production companies during a wider slowdown in US film and television production, while also blurring the traditional boundary between advertising and entertainment.

Producer Brian Grazer says this approach began for Imagine Entertainment with Nat Geo’s Breakthrough, developed with General Electric as a producing partner rather than as a conventional advert. Imagine Brands has since worked with Nike, Ford and Coca-Cola, and is developing undisclosed projects with SpaceX; other industry figures say traditional television campaigns have become less effective and live sport is increasingly expensive, encouraging brands to seek deeper, more shareable content.