Chapter 1
The Four Pillars of Branded Entertainment
What This Chapter Covers
This chapter defines the four core pillars of branded entertainment, explores their historical evolution, and explains why branded entertainment has become indispensable for modern marketers navigating a fragmented media landscape.
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Branded Entertainment Is About Culture, Not Media
Branded entertainment has grown from a niche marketing tactic into one of the most influential forces in modern advertising. While the term itself entered mainstream industry vocabulary in the early to mid 2000s, the practice spans more than a century of cultural history, evolving alongside film, television, and popular media itself.
At its core, branded entertainment allows brands to connect with consumers through the content they actively choose to watch, rather than interrupting them with traditional advertising.
As audiences increasingly avoid commercials, skip ads, and gravitate toward ad-free environments, branded entertainment offers a structural advantage. Brands earn attention by becoming part of the story, not a break from it.​​​​​​​
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The Four Pillars of Branded Entertainment
At BRANDVIEW, our approach to branded entertainment is built around four primary pillars. Each offers a distinct way for brands to integrate into the stories, worlds, and cultural moments audiences care about most.
The four pillars are:​
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Product Placement
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Storyline Integration
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Promotional Partnerships
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Long Form Brand Funded Content
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Each pillar reaches the consumer differently, but all are grounded in the same fundamental truth. Cultural relevance drives business outcomes.
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What Branded Entertainment Includes
Branded entertainment refers to a range of marketing tactics that use entertainment content itself as the platform for brand connection. This includes film, television, digital and social storytelling, and gaming.
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Unlike traditional media buying, branded entertainment operates inside the content ecosystem. Brand objectives are aligned with creative execution and audience engagement, rather than placed around content as interruptions.
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The four pillars below represent the most established and scalable ways brands participate in entertainment.
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Pillar 1: Product Placement
Product placement has become a catch-all phrase, often used to describe any instance where a brand appears on screen. Within the entertainment industry, however, the term has a very specific meaning.
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Product placement refers to the bartered inclusion of a brand’s physical products within the world of a film, television series, or streaming project, without guaranteed exposure.
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In these arrangements, brands provide products to productions either on loan or to be kept for potential on-screen use. Creative teams ultimately determine whether, how, and where a product appears.
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Placements can range widely. A product may appear as background set dressing arranged by a set decorator. It may become a foreground prop handled by a character and managed by the prop master. It may be worn by cast and overseen by the costume department. In some cases, it may be driven or used by a character and coordinated through the transportation department.
Because placement decisions are driven by creative needs and editorial discretion, outcomes can vary dramatically, from fleeting background appearances to moments that become part of a scene’s identity.
This makes product placement the most organic and most unpredictable pillar of branded entertainment.
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Pillar 2: Storyline Integration (aka Paid Placement or Product Integration)
Storyline integration goes beyond passive appearance by making a brand or product an active part of the narrative itself.
In these arrangements, brands are contractually integrated into scenes, dialogue, or character interactions. Exposure is guaranteed, and integrations are typically secured early in the creative process, often during script development.
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Storyline integrations may include principal cast usage, verbal references, narrative relevance, contractual messaging commitments, or broader multi-platform activation tied to a release.
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This pillar offers brands greater control and predictability while still benefiting from the credibility and authenticity of storytelling.
Pillar 3: Promotional Partnerships
Promotional partnerships leverage a film or television property’s intellectual property in exchange for co-promotion across a brand’s marketing ecosystem, allowing brands to ride cultural momentum rather than attempt to manufacture it.
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By aligning brand campaigns with entertainment audiences already love, these partnerships amplify reach, improve memorability, and drive downstream impact, often at retail or point of conversion.
Campaigns typically launch in the weeks leading up to a release and extend through early distribution windows, allowing brands to ride cultural momentum rather than attempt to manufacture it.
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Promotional partnerships leverage a film or television property’s intellectual property in exchange for co-promotion across a brand’s owned and paid marketing channels.
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Rather than appearing inside the content itself, the brand aligns around the content. Characters, themes, or narratives are used to amplify awareness, memorability, and retail impact by tapping into entertainment consumers already care about.
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These partnerships typically start in the weeks leading up to a release and can continue for many weeks, including additional parts of the distribution window.
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Pillar 4: Long-Form Brand-Funded Content
Long-form brand-funded content allows brands to step fully into the role of creator. Brands finance and produce original entertainment designed to solve business objectives while delivering genuine value to audiences.
This pillar gives brands control over narrative, tone, and distribution, enabling them to build cultural relevance without relying on third-party placements or skippable ads. It also enables brands to reach new audiences and deepen brand affinity with new and existing consumers over time.
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While brand-funded entertainment is often viewed as a modern innovation, its roots stretch back decades, long before streaming platforms existed.
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Each of these pillars reaches audiences differently, but all are rooted in the same underlying principle:
Cultural relevance drives business outcomes.
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Now that you understand the four pillars, let's dig into the history of branded entertainment next.
​​​​​​​Why the Four Pillars Matter Now
Today’s media environment is choice-driven, fragmented, and resistant to interruption. The four pillars of branded entertainment provide brands with multiple ways to participate in culture, whether subtly, strategically, or as creators.
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Together, they form the foundation of the modern entertainment marketing ecosystem and the starting point for the rest of The BRANDVIEW Playbook.
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Who This Chapter Is For
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Brand marketers exploring entertainment as a growth channel
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CMOs evaluating alternatives to traditional advertising
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Studios and producers working with brands
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Executives seeking culturally relevant marketing strategies​​
This is Chapter 1 of The BRANDVIEW Playbook. Subscribe to receive future chapters and learn about the history of branded entertainment.​