Ownership, control, margins: the brand playbook for microseries is still taking shape

Brands are testing two routes into creator-led microseries: partnering with an established hit to tap its audience, or building a series around their own brand. The first can offer built-in distribution; the second can cost less but give brands more control. But with ROI hard to pin down, and questions about who owns the IP, neither path is a sure bet. 

That tension surfaced at Advertising Week New York last week, where several panels examined the growing appeal, and uncertain business case, of microseries. These short-form videos, often made for vertical viewing, span genres from comedy and horror to drama and appear on platforms including TikTok, YouTube and subscriptions services dedicated to vertical storytelling. 

Brands are increasingly creating their own or incorporating into existing ones, from jewelry brand Alexis Bittar’s Bittarverse mockumentary featuring fashion icons like Law Roach and Michasel Kors, to SharkNinja products sitting inside the hit comedy microseries Brooklyn Coffee Shop. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More

Social commerce edges past SEO at The Independent for the first time

The Independent’s social-commerce revenue edged past its SEO-based commerce revenue for the first time in September, CEO Christian Broughton said at Digiday’s Media Strategies event in London this week. 

He described the gap as narrow, but said the trend was shifting toward social. 

The company doesn’t publicly break out the figures, so the milestone offers a directional signal rather than a measure of how far social commerce has pulled ahead. But it illustrates the broader shift Broughton argued publishers need to make: build revenue around trusted brands and audiences across platforms, rather than depend on search to bring readers to their websites. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More