The new age of Branded Content - brands are no longer just buying entertainment - they’re making it

The common thread is not the platform or even the length of the content. It is the degree to which the brand is prepared to invest itself in the creation of something audiences might actively choose to watch, share or participate in. The growing sophistication of the sector is reflected in the work recognised by the UK Sponsorship Awards’ Best Use of Branded Content category. 2026’s finalists included everything from O2 turning Chabuddy G into the self-styled PR manager of the Red Roses, to Pizza Hut building a three-part Sky Max series around Big Zuu and AJ Tracey. In addition, UKSA saw DHL using music and live performance, Marriott Bonvoy turning its Formula 1 partnership into a talent-led entertainment format, and Shell using AI to allow fans to place themselves alongside Ferrari drivers.

What these campaigns demonstrate is that branded content is no longer simply a way of extending a sponsorship or advertising campaign. Increasingly, it is becoming a way for brands to create their own entertainment propositions - with the most authentic and effective work often starting not with the question ‘where can we put the brand?’ but ‘what can we make that people will want to watch?’

With the 2027 edition of the UK Sponsorship Awards due to launch in a few weeks’ time, here we run the rule over some of the latest trends in branded content.

From sponsorship extension to entertainment proposition

There is still an important relationship between branded content and sponsorship. Several of last year’s finalists used rights partnerships as the starting point, including Marriott Bonvoy with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1, Santander with Formula One and football-focused campaigns from Enterprise, Jameson, M&S and Carlsberg.

But brands are now showing greater ambition in how they build on this sponsorship base. The rights they acquire provide cultural territory, talent, access and audience; but the branded content strategy turns those assets into entertainment.

The best partnerships are where brands help to conceive, fund and create content, building engagement, advocacy and fandom in the process.

Creators are the new production partners

One of the clearest developments is the growing importance of creators. Brands recognise that creators do not simply provide access to an audience; they bring their own formats, tone of voice and understanding of what their communities will watch.

That changes the creative relationship. Instead of taking a conventional campaign and putting a creator into it, brands are giving creators a role in shaping the content itself. That was evident in campaigns such as DP World's ‘Keep Your Cool’, which used Golf Life and the creator ecosystem around the DP World Tour to turn the technical subject of cold-chain logistics into an entertaining sports story. DHL similarly used artists and live performance as the creative vehicle for communicating its purpose.

This part of a paradigm shift towards creator-led entertainment, as younger audiences move between professional media, social video, gaming and creator content rather than treating them as separate worlds. Research into sports audiences, for example, points to a fluid environment in which younger fans move between live broadcasts, highlights, creator-led content, gaming and interactive formats.

There is a key implication for branded content here: creators are not just the messenger. They can help determine what the message is (and how it evolves).

Comedy is a powerful brand language

A striking feature of recent branded content is the continued power of entertainment and humour to make commercial messages feel less like commercial messages.

O2's Cha-Rugby G campaign is an obvious example. Rather than communicating women's rugby through conventional sports marketing, it created a comic character around Chabuddy G and used that device to bring the personalities of the Red Roses into popular culture. M&S took a similar approach with Jack Whitehall, appointing him as the FA's self-styled Health and Nutrition Consultant to deliver a serious message about nutrition, hydration and recovery without turning the campaign into a conventional public-information film.

The lesson is not necessarily that brands should be funny - because there are plenty of scenarios where humour won’t necessarily work (eg, pharma). It is that entertainment can provide a narrative mechanism for communicating something a brand wants to say without drawing overt/intrusive attention to it.

The rise of the social-first series

The old assumption that branded content needs to begin with TV is gone. Some of the most interesting work now starts with the audience’s phone. Social platforms allow brands to build content as a sequence rather than a single hero asset, to respond to audience behaviour and to use creators as both talent and distribution.

That changes the economics and the creative possibilities. Instead of producing one expensive film and cutting it down for social, brands can increasingly design the content around the behaviour of each platform from the beginning.

It also makes seriality more valuable. A recurring character, running joke, episodic story or continuing challenge gives audiences a reason to return - and gives brands more opportunities to build an association over time.

Microdrama: the next branded content laboratory?

Microdrama is moving rapidly from an Asian mobile entertainment phenomenon into Western brand marketing. The format typically uses short, vertical episodes, strong narrative hooks and cliffhangers designed around mobile viewing.

Brands including Maybelline, Crocs, P&G and Marc Jacobs have experimented with the format, while Co-op recently used a four-part microdrama series to turn everyday shopping missions into entertainment distributed across platforms.

The significance for branded content is less about whether every brand should suddenly make a microdrama. It is that the format demonstrates how far the definition of branded entertainment is moving. The brand can be a funder, co-creator, publisher and sometimes part of the fictional world itself. It also points towards a broader development: content is increasingly being designed for the way audiences actually consume media rather than being adapted from traditional media formats.

AI moves from production tool to creative experience

AI is another area where the boundaries of branded content are shifting. Shell's Ferrari and IBM activation, for example, used AI not simply to make content more efficiently but to allow fans to become part of the content itself, generating personalised videos featuring themselves alongside Ferrari drivers. The result was a branded entertainment experience rather than simply another piece of branded video.

AI potentially allows brands to move from producing content for audiences to producing content with them - creating personalised, participatory experiences at a scale that would previously have been difficult to achieve.

The challenge will be ensuring that the technology is serving an idea rather than becoming the idea (an issue that is discussed in most years at the Awards judging). As AI-generated content becomes easier and cheaper to produce, originality, storytelling and audience participation will be even more important differentiators.

From campaigns to worlds

Pulling together all of the above points, it is interesting to note that branded content is becoming less ‘campaign-shaped’. 

A campaign traditionally has a beginning and an end: launch the idea, distribute the assets, generate attention and move on. These days, ambitious branded content strategies are beginning to look more like entertainment ecosystems. A TV series can generate social clips. A creator can extend the story on YouTube and TikTok. A sponsorship can provide access to talent. A live event can become content. A game can become a community. A film can generate a product collaboration. AI can allow audiences to enter the experience themselves.

This creates a content flywheel, in which every element gives the next one something to build on. It also explains why the strongest branded content sits across disciplines. The campaign may originate in sponsorship, but its success depends on production, creators, social, PR, media, talent, technology and community working together.

Closing thought: The brand has to earn its place in the story

For all the technological and format changes, the fundamental challenge remains the same as it has always been. People do not watch branded content because a brand has paid for it. They watch because the content gives them something: entertainment, information, emotion, access, participation or a reason to share it.

That is why the strongest examples in this year’s entries start with a clear audience proposition. O2 used comedy and personality to broaden interest in women's rugby. Pizza Hut used music, friendship and food to create an entertainment proposition for younger audiences. DHL used artists and community impact to deliver a human dimension. Shell gave F1 fans the opportunity to put themselves into the Ferrari story.

The next generation of branded content will push that principle further. Whether it is a TV series, a creator franchise, a microdrama, a game, an AI-powered experience or something that does not yet have a name, the question for brands will remain the same: is this something people would engage with if the brand had not paid for it? 

Increasingly, the answer may be yes. And that is what makes branded content one of the fastest-moving and most creatively interesting areas of sponsorship and marketing.

Branded Content has grown into a major part of the UK Sponsorship Awards. Why not check out the website and see if your work is eligible to enter?