As Social Media Shoots for Long-Form, Should Brands Invest in Creator TV?

Developments like Instagram Features represent attempts to keep this activity within social media environments, retaining both audience attention and the brands that build visibility from it. In the US, 52% of consumers (73% among Gen Z) say social media is their main way to discover new entertainment, but 44% (60% of Gen Z) say they leave the platforms to consume it in full, per Forbes. Social media platforms don’t want to be a discovery funnel — they want to be an entertainment destination and cultural stage.

Branded entertainment beds in

While the early-2020s script of peak influencer marketing is wearing thin for many, the era of creator TV is inspiring a refresh for consumer-brand relations. In North America, 66% of 13 to 29-year-olds say they’re interested in brands creating original films or content series in place of traditional advertising, according to YPulse. Consumers are inviting brands to echo creators’ new direction as cultural arbiters and creative forces, “thinking less in terms of campaigns and individual assets”, says Phillips, “and more about building formats and franchises that can generate cultural equity over time”, and letting the hard sell take a back seat. Lucinda Bounsall, founder of culture-led social strategy agency Sibling Studio, agrees: “Brands don’t become meaningful through isolated moments of visibility. They become meaningful by creating things people recognize, connect with and want to return to.”

These new possibilities will provide particularly fertile ground for fashion marketing, “because the best fashion brands already understand the value of building worlds and narratives, acting like cultural publishers rather than conventional advertisers”, explains Phillips. As brands rush to join the global microdrama boom, many of the most successful branded versions have come from fashion, including Crocs, Marc Jacobs and Banana Republic. Elsewhere, fashion marketing has been experimenting with social media-native storytelling formats for some time: Alexis Bittar, founder of the eponymous jewelry and accessories brand, is a pioneer in using serialized, fictional content in place of traditional marketing via ongoing mockumentary series Bittarverse (launched in 2023) and 2026 true-crime parody The Sexecutions of Amanda Gates. In these shows, fictionalized characters live out sensational micro-dramas wearing the label.