Branded content and advertiser funded programming
16 July 2025
Create Central Board Member & Chair of One Black Bear, Paul Bramwell, looks at opportunities to monetise content
Channel 4’s Celebrity Send Off with Co-Op Funeralcare
This month Create Central was delighted to host a roundtable discussion on branded content and advertiser funded programming. We gathered a small number of the West Midland’s leading content creators at The Bond in Digbeth. Expertly facilitated by Mission Accomplished’s Alison Grade we covered much ground and viewed contributions and case studies from both ITV and Channel 4.
The discussion is in support of one of Create Central’s key missions to better understand how we, as a region and an industry, can Monetise Content.
Prompted by an acknowledgment that traditional commissioning models for programmes are under strain and full funding from broadcasters is now rare we explored how brands are increasingly integral to content creation — not just as sponsors, but as collaborators or even commissioners.
AFP or Branded Content, as it is now more often called, has been around since the 1930s in Radio and Television, when original daytime dramas in the US were funded by washing powder manufacturers such as Proctor and Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive and the ‘Soap Opera’ has remained with us ever since. Whilst in those early days it was more about the brand being associated as benefactor and so appreciated, now it is a way for brands to incorporate their ‘brand values’, embedded into the content.
This makes it differ from a sponsorship, where the content is largely curated separate from the brand and brand name association is added normally after content creation. Branded content also relies on a degree of editorial independence, so differs from the creation of an advertisement, where a brand, and their agency fully control the narrative and sequencing of messaging for the duration of the ad.
We discussed how audience habits are changing and viewers, especially younger ones, expect instant, multi-platform, interactive content. Even mainstream players like Channel 4 are prioritising YouTube and social-first strategies.
We noted how audiences are increasingly hard to reach with traditional sales messaging and the growth of streaming services and ad-blockers has heightened the need for brands to create content authentically embedded with their values.
A great example of this was evidenced by a case study supplied by Channel 4 with their partnership between Co-op Funeral Care and Celebrity Send-Off.
The value of large audiences delivered on mainstream channels was noted and well evidenced in ITV’s partnership with M&S Food co-funding on prime time ITV1 Cooking With The Stars.
Whilst it was felt that marketers had a reasonable appreciation of the power of developing branded content, we noted that the same may not be true of their procurement colleagues.
We resolved to run more events and roundtable discussions and engage directly with brand marketers, their agencies and procurement teams to guide them through content commissioning and the value and process of branded storytelling.
Thank you to Channel 4 and ITV for supplying thought-provoking case studies.