In June, two former Pulse Films creative executives, Marisa Clifford and Davud Karbassioun, officially unveiled their new Magna Studios, a production house that produced film, branded entertainment and music content, and had already quietly delivered global campaigns for Nike and Spotify.
Movie and TV watchers are used to seeing product placement, like Eleven’s Eggo fixation in “Stranger Things” or a bevy of items seen in “Love Island.” But a number of companies are taking a more active hand in how their brands are portrayed in shows and movies and getting into these productions earlier than ever.
They include Starbucks Studios, founded in 2024, REI-Co-Op Studios, which launched 2021, and Red Bull Studios Media House, which released its first feature film in 2011. Last week, Dick’s Sporting Goods launched its in-house production studio for unscripted sports-themed TV series.
These new movie and TV backers do more than pay a fee to place a product in the movie or buy a stand-alone commercial for TV — they’re getting involved in production from the get-go, offering input on script, casting, location and other factors to make sure the project aligns with company values. At times, the brand or brand studio is even offered a producer credit.
This trend marks the further blurring of lines between Hollywood and brands, expanding the role of companies and giving them more control over the content itself. It’s a concept that might have once mortified artists and audiences alike. But with traditional studios filling their slates with more blockbusters and superhero films than documentaries or auteur-driven dramas, these big brands are finding a warmer reception in the entertainment world.
“Thirteen years ago, when I started doing this, Hollywood and the traditional independent film industry, even internationally, was more resistant to the idea of brand-funded films,” Brian Newman, founder of Sub Genre, a consulting firm that guides brand partnerships, told TheWrap.”Whereas today, because the funding sources have been drying up, both in terms of equity investment and funding from streamers and distributors … they have less funding. People are turning to brands more openly.”
For example, multimedia companies like Sugar23 (in partnership with Fifth Season), are getting involved with new brand-focused entertainment divisions to produce movies and TV in partnership with said brands. Sugar23’s new ventures include its partnership with Starbucks Studios, Keanu Reeves and UltraBoom Media for the documentary “Madwoman’s Game.”
REI, a retailer of outdoor adventure clothing and gear, said that its studio would produce films, podcasts and editorial programs that celebrate the outdoors while “complementing the co-op’s broader climate and racial equity, diversity and inclusion commitments.”
Before launching the studio, REI associate-produced (with Public House Films and TBVE) “The Dark Divide,” a feature film about “the healing power of nature” directed by Tom Putnam and starring David Cross and Debra Messing. Productions under the company’s own banner so far fall more into the category of documentary shorts, including 2025’s “The Life We Have,” a life affirming 24-minute film on a man’s battle with Stage Four cancer exhibited at the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado.
Such an approach is radically different from well-known historical product placement deals such as Reese’s Pieces as a snack for E.T. (for which Hershey paid a widely reported $1 million in 1982) or the whopping $45 million reportedly paid by Heineken to appear as a martini alternative in the 2012 Bond film “Skyfall,” which featured a litany of others brands including Omega, Tom Ford and Sony.
A more recent example is this summer’s “F1.” The movie received roughly $40 million in funding from real-life brands by using their logos on the cars, racetracks and uniforms for the movie’s fictional APX-GP racing team, according to USA Today — even while the primary backer was Apple Original Films with distribution handled by Warner Bros.
Speaking of Apple, the tech company has its own list of do’s and don’ts for its entertainment division — you’ll never see a villain in an Apple film or TV show using an iPhone, for example.
Change of tone
Though the concept of inviting brand marketers into the creative process may seem cringe-y from an artist’s point of view, Hollywood is not apologizing for inviting even more brand influence into feature film and TV content than is already there.
As one producer told TheWrap: “Traditional Hollywood studios have notes all the time that writers don’t always love, but in this case they know what they’re in for … Brands are the benevolent enabler of that.”
L.A.-based actor and filmmaker Denzel Whitaker (best known for his role as James/Young Zuri in 2018’s “Black Panther”), would agree with that statement.
“As creatives, usually our biggest challenge is figuring out how to finance our journey,” the 35-year-old told TheWrap. “So if there is a corporate entity coming in saying, ‘Hey, we would love to finance that idea and we have this IP we would love to bring to the table and give you a shot at it,’ I don’t see anything wrong with that. I see immense value in that.
“When you want to sign to the major league, you got to play ball, do the interviews, wear the T-shirt, be part of the marketing,” he added. “If you are an artsy person who is passionate about their film and doesn’t want any sort of corporate input … you just might have to find alternate sources to fund your project.”
Not everyone sees anything new in this phase in the branding game.
Just ask UCLA lecturer and veteran producer Tom Nunan (“Crash,” “The Illusionist”). “It’s cyclical … It comes around every 10 or 20 years, and geniuses think I can do this better than Madison Avenue,” Nunan said. “And the deals that result from it are often few and far between.”
Nunan, founder and partner of Bull’s Eye Studios, said he started the studio with the idea of doing brand-oriented programming that would hit with advertisers, but found it too complicated to try to coordinate a show or movie’s story with a company’s own advertising and marketing campaigns. He pivoted back to more traditional script development and never looked back.
Sugar23 co-founder and CEO Michael Sugar would disagree with Nunan. He told TheWrap that the company’s new studio partnerships would serve to “build new bridges between advertisers and audiences.”
Sugar added that, at least in the streaming sphere, having brands ally themselves with the actual content in a “nuanced” way can allow them to connect brands with audiences that are increasingly resistant to traditional ads breaking into their entertainment experience.
He also pointed out that while buying an ad on a TV show gives a company 30 seconds of a viewer’s attention, a branded film or series allows for at least a half-hour of exposure to content that elevates the brand.
“Where I believe the evolution is going is that brands are going to enter entertainment the same way that a studio does — early,” Sugar told TheWrap. “What we’re trying to do is bring brands into a position of early authorship and early ownership, so they actually have a chance at a meaningful return on their investment — but more importantly that they have a seat at the table creatively to ensure that the content is really aligned with with their brand ethos.”
Which, according to Sugar and others, looks much different from seeing a Rolex on a vampire or a Microsoft computer in outer space. “We think a show is like a stadium,” he said. “It’ll look like Crypto.com Arena — the game is in the stadium, but LeBron James isn’t saying ‘buy Crypto’ every time he shoots a free throw.”
The funding gap
A key word here is “investment,” according to Sugar. Brand dollars might help fill the funding gap in a shrinking Hollywood. “The industry is in crisis, anyone who says otherwise is not paying attention,” he said. “Why we’re seeing this momentum is that mostly it’s a solution.”
Sugar declined to say who’s talking to Sugar23 about new projects due to NDA contracts, but insists that some big names are committing to brands. Naturally the bigger the name, the more likely that name will retain more creative control if the brand in question is wise enough to realize that that team’s creativity is more likely to bring eyes to the company than overt product placement would.
“Big stars recognize that the industry is broken,” he continued. A brand, he said, “is a partner to spend real dollars on marketing where the studio doesn’t.”
Big stars recognize the industry is broken.
-Michael Sugar
Sugar said that while he cannot reveal details of upcoming projects, “There has been no pushback from anybody” in terms of the artistic process. “The kind of stuff coming from us in the next few months is going to be very eye-opening in terms of the level of talent that’s involved,” he added.
Karbassioun of the new Magna Studios expressed a similar view. In what the company calls a “talent-first media model,” it has recently been joined by “Brutalist” director Brady Corbet and its roster of filmmakers includes Oscar Hudson, James Marsh and Sam Pilling.
“I think that’s the reality, with multi-screens and ad blockers, people are turning away from ads, and advertisers are desperate to find new ways to engage with their audiences,” Karbassioun told TheWrap. “It’s not a new conversation, but it’s one that I think is gaining momentum and maturity from the brands. That’s why we’re seeing this shifting right now.”
Corbet in June made a stir at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity by revealing that the financial realities of working on his Oscar-nominated film “The Brutalist” meant working “for less than minimum wage.” So far the director has not announced any feature film projects backed by Magna but is working on ad campaigns with the company.
Still, there’s an older school of thought that building scripts around popular IP is more effective than relying on a branded studio name.
“The most successful collaboration between a brand and Hollywood has of course been Barbie,” Nunan said. “She was a singular figure in our pop culture, that doll.”
He cited Mattel’s smart move in allowing director Greta Gerwig freedom to play with Barbie’s image, including making fun of Mattel. Gerwig’s insolent take on the brand did not stop sales of the doll from jumping 14% after the movie came out.
Nunan expressed skepticism of the benefits of the more nebulous connection between a company and a positive message and noted that sometimes brand marketing is just lightning in a bottle. Producers of HBO’s hit series “The White Lotus” has used Four Seasons’ lavish resort properties to stand in for the fictional White Lotus hotels.
“Four Seasons isn’t writing HBO checks, or vice versa, and Four Seasons has nothing to do with the production of the show,” Nunan said. “However, both parties are benefiting from it. People are going on ‘White Lotus’ vacations now.”
Unlike Nunan, however, filmmaker Whitaker said he would indeed be influenced by a, say, REI Studios or Starbucks Studios credit on a positive film, even if it had nothing to do with the company’s products. He finds that idea less offensive than old-school product placement that might ask a filmmaker to shoot a coffee cup like a commercial.
“Maybe a car company gets behind a movie that has nothing to do with cars but they’re showcasing these beautiful travel destinations,” Whitaker said. “I’m going to be like, man, that was really cool of them to get behind that. And they didn’t throw it in my face … I’d think it was really dope of them to be selfless and make something that they just enjoy.”
