The Rise of Branded Entertainment 

In the last few years, both the TV and advertising industries have been facing difficult challenges that aligned, including over-saturated audiences, budgetary pressures and threats from AI. But as they both work to find new business models to engage audiences and consumers, the area of branded entertainment appears to be flourishing, in multiple markets.  

The most recent and reliable figures from Statista indicate that global branded entertainment spend—which encompasses product placement, sponsored TV programming, events, and similar activations—continues to rise significantly. In 2024, global product placement revenues alone reached $32.98 billion, up from $29.4 billion in 2023 and reflecting robust double-digit growth rates. And TV still remains the largest product placement channel, accounting for over $20.6 billion in 2023. However, film, digital, music, and video game placements are also growing rapidly.

Interestingly, according to K7 Media, a research and insights agency, it’s the areas of branded entertainment outside traditional product placement that are seeing the most growth and innovation, including brand-funded (advertiser-funded) programming, digital and podcast series and sponsored events. 

Clare Thompson
Non-Executive Director
K7 Media

This year, K7 Media began releasing regular monthly reports on branded entertainment, to keep their clients up to date on all the latest global examples, across multiple TV and digital platforms. According to K7 Media’s Clare Thompson, “specific global industry-wide totals for branded entertainment (combining all branded content forms) are not always directly reported, but we know that it’s considerably higher than the US$100 billion the global branded entertainment industry was valued at in 2017.

“And what’s interesting is that the growth is taking place in different forms in different territories—from fully funded food and travel series on major broadcasters in the UK, to branded vertical dramas in Asia, to purpose-driven feature docs in the US, and sponsored influencer-driven reality series in Italy, Germany and Finland.”

With linear TV advertising budgets under pressure, 2024 was “the biggest year for advertiser-funded programming ever”, according to WPP Media agency Essencemediacom; while digital audio and podcasts are also a growing niche for brand-integrated content.

In Dentsu’s global annual survey of all their brand CMOs last year, it was made clear that ad money is not running out; it’s just that brands are having to think much more carefully and imaginatively about how they spend it to make an impact in a rapidly evolving entertainment landscape.

According to the survey, 88% of CMOs agreed that it is more important than ever for brands to be “a part of culture”, while 78% agreed that “creating entertainment properties is important to their marketing strategy”. As a result, brands are investing in new forms of entertainment and cultural impact, with 31% of the Dentsu CMOs having invested in entertainment platforms and IP, 29% in TV programming, and 18% in music production.

Dentsu’s 2025 CMO report will be out in September, so it will be intriguing to see how those figures have evolved, and where brand CMOs are thinking about investing their money next.

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Catch Dentsu's Chief Strategy Officer, APAC, Clay Schouest, with K7 Media's Clare Thompson, as they discuss the latest developments and global trends in branded entertainment, at the Leaders Dialogue on Dec 2, 2025—exclusively at ATF.