Why Connor McRae Believes TV Isn't Dead

Connor McRae is the head of branded entertainment at Lemonade Labs, where he concentrates on developing long-form entertainment, streamer series, linear one-off docs, and social-first formats, helping brands wishing to expand beyond traditional campaigns.

His TV development career initially began in unscripted TV, before shifting attention to branded entertainment, and developing ideas for major international brands including Red Bull, L'Oréal, Sprite and Benenden Health. His experience spans a wide range of platforms, from linear broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Channel 5) to streamers (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video), and social platforms.

TV isn’t dead - it’s actually having a rebirth, but brands are missing out on monumental opportunities by treating branded entertainment like an extended 30-second ad rather than a genuine TV show.

People need to fundamentally reframe what they think of as ‘TV’ and ‘branded entertainment’. TV is no longer just four linear channels all featuring Alison Hammond. Sure, it is still partly that (and only endless love for Alison Hammond), but it’s also so much more.TV encompasses streamers, FAST channels, and for many, YouTube too. If you shift your thinking to TV encompassing every piece of content accessible from a screen, you realise TV isn’t going, going, gone… It's absolutely cataclysmic right now.

My background is developing unscripted TV shows for broadcasters and streamers. In recent years I shifted towards developing documentaries, social-first formats and large-scale entertainment shows for brands. I absolutely love telly, but it pains me to see missed opportunities when it comes to branded entertainment. I want to see brands funding truly gripping, captivating formats rather than reverting to painful product placements.

This matters to the wider industry because it’s no longer a question of advertising or entertainment. The most forward-thinking brands are finding ways for the two to work together, combining the reach of traditional campaigns with the deeper engagement that entertainment can create.

Take the biggest unscripted hit of recent times - The Traitors. Over 11 million people tuned in to the most recent celeb finale. There is no reason a brand couldn’t be responsible for aligning with, developing, and producing a reality format as universally resonant, as delicious, or as captivating as The Traitors, on another channel/streamer, or even their own brand channels.

That should be the ambition and potential for branded entertainment.

This continues to be an issue because creative agencies and brands won’t get to that point without accepting assistance from elsewhere. Agencies are absolute masters at crafting fantastic ad campaigns (something I can’t do), but TV development is an entirely different kettle of fish. Pacing a 30-60-minute entertainment format, building narrative arcs, and holding an audience’s attention for that long requires a completely different muscle memory than expertly perfecting a 30-second spot.

I’m not suggesting one is better than another - but I am explicitly outlining that they are two entirely separate specialisms. In-house creatives shouldn’t be tasked with developing entertainment formats, in the same way that TV development folk most likely couldn’t craft a decent TVC.

If we all want brands to succeed (because when the brands succeed, we all do) we need to stop shoehorning brand lines or product shots into mediocre content, and start focussing on subtle alignment with truly fantastic entertainment. In order to do that, we need brilliant ideas born from a deep understanding of television mechanics… the heartland of entertainment.

Stop trying to make a longer ad, start asking, “How do we make a great TV show?” (you may freely interchange ‘TV show’ with ‘interview series’ / ‘social format’ / ‘vodcast’ / ‘vertical drama’ / ‘piece of branded entertainment’ here)

The first steps to this are collaboration. Brands and creative agencies must be willing to engage with TV development experts who have the know-how. We all want the same thing here: to reach audiences and for the content we put out to be noticed and remembered. We need to bridge the gap between our disciplines. Help us to understand your client and strategic goals (your undeniable and irrefutable area of expertise), and we’ll develop genuinely entertaining content around that. Engaged audience = happy client.

I will forever cite Waitrose Dish from Cold Glass Productions as a prime example here. While it might not be traditional TV content, it is truly fantastic, gripping entertainment that perfectly aligns a brand with an engaged audience without being heavy-handed. See also: Cooking With The Stars on ITV and Cancer Detectives on Channel 4. All shows / pieces of content / entertainment which could standalone without brand involvement; but that brand incorporation is not only justified, but warranted and supports the editorial.

Lemonade Labs will be hosting a panel talk - Brands Entertain Me! - to mark our launch into the industry on May 27th, featuring Channel 4, Elvis London, and Cold Glass Productions on our line-up. We'll be digging into exactly this shift.

The future of branded entertainment isn’t more branding - it’s entertainment.