Branded vertical drama is new enough that there's no standard shape to the deal yet, and no industry shorthand to fall back on. So rather than argue the case for it, here's the plain version of what a commission involves. What gets made, who holds what, how it reaches people, and what comes back at the end.
What gets made
What gets made is a series. Somewhere between twenty and eighty episodes depending on budget and story, each of them roughly sixty to ninety seconds, shot vertical and built to be watched on a phone one after the other. Every episode ends on a hook so the next one gets opened. It's a full production. Script, cast, crew, edit, grade, sound. All of it compressed into a format that runs faster and cheaper than anything television would recognise.
The assets around it
Around the series, sits all the supporting media assets. Trailers, teasers, cutdowns, stills, behind-the-scenes footage, character clips. It's all made vertical from the start, so nothing needs reformatting after the fact, and a single commission tends to produce way more usable material than the campaign it was budgeted against.
Rights
On rights, the structure we work with is that we own the underlying IP and licence it to the brand. The licence is where the detail lives: exclusive use for an agreed term, category exclusivity so a competitor can't appear in the same world, and the right to run the episodes and cutdowns across the brand's own platforms and paid media. We carry production, rights administration and the ongoing life of the show. If a series performs beyond expectation, a second season is on the table and the original brand sits in first position on it.
Reach
Reach is the part that works differently to a media buy. A series doesn't arrive with a guaranteed impression count attached. It accumulates an audience episode by episode, which means distribution has to be designed in from the start rather than bolted on. In practice that's platform placement, paid discovery to open the series, the trailer and cutdowns working across social, and a hook structure built to survive the first three seconds. Track record counts for a lot here, and it's a reasonable thing to interrogate: ask anyone pitching a series what their last few did, where the drop-offs were, and what they changed as a result.
What comes back
What comes back is unusually detailed. Retention by episode, where people stopped, which episode got binged, what the comments said, which character carried the show. It arrives as a byproduct of the production rather than as a separate research line, and it's specific enough to be useful the next time round.
Timelines
Timelines run in weeks rather than the months a traditional campaign takes. Scripting is the slow part. Shooting is quick, post is quick, so once the story's locked everything after it moves quickly.
How involved the brand gets
The working relationship sits somewhere between a production and a campaign. The world, the tone and where the brand honestly belongs in it get agreed up front, and from there it's a writers' room and a shoot schedule. There's no fixed template for how involved a brand wants to be in that. Some want to sit in on story, some want the scripts when they're ready. It's worth settling early, because it shapes the timeline more than anything else does. Episodes, assets, a licence, distribution and data. That's the deliverable.
?Frequently asked
How many episodes are in a branded vertical drama?
Somewhere between twenty and eighty depending on budget and story, each of them roughly sixty to ninety seconds, shot vertical and built to be watched one after the other.
Who owns the intellectual property in a branded series?
The structure we work with is that we own the underlying IP and licence it to the brand. The licence covers exclusive use for an agreed term, category exclusivity so a competitor cannot appear in the same world, and the right to run the episodes and cutdowns across the brand's own platforms and paid media.
What other assets come with the series?
Trailers, teasers, cutdowns, stills, behind-the-scenes footage and character clips. All of it is made vertical from the start, so nothing needs reformatting after the fact, and a single commission tends to produce more usable material than the campaign it was budgeted against.
How is reach different from a media buy?
A series does not arrive with a guaranteed impression count attached. It accumulates an audience episode by episode, which means distribution has to be designed in from the start rather than bolted on: platform placement, paid discovery to open the series, trailers and cutdowns across social, and a hook built to survive the first three seconds.
What reporting do you get back?
Retention by episode, where people stopped, which episode got binged, what the comments said and which character carried the show. It arrives as a byproduct of the production rather than as a separate research line.
How long does it take?
Weeks rather than the months a traditional campaign takes. Scripting is the slow part. Shooting and post are quick, so once the story is locked everything after it moves quickly.