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Miniseries to the Max: How Story-Driven Branding Moves Culture
More bang for the buck plus engagement galore
Here’s a truism of 2026 marketing: Story-driven entertainment beats hard-sell shilling, hands down. And please, make it bite sized for young dopamine-driven, short-attention-span audiences who live to binge watch and love to clip and share.
Branded entertainment, the OG version, has a solid track record. But it was due for a modern day glow-up. Enter the vertical miniseries, scripted content that has exploded in popularity, partly because it’s tailor made for thumb scrolling. Some of its more addictive offshoots include soapy microdramas and romantasies.
For marketers, there’s no shortage of pluses for this format. Production budgets can be lower than old-school ads, between $100,000 and $350,000 for 60 to 90 minutes of content, per estimates. Bang for buck is greater and guardrails are looser. Plus: engagement galore.
“Traditional advertising can guarantee reach, but it doesn’t build true interest,” Quynh Dang, vice president of brand marketing at Away, told Muse. “Branded entertainment is slower and less predictable. But when it works, it creates a meaningful connection.”
Social platforms seem to be as enamored as marketers are, with TikTok and Meta making it easier for brands to launch and monetize their mini-shows. It’s also becoming simpler for consumers to find the content, even amid the ongoing deluge of choices.
It’s no wonder, then, that the list of brands wading into episodic series is growing longer, unleashing an eclectic mix of genres and styles. Everyone from restaurant chain Cava (testing out food compatibility in a dating show) and shoe maker Crocs (“Charmed to Meet You,” “Deja Shoe”) to retailers like JCPenney (with a five-episode hit telenovela boasting 5.6 million fans) are taking their shots. So are Maybelline, Procter & Gamble and Marc Jacobs.
In the last few months alone, Cuisinart paired a modern-day home cook with a “starving artist” from the baroque period in a time-travel comedy, and Bonobos turned Jack Quaid into a weekday warrior in a cheeky faux workplace sitcom. Keep reading for the appropriately snacky profiles of some current standouts in the space.
‘Roomies,’ Bilt
Creators are promising “even more complex relationship dynamics and real-life experiences,” along with the first holiday-centric episodes for the upcoming third season of the Webby-winning sitcom, according to Cyrus Ferguson, Bilt’s senior content director and co-showrunner. The subtle brand integration will continue (think Easter eggs, not product placement). Cumulative views have passed 35 million, with no paid promotion, for the in-house created series, which had its second season premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. While envisioned as “a TV show but for TikTok,” the brand isn’t ruling out bigger screens. “Our ambitions for worldbuilding are expansive,” Ferguson told Muse. “While our primary focus is still to make the internet’s best short-form show on our own terms, if the right partnership comes along, we’d be excited to expand the Roomies-verse.”
‘Actually Away,’ Away
For a brand that dropped a coffee table book before its first luggage product, Away has unsurprisingly embraced the digital miniseries as the latest tactic in its unconventional outreach. Its eight-episode romcom, with a tinge of mystery, is based on a real consumer tale and shot in Grand Central Station. The goal was to “approach the storytelling in a high quality, cinematic way, while still feeling very familiar and relatable,” Dang said.
Reaction has been immediate. “Our community is telling us the series ‘changed their brain chemistry,’” Dang said. So far, it’s garnered more than 2 million impressions, with engagement up 93 percent and watch time skyrocketing 457 percent YOY. Away plans to dramatize more real-world stories for carousels, short films and multi-episode series. “In a world where AI can replicate almost any image or aesthetic, lived experience becomes the thing truly worth celebrating and preserving.”
‘Nine Innings to Love,’ Chicago Cubs
Fans meet cute at the ballpark every summer, including at the general admission Budweiser Bleachers at Wrigley Field. Why not capitalize on this naturally occurring phenomenon with a romcom inspired by real-life encounters? That was the thinking from the in-house creative arm of the Chicago Cubs, which may be the first pro sports franchise to capitalize on microdramas. The result is a 17-episode series that unfolds over the course of one eventful baseball game. And for added BookTok appeal, one of the protagonists is a romantasy writer. Sparks fly, paving the way for new chapters.
@cubs Episode 1 | Nine Innings to Love #9ITL #booktok #romance #verticals #chicago ♬ original sound – Cubs
‘Family Blend,’ Lavazza
Mainstream audiences already know via Super Bowl ads and TikTok posts that Martin Scorsese and his daughter Francesca are a charming pair. They’re back together in a five-part miniseries for the coffee brand as part of its “Pleasure Makes Us Human” campaign. The episodes, which premiered this fall with Francesca as director, aim to paint coffee as not just a beverage, but “a cultural gesture that spans generations” and serves as a “meeting point for creativity and identity,” per Lavazza CMO Carlo Colpo. Follow along as the Scorseses visit locations in New York that are meaningful to their history, eavesdropping on their affectionate banter. Jason Biggs and Adrien Brody make cameos.
‘Pit Stop Tonight,’ Toyota
The automaker recruited comedian Kareem Rahma, best known for “Subway Takes” and “Keep the Meter Running,” for a four-part unscripted series. In a loose talk show format, he chats and plays games with Toyota drivers such as Christopher Bell, Jade Avedisian and Chase Briscoe. An admitted Nascar novice, Rahma presides over an intentionally chaotic studio set that’s built in real-time by a professional pit crew. Among the tricks up his sleeve: goading race car royalty Bubba Wallace into making fake commercials and “fueling up” on spicy alligator sushi. Full episodes have dropped on YouTube, where they’ve racked up more than 5 million views, with shorter cuts sprinkled across Toyota’s social channels. Season 2 hasn’t been announced, but the recent Emmy winner has said he’s open for another round of hosting duties.
‘The Bittarverse,’ Alexis Bittar
It’s a hilarious mockumentary, a takedown of the fashion industry, a sharp elbow to elitism and privilege, and so much more. The Webby-winning series is an over-the-top grand dame in the space, which is fitting since its main character is Margeaux Goldrich, an Upper East Side socialite who knows how to rock a statement necklace and torture her devoted assistant.
Famous faces have popped in regularly since its 2023 premiere (Susan Sarandon, Padma Lakshmi, Law Roach). A viral hit out of the gate that shows no signs of slowing, the series is credited with boosting the brand’s sales by 24 percent in the past few years. The designer of this namesake line of jewelry and handbags recently said he’s discussing a potential “Bittarverse” television series for 2027.
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