Short, serialized video is moving from niche entertainment to marketing gold. Popularized by Chinese minidramas now winning over U.S. audiences, the format is changing how brands slip into the story. Instead of clunky product placement, companies can weave themselves into the plot in ways that feel natural, entertaining, and anything but disruptive.
That’s the view of Colin McRae, an Emmy-winning executive producer and the Founder of CMACMedia. From developing shows under Spike Jonze at VICE to building Shopify Studios, he’s long been at the forefront of content-meets-commerce. Now Director of Content and Strategy at social-first marketing firm Viral Nation, McRae argued the next evolution of media is brands moving beyond viewership metrics to build entire story ecosystems.
McRae says the shift is being powered by the creator economy, where speed and flexibility give brands an edge legacy media can’t match. A movie like Barbie might take a year and a half to hit the screen, but brands can now test ideas, launch content, and grow an audience in just a few months. Real-time data tells them instantly what’s working, letting them double down and scale. That micro-content can become the seed of a full series on Netflix or Hulu at a fraction of the cost. The result is a move away from sponsoring one-off shows and toward co-building entire ecosystems where brands are part of the story itself.
The creator as a mini-studio: McRae sees today’s top creators less as influencers and more as self-contained production houses. "Creators now operate like their own mini-studios. They have the funds to create their own series, fund it themselves, and then monetize it directly, either with a brand partner or by launching their own product," he said.
The AI accelerator: For McRae, the real promise of AI has little to do with writing scripts or generating images. Its power lies in speed and scale. "The key change with AI isn't about content creation; it's about business acceleration. It’s about using AI for scaling an audience, maximizing marketing, and localizing content for global distribution. That's what will allow new creators and brands to scale rapidly," he said.
Of course, the opportunity comes with a major risk: clumsy execution. The line between effective, natural integration and a disruptive ad can be difficult to navigate. McRae pointed to successful examples like Cozy Earth’s "Bed Rot" sleep stream campaign, which felt natural to the content, and contrasted it with intrusive pop-ups that interrupt the viewing experience. The ultimate cause of failure, he argued, is often internal—a dynamic he has seen firsthand.
Death by brand guidelines: "Brands are their own worst enemy. Once the brand executives get involved, they tend to overthink it. Discussions about brand positioning and requirements turn the project into something complex that compromises the user experience. They end up tainting the content to the point where it becomes painful for the audience to watch."
The shift, McRae said, is creating a media landscape with two distinct lanes. On one side, traditional streamers like Netflix still excel at producing massive "spectacle events" like the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, which serve as cultural tentpoles for audience retention. On the other, creator-led platforms like YouTube dominate daily engagement, especially with Gen Z.
Separate lanes: "Netflix can't compete with YouTube on pure scale, which is driven by user-generated content. Netflix's lane is the big, spectacle event. They use tentpole shows for subscriber acquisition and the rest of the library for retention, positioning themselves as a premium destination within the ecosystem rather than trying to encompass all of it."
So far the lanes have stayed distinct, but the industry may already be edging toward convergence. Netflix, for instance, is testing vertical, TikTok-style feeds, a small step that shows it recognizes the value of daily engagement and suggests the boundaries between platforms may be starting to blur.
For brands willing to embrace this model—using micro-content to test ideas quickly, gather real-time feedback, and scale successful stories—the advantages are clear: unprecedented speed, actionable data, and a direct relationship with their audience. Yet those advantages lose much of their power if a core principle is ignored. McRae’s philosophy is rooted in a simple truth often overlooked in the corporate world: audiences want to be entertained.
"A fundamental mistake brands often make is assuming audiences care about them, when in reality, they just want to be entertained," he said. "You have to work backward from the user and prioritize the story above all else. Even with a product as iconic as Barbie, it was the story that people ultimately connected with."
