The new place to reach younger audiences is... on Reality TV?

Six women battling it out for the opportunity of a lifetime. Each an entrepreneur talking to investors and pitching their ideas. Everywhere you look stands a camera crew and two presenters, Skims founder Emma Grede and model Ashley Graham. The trailer for the TV show "Side Hustlers" features tears, tirades and tender moments—all the hallmarks of your standard reality TV show, no? Well, not quite. The five-part production was produced by a bank.

Big brands seem to be increasingly looking towards Hollywood for inspiration and opportunity. And it’s not just product placements in major productions, some venturous types want the entire production. Today, we’re breaking down a new trend where banks, tax consultants and cosmetics companies are taking this new approach and if it can work on a smaller scale.

Major productions: as new as sliced bread

The trend of brands branching out to uncharted territory to reach their target groups via video channels is nothing new. In fact, we broke it down at length in our annual State of the German Internet keynote in 2022. So what’s it all about? In recent years, brands have increasingly produced documentaries, some of which are available on the major streaming platforms and which you’ve surely seen. The most prominent example is the Formula 1 production "Drive to Survive" on Netflix, which has almost single-handedly made the racing series popular again stateside. The format is not backed by nor the brainchild of ambitious documentary filmmakers, but by Formula 1 owner Liberty Media.

F1’s success has encouraged classic brands to get in the docutainment game. Neutrogena, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Nike—each of these brands has founded their own studios, whose primary purpose is to produce documentaries. Not extended commercials, but content that revolves around the core themes of the brands. One example: cosmetics company Neutrogena produced the documentary "In the Sun" together with Hollywood star Kerry Washington about seven families and their lives with and in the sun. The aim: to raise awareness of skin cancer - and incidentally for Neutronega products.

Another example is the Procter & Gamble produced "Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker" about the legendary illustrator. It is about his work, which also includes work for P&G, and the influence of his homosexuality on his work. In doing so, Procter & Gamble can tell its own story on the one hand and promote its commitment to the LGBTQ+ target group on the other. The documentary was shortlisted for the Oscars and will be shown on Amazon Prime Video.

The real hype in reality TV

Now the new thing is reality TV. The format has experienced renewed hype in recent years, particularly thanks to globally successful Netflix shows such as "Too Hot to Handle" or "Love is Blind." Many brands now see an opportunity to reach young target groups in particular, who tend to be averse to traditional advertising, with their own productions. And this is currently more likely to work with reality TV than with documentaries about legendary illustrators, as a recent study indicates, where 75% of 18 to 24-year-olds say they watch at least one hour of reality TV per week.

Similar brands with their own studios also produce reality TV in one of two approaches. On the one hand, serious formats, such as "Side Hustlers," which runs as a regular show in the USA on streaming service Roku. On the other hand, there are satirical formats that lean into dating and reality show clichés. A good example of this: the tax consultancy firm H&R Block produces the show "Responsibility Island," which also airs on Roku. Here, the participants are dropped off on a tropical island and everything looks like "Too Hot to Handle." But then they have to complete their tax returns and other ho-hum tasks that come with being an adult. However, this doesn't come as a complete surprise to Zane, Blaze, Jynyphr and Trinity B—they have normal real-life names and are actors.

There are currently many other examples of both approaches, for example from Duolingo (albeit just a trailer), Shopify, Neutrogena and NYX Cosmetics. “Producing a real reality series is not something many brands do,” Zoe Fairbourn, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Branded Entertainment at Hello Sunshine, told Business Insider. The production company, which was incidentally founded by Reese Witherspoon, developed "Side Hustlers" for Ally Bank. "Hopefully, our show shows that brands can have a stronger voice in storytelling formats other than just documentaries."

Keep the story going on social

However, these programs are not only intended to reach people on streaming services. They are often simply intended to provide an endless supply of social media content. Particularly wild excerpts and even entire episodes from Responsibility Island also end up on YouTube and YouTube Shorts, where they commonly generate several thousand views—significantly more than typical videos on H&R Block's YouTube account. Other approaches, such as that of Neutrogena or NYX Cosmetics, were conceived entirely for Tiktok and take aim at typical dating shows on the platform. Neutrogena, for example, has brought former casting show participants and Tiktok stars under one roof for its Hydro House. Some of the clips from the reality satire have notched over 100 million views on Tiktok, while standard Neutrogena content peaks at around 10,000.

Of course, these satire campaigns on Tiktok & Co. are also professionally produced to order to completely copy the reality TV style. Nevertheless, Neutrogena's approach is indicative that massive budgets are not a prerequisite for a brand to jump on the reality bandwagon. Take US media start-up Jubillee, for example, which produces very inexpensive reality and dating formats in warehouses around LA; they’ve gained almost nine million YouTube subscribers as a result and two million on Tiktok. Jubilee now also integrates third-party brands and its own dating app nectar into its dating shows.

Brands are more cautious

Overall, however, the strategy may not suit every brand. Whether satire or a genuine reality format, the often raunchy content of modern and therefore successful dating shows does not suit everyone. This can already be seen in Side Hustlers, where Ally Bank tends to focus on the positive aspects of entrepreneurship and does not want to cause arguments among the participants—the bread and butter of every classic reality TV show.

And even Responsibility Island, which satire though it may be is designed to have as much mass appeal as possible without offending anyone. One character, for example, is genuinely interested in plants, but of course wants nothing to do with any drugs. "We've walk the fine line between entertainment and fun that doesn't go to a point where it could damage the brand,” says Jill Cress, CMO at H&R Block, to Business Insider. “And that is likely to offend classic reality TV fans.”.