​Over the past couple years, we have witnessed the rise of the branded content studio. There’s never been more diversions or options or entertainment platforms, but that hasn’t stopped brands from seeing success in the arena.

Marc Battaglia, executive creative director, Marriott and Kwame Taylor-Hayford, managing director, Chobani joined Los Angeles Times corporate media reporter Meg James for a conversation about this growing trend and its future.

Taylor-Hayford came from an agency background, but when he left to join Chobani, he quickly learned the benefits. When attached to the company, you learn insights from manufacturing, the supply chain, the consumers and can apply those creatively to the brand, he said.

“Nobody knows what we need more than we do,” said Taylor-Hayford.

Three years ago, when the Marriott hotel chain and its 30 international brands created Studio Marriott, they had a mantra.

“Let’s stop interrupting what people are into, and become what they are interested in,” said Battaglia. “Advertising is an interruption of your shows, your life. Let’s start creating our own content, publishing our own content, that we know our consumers are interested in.”

That means digital publishing, real-time marketing, original content, travel documentaries, influencer series’ and TV shows, all attempts to create a closer connection to consumers.

“People don’t care where good stories comes from,” said Battaglia. Whether it’s Red Bull or HBO that makes a cool documentary, it doesn’t matter anymore, he believes.

Right now, Studio Marriott is three or four people with laptops on a couch.

“We’re small and mighty,” said Battaglia. “We live and breathe those brands everyday, pitching all day long. We understand what they’re looking for, their nuances. Once ideation takes place, we go and find the right partner to execute.”

Taylor-Hayford believes a hybrid model of agency and brand studio is still necessary.

“We have partnerships with really great agencies [to help] where were deficient or don’t have enough of a need to build an expertise,” said Taylor-Hayford. “This hybrid nature will continue for quite awhile until it makes more business, creative sense to bring in-house.”

It certainly seems to be trending in-house, however.

“Given the rapid evolution in the way we operate and collaborate, it is hard to account for when you’re not inside the four walls of the brand,” said Taylor-Hayford.

The hope for both companies is to create their own IP, and build up their library over time.

To do so, Studio Marriott is platform agnostic, looking into a little bit of everything, but identify the potential of VR technology as perfect for their brand, and look forward to live-streaming 360 VR as part of their portfolio.

But it always comes back to story.

“You can get really caught up in the platforms, and as a storyteller you want to know the nuances,” said Battaglia. “But a great story lives beyond the platforms. Platforms are going to come and go. A great story goes beyond that. A dud is a dud whether it’s a Snapisode or a movie.”

“Content can and should live on multiple platforms,” said Taylor-Hayford. “We’re getting much better about understanding their motivations and how to best engage them in every platform. You can do very different things on Snapchat versus Instagram. How do we take those insights, bake those into the core of the ideas, so they are organic?”

Sometimes that doesn’t happen, and Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner snafu came up as an example of branded content gone wrong.

“I think there were way too many chefs in the kitchen,” said Battaglia. “Any time you’re tackling social issues, a) it’s a sensitive area. You have to really think it through. But b) you should never make your brand the solution to the problem or the hero. When a can of Pepsi became the solution….really? It’s that easy?”

“They tried to do something good, but clearly it did not translate,” said Taylor-Hayford. “It was a missed opportunity to have people with a different point of view in the room as part of the creative process. It’s easy to get stuck in an echo chamber. If you want to do what’s right, it’s important to get a different perspective and let that inform the direction. You need authenticity, especially if you’re going to tackle a social issue.”

Cause advertising is in vogue, and while Taylor-Hayford thinks it will eventually fall out of favor, “companies and brands that truly believe or stand with those principles will never move away from them.”

“Brands have an important role to play moving forward with social issues,” he said.

Battaglia echoed the sentiment.

“We have positions on travel, there are current affairs on travel, and we have opinions and positions,” said Battaglia. “As a content creator, let’s empower the story with real people with real stories to tell. Go down the documentary approach rather than trying to create a fictitious world.”

Marriott hopes this approach will build up their loyalty programs.

”[Loyalty programs are] our fuel, the lifeline of the company,” said Battaglia. “Our number-one goal is to grow.”

The 80-plus million people that are a part of Marriott loyalty programs serve as the brands’ built-in audience.

”With YouTube channels, in-room channels, consumers checking phones everyday, we can push content out, just like any media company, that is relevant to what they’re doing at that moment or what they’re looking for,” said Battaglia. “It’s not about talking about the properties of the hotels, it’s about the experience of travel.”

Chobani, Marriott and branded content studios have traveled a long way, but where do they go from here?

“We are a food-focused wellness brand that uses food as a force for good,” said Taylor-Hayford. “Having creativity at the core of marketing and our company will help us be much more innovative. In finance, it will invent a new way to look at P&L. Over time, creative is going to add a ton of value overall. We will move away from being a cost center in the traditional media game to being an opportunity to build a tight community around our brand.”

“Brand studios have a lot of catching up to do,” said Battaglia. But in the end, it only boils down to one thing.

“Great content is great content no matter who’s producing,” he said.

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