MAM
Lintertainment to diversify into creatives & endorsements
| MUMBAI: An evolving concept in the media space, which is slowly but steadily gaining momentum in India, is that of branded entertainment. It started with Leo Burnett‘s Leo Entertainment; then came Group M‘s BroadMind (which is by far the biggest player in India). Lintas‘ Lintertainment and Madison Communications‘ MATES followed suit. | |||
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| A year and half old, Lintertainment (a part of Integrated Marketing Action Group of Lintas), like the other players, covers all entertainment aspects by identifying branding opportunities in movies and soaps; brands can thus associate with these products and further their communication messages. | |||
| “At Lintertainment we try to be a one-stop shop solution in the kind of services that we offer. We ensure and facilitate the gains from the synergy between brand and films, right from a media tie up to in-film and in-serial opportunities. At a later stage, we also have plans of diversifying into the creative space and into endorsements. We have covered up media tie ups, in-film and in-serial,” says Lintertainment business head Nitienaa Rao. | |||
While Group M‘s BroadMind will focus primarily on television content, Lintertainment is more skewed towards movies. There are big plans but Rao is not willing to spell them out yet. Lintertainment is currently in the process of giving final touches to a couple of in-film placements for a big banner movie, wherein the brands have been seamlessly woven in with the storyline. Rao says, “Bridging the gap between entertainment and brands has to be well thought of. You can‘t be a mediator or a facilitator. It has to be well ideated and well executed.” That does not mean that Lintertainment will ignore television opportunities. According to her Lintertainment works in sync with other Lintas divisions, among which is Initiative Media. The latter‘s big opportunity came when it wanted to put Maruti Zen as a product placement in Sony‘s popular serial Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi. “Jassi, who hailed from a middle-class family, couldn‘t think beyond an auto or a bus for commuting. A car was a luxury for her and when she was gifted with it, the gamut of emotions – ambition, need, desire and happiness – that Jassi felt was very well portrayed and received. The brand fit was perfect,” Rao says. Presently Lintertainment is working closely working with the Tatas with brands like Tata Tea Gold and Tata Indicom. Apart from that, the agency is also associating with Nerolac, Close Up and a lot of other top line Lever brands. Down South, Jaya TV is partnering with Lintertainment by providing software for the South Indian Cinematographers Awards (SICA), which was scheduled to take place last year, but got postponed because of the Tsunami episode.
The agency recommends ideas to both parties – the brand to the producer and the producer to the brand. “We are involved in the entire process right from the start. Since we are also involved with the brands, we advice them on the investments too and we study the demographics, financials and their need to invest into a product before finalising anything,” says Rao. More and more corporates have started setting aside budgets for branded entertainment. However, the budget allocation differs from brand to brand. “Initially brands were not receptive to entertainment as much as they are now. Since this medium is expanding and evolving and with this space having gained the “industry” status, brands and corporates have started looking at it seriously. The entire package that comes across in the market is a very high valued product because you have a brand which is of repute and you have a film. Obviously, the curiosity and expectation levels from a film increase two-fold,” says Rao. While ideating on branded entertainment and the fit with the brand and the product, the content or the storyboard is important. Within that story, there needs to be a right sequence wherein in-film product placement can take place. “If we are able to come up with the right sequence in the film, then it is great. If not, then we look at post production. There are some brands that want to be involved right from the script level (in-film) to the post production (media tie-ups). It is an entire 360 surround,” she adds. Rao gives the space five years time to reach its peak in India. “I think by 2010 we would have achieved a lot. Earlier we never had digital entertainment or gaming, whereas now both are industries in their own right. Global players are seeing India as a potent market, which can be milked to the fullest. In times to come, entertainment will be evolving at a greater speed,” she opines. As branded entertainment gains momentum, it is likely that traditional media channels will be impacted in the near future. For example: Initially channels weren‘t very receptive to in-serial placement and came down heavily on the production houses when the latter tried to do such things. But over a period of time, they saw it as a great opportunity and also as an alternate source of revenue. Another strategy that the channels devised was that in tandem with the brand spend, in-serial was given as a value add. That‘s what Sony has been doing. Star Plus was not receptive to it initially but has started doing it now and is not averse to the idea. “I think traditional media will be impacted but not aversely. No sensible and wise entrepreneur would like to let go of an opportunity that will give added revenues and which will also heighten the scope of opening up other avenues,” Rao says. The branded entertainment market is very minuscule right now, but is set for growth. “The branded entertainment market has grown 20 per cent from what it was last year. If a channel is receptive in terms of software, a lot can be done via branded content and the right kind of ad spends from the brand‘s side,” Rao says. Agencies are now monitoring the viewing pattern of the audience in terms of commercials and there is a lot of research taking place. Understanding how branded entertainment can be leveraged and utilised and also understanding the mechanism behind it, is what will take this space forward. “Brand entertainment has more to do with furthering your communication and riding on the success of the product and its creative ideas. They both compliment each other. Brands have taken a step forward from moving away from conventional form of advertising to integrate themselves with non-conventional advertising,” Rao says. The fact remains that branded entertainment is at a very nascent stage in India. It has more to do with furthering one‘s communication and riding on the success of the product. “At this point in time, we can‘t say that we are at par with Hollywood. Much more effort is needed. But we are adopting to the change. We are also learning and that is very important,” Rao concludes. Also read: | |||
The biggest conversations in entertainment usually revolve around scale. Bigger launches, bigger stars, bigger production budgets, bigger platform strategies. Yet one of the clearest signs of market maturity shows up somewhere much smaller. It’s in the words they use every day: title cards, app menus, summaries, promotional descriptions, and push notifications. If all content sounds the same, the line blurs before they even click play.
It’s becoming more apparent as global platforms compete against regional ones in a world that’s increasingly multilingual and mobile-first. A team can spend hours crafting a content slate, but then rush to get the announcing copy out to the world. In a frenzied world like that, a grammar checker can be a lifeline in weeding out bad writing, awkward structure, and unwanted mistakes in content that’s going to be displayed on platforms, banners, and notifications.
The era of generic entertainment language
A strange sameness has crept into digital entertainment. Too many shows are described with the same flat phrases. Too many thrillers are called gripping. Too many dramas are labeled emotional. Too many reality formats are described as exciting journeys. The words may be completely right, yet they don’t stick in the reader’s mind.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that individuals take in material at an unprecedented rate. They are not meeting content through a critic’s essay or a full trailer every time. Often they meet it through a few words on a screen. Those words are doing more work than many teams admit.
Words have become a part of the user experience in a cluttered streaming world. They set the mood, build anticipation, help people make choices, and show them if something fits with their way of thinking, their style, or their daily life. If the writing isn’t very good, the platform itself can start to feel like it’s not very good.
That is a bigger issue than simple copy fatigue. If every title is presented in the same voice, brands begin to blur together. The audience may still watch, but the platform stops building a distinct editorial identity.
Why platform voice now matters more than ever
Entertainment companies used to rely heavily on channel identity, release schedules, or star power to define themselves. Those signals still matter, though the digital environment has changed how users experience them. A streaming app is a living product. People move through it quickly, often alone, often late at night, often half-distracted. They encounter dozens of pieces of micro-copy in a single session.
That makes voice consistency more important than many product teams expect.
A platform that sounds sharp, clear, and culturally aware feels more premium. A platform that sounds overproduced, vague, or repetitive feels less alive. This is especially true in markets where viewers move easily between local television, global streaming, short video, sports, and social media. The standard for attention is high, and bland wording rarely survives first contact.
The strongest media brands tend to understand a subtle truth. Good copy is not only about selling a show. It is about shaping the personality of the service itself.
This happens through many small choices:
● how drama is framed versus comedy
● whether youth content sounds natural or forced
● whether mobile notifications feel urgent or annoying
● whether homepage descriptions carry rhythm or read like database entries
● whether language changes intelligently across regions and devices
These details may seem minor in isolation. Together, they define how a platform feels.
The cost of speed in modern content operations
One reason entertainment language becomes repetitive is simple pressure. Media teams are under constant demand to move faster. There’s more content to create, more spaces to fill, more regions to cater to, and more forms to accommodate. What once might have been a single piece of copy can become a complex network of related content within app stores, smart TV interfaces, social media, push notifications, email marketing, and ad-supported spaces.
Under that pressure, safe language becomes tempting.
Safe language is quick. It passes review. It offends no one. It can be reused across genres with minor edits. The problem is that safe language is often forgettable. It tells viewers what category a title belongs to, yet does little to communicate why anyone should care.
This is where media teams face a real strategic choice. They can keep treating copy as a production step, or they can see it as part of audience experience design.
That second view changes the workflow. It encourages stronger editorial direction, clearer brand vocabulary, and tighter review processes. It also creates room for experimentation. A show summary does not need to sound like a press release. A release alert does not need to sound like a machine-generated reminder. There is space for specificity, texture, and voice, even within short-form platform language.
Multilingual markets reveal the problem faster
This is especially the case in a market where there are a variety of languages and a complex identity for the audiences. A text that reads well in one language can sound clunky in another. A translation can preserve meaning while losing energy. A tagline built for desktop can fall apart on mobile. A youth-oriented campaign may become overly formal when localized too literally.
That is why the best media writing in multilingual environments depends on adaptation rather than simple conversion.
The goal is to preserve intent, tone, and audience fit across versions. That takes editorial judgment. It requires people who understand how entertainment language behaves in real life, not only in style guides.
Some of the most common problems appear in places audiences notice immediately:
● subtitles that are grammatically fine but emotionally flat
● app descriptions that sound translated rather than written
● genre labels that fail to reflect local viewing habits
● promotions that use the same vocabulary across very different titles
When these weaknesses accumulate, viewers may not consciously analyze them. They simply sense that the platform feels distant or mechanical.
The hidden power of better wording
There is a reason sharp writing continues to matter even in a highly visual medium. Before viewers commit time, language gives them a frame. It tells them what kind of experience awaits. It reduces uncertainty. It can even create an appetite.
This is valuable, and it is valuable in a somewhat nebulous way. Well-crafted text can increase click-through rates, reduce bounce rates, increase trust, and facilitate the spread of content across discovery surfaces. It can also be useful for the spread of advertisements by making the overall platform feel more refined.
But the real value is in the culture. Entertainment organizations want to be modern. They want to know how people feel. They want to be able to state that they live in the same place. That is very hard to achieve through templates alone.
The platforms most likely to stand out over time may be the ones that invest more seriously in their editorial layer. They will care about sentence flow in metadata, tone in alerts, nuance in translation, and clarity in every line that appears before the content starts. They will treat words as part of content packaging, product design, and brand building all at once.
In a business obsessed with scale, this may seem like a small idea. It is not. When streaming platforms start sounding the same, language becomes one of the few tools left to restore distinction. A sharper voice can make a familiar interface feel more thoughtful. A better sentence can rescue a title from invisibility. A more human line can remind the audience that somebody on the other side still understands how people actually choose what to watch.
