Entertainment at Scale

What is the most irrational thing you've ever done for something you love? Travelled to another country for a concert? Queued for hours to get your hands on a new game? Spent an evening arguing online about a fictional character?

Now, when was the last time you did any of that for a brand?

That's how we opened our session at Innovation Day 2026. Reach has never been easier to buy, but relevance has become much harder to earn.

Havas' 2025 Meaningful Brands Report found that 78% of brands could disappear and people wouldn't care. We can optimize, target and distribute content more efficiently than ever. But being seen and being wanted are different things.

And this is exactly why we need to rethink how cultural strategy, creation and media work together. Because a great creative idea without cultural relevance won't make people care. An interesting cultural insight without a compelling format won't give them a reason to engage. And even the best entertainment concept won't grow beyond its initial audience without the right media strategy.

This is not about making ads a bit more entertaining, but a completely different approach. Making use of the worlds people choose to spend time in: music, sports, gaming, streaming, books, fandoms and the communities around them. And those worlds have changed.

A football match lasts 90 minutes, but its community is active all week. Gaming isn't just playing anymore; it's Twitch streams, cosplay, trading cards, creators and GamesCom. Short-form video content helps us discover something, while we happily spend hours watching long-form stories about the same subject on YouTube. The group chat often decides what we watch or buy before any public feed does. And as more life happens online, being somewhere together in real life has become valuable again.

These aren't just a few new channels to add to a media plan. They're shifts in how people spend their time, find belonging and express who they are. Age alone tells us far less than the interests that bring people together. For brands, the question isn't just where can we reach them? It's why would they want us there?

There are different ways into entertainment: sponsoring it, integrating into it, collaborating with the people shaping it, creating something of your own or hosting the space where people meet.

Look at McDonald's and WcDonald's. Anime fans had been using the fictional name for decades before the brand embraced it, working with artists to create anime episodes, manga and products built around that shared reference.

At GamesCom, essence connected beauty and gaming through cosplay, creators and a Roblox world.

Both show why understanding communities matters before developing ideas. A brand needs a genuine reason to participate, something to contribute and a creative concept that makes sense within that world. Otherwise, it's just borrowed attention.

Even the best activation can disappear from memory by Monday. Communities don't operate in campaign flights. They return to formats, familiar faces, shared rituals and the next episode.

This is why, in our masterclass, we argued for thinking more like an entertainment company:

• less campaign, more series
• less target group, more scene
• less spokesperson, more cast
• less campaign flight, more season
• less message, more ritual.

Understanding which communities matter, working with credible creators, choosing the right touchpoints, developing repeatable formats and continuously learning from what's happening.

With Rügenwalder Mühle we developed the FLXPLR Council: five young flexitarians who contribute perspectives on products, communication and topics relevant to their lives. They're not influencers hired to post, but voices actively involved in shaping the brand. This thinking also connects to broader brand experiences, supported by creative and media activation. And here's where media becomes much more than the final distribution step.

Cultural strategy identifies where a brand has a right to play. Creation turns that opportunity into something people actually want to experience. Media brings audience insights into the process, connects formats with the right platforms and amplifies what works.

That means developing the idea, the format, the audience strategy and the media mechanics together, from the beginning. Not passing a finished campaign from one team to another. It also means measuring more than reach: participation, shares, brand preference, new customers and sales.