From Meh to Memorable: Why the best brand partnerships are built on ideas, not just impressions

The invisible problem with visible spend

Audiences are spending more time than ever with the content they love. And brands that show up alongside that content, thoughtfully, creatively, with genuine respect for the worlds those audiences have invested in, have a significant opportunity to become part of something people actually care about.

But the gap between showing up and being remembered is wider than most brands realize. 1 in 4 Australians could unpromptedly recall a brand creating content or experiences around a show they'd watched recently.¹ That represents a significant opportunity for brands willing to show up differently.

The best brand partnerships don't just benefit the brand. They elevate the show, reward the audience, and create something neither party could have made alone. We wanted to understand what separates those partnerships from the ones that are less memorable.

When we asked Australians how brand content affects their relationship with a show, the majority response was neutral: they enjoyed their content as normal, unaffected either way. But a significant and commercially meaningful share responded far more positively. 30% say brand integrations can actively enhance their enjoyment of a show. A further 11% enjoy seeing brands celebrate the shows they love. Only a small minority feel it detracts from their experience.²

The opportunity that sits in those numbers is substantial. Most audiences are open to brands being part of their entertainment world. They just need those brands to show up with something worth their attention. And when they do, the response is genuinely positive, not merely tolerated.

15% of respondents currently describe brand integrations as much more authentic than traditional advertising.³ That is a story of uncaptured opportunity, and this paper is about how to capture it.

What "done well" actually means

Before we get to the ingredients, it's worth understanding what audiences are actually asking for… in their own words.

We gave 990 respondents an open question: what's the difference between a brand collaboration that feels fine and one that makes you roll your eyes?

The single most common theme in their answers wasn't about commercial intent, frequency, or even fit. It was cheesy execution, cited by 12.4% of respondents.⁴

Audiences welcome brands that show up with craft. What they notice is when the execution falls short of the opportunity.

And they know exactly what embarrassing looks like. ​​It looks like ubiquity, where 41% said a collaboration feels forced when the brand simply appears everywhere.⁵ Not because the partnership itself is wrong, but because saturation signals laziness. When creative quality matches the scale of presence, partnerships feel earned.

Audiences have become fluent in the language of brand partnerships. IP on a product can get a brand noticed but IP woven into an idea can help ensure your brand is actually remembered. Similarly, hiring a cast member who'll take any deal isn't an endorsement. Consumers know the difference, and they're keeping score.

This is important to internalize before brief writing. The audience is asking for craft. When we asked what brands should do to create better collaborations, the top two answers were natural presence (15.4%) and natural integration (14.8%), but look at what respondents actually recall most positively: Movie and TV tie-ins. The format that requires the deepest, most immersive commitment to the show's world.⁶

The paradox resolves itself once you understand what "natural integration" really means. It means feeling like a natural part of the experience, regardless of scale. A tie-in woven into the world of a show feels minimal even when it's large, because it adds to the experience rather than breaking it.

Getting a brand partnership right requires three things to work simultaneously: the right fit, the right idea, and the right level of presence. This research suggests most brand partnerships could underperform not because one of these is missing, but because brands treat them as independent levers.

Before getting into each ingredient, it's worth understanding who's most ready to receive this kind of work. The research points consistently in one direction: younger audiences (18–34), higher income households, and families with young children are the segments most receptive to brand integrations: most likely to recall them, most likely to feel they enhance the show, and most likely to act on them. Among 18–24-year-olds, unprompted recall sits at 56%, nearly double the overall average. Families with young children show 20% very positive reaction rates against single-digit figures among older households.⁷

These aren't niche demographics. The three ingredients that follow are about reaching them in a way that earns their attention, not just their eyeballs.

The three ingredients

We split our respondents into two groups: those who described themselves as strong fans of the content they watch (fandom positive), and those who didn't (fandom negative). The recall difference is stark.

Passionate fans are 55% more likely to recall a brand presence than disengaged viewers (45% versus 29%) before a single creative decision has been made. Fandom alone is a media variable. But the more interesting story is in the formats. Most formats (social media, TV advertising, product placement) show modest differences between fans and non-fans. One format breaks the pattern entirely: Movie and TV tie-ins. Among disengaged viewers, just 5% recalled a tie-in. Among passionate fans, that figure was 27%. A fivefold difference, driven entirely by how much the audience cares about the IP.⁸

Tie-ins are also, among people who do recall brands, the second most remembered format overall, competing directly with TV advertising on recall. It's the one format that only works when the fandom connection is genuine. And when it does work, it punches far above its weight.

The implication is clear: fit isn't a soft consideration to check at the end of a brief. It's the primary media variable. Choose the right format and you're buying memory.

When a partnership lands with a passionate audience, they do the work for you. And our research shows just how much. Among fandom positive respondents, 56% say they share brand collaborations because they're funny or entertaining, and 54% because they're clever and well-executed. Both figures are roughly 20 points higher than the general population. But here's what makes this asymmetric: the cringe figure barely moves. 23% of passionate fans share bad collaborations, almost identical to the general population. Passionate audiences don't punish failure harder than anyone else. They just reward success far more generously.⁹

That asymmetry matters even more in entertainment partnerships specifically. There's a school of thought that says any buzz is good buzz, and in some contexts that's defensible. But when your campaign lives inside something an audience genuinely loves, the reputational collateral isn't just your brand's. It's theirs. 5% of respondents said bad integrations don't just fail, they cheapen the show itself. That's a different kind of risk than a forgettable ad in a commercial break.¹⁰

Audience first: does your brand's audience actually watch this show, or just a show like it? Amazon's audience insights can help identify which titles resonate with your audiences, not just which ones they're aware of.

Values second: do the themes of the show align with what your brand actually stands for? 33% of respondents cited values alignment as the top reason a partnership feels natural.¹¹

Tone third: can your brand live in the world of this show without feeling like a visitor? 33% cited this as equally crucial.¹²

Think of them less as boxes to tick and more as a single question: does this brand belong here?

Fit earns you the right to show up. A great idea is what makes people glad you did.

When we asked what makes a collaboration feel like it naturally belongs, 35% of respondents said it adds entertainment or genuine usefulness, the single highest response.¹³ This ranked above values alignment and tone fit, and it points at something important: audiences want to walk away from a brand interaction in a better position than they were before it.

It means giving the audience something that only your brand could have given them in that world.

To promote Season 4 of The Boys, Liquid Death cast The Deep (the show's dim-witted, aquatic-obsessed superhero played by Chace Crawford) as their fictional "Health & Wellness Ambassador." In a 72-second spot, The Deep visits a classroom to warn kids about the dangers of sugary drinks, only to hand a student a glass of pure sugar and ultimately light a cigarette in front of the class. Liquid Death then published a mock "public apology" on LinkedIn, announcing they were terminating their relationship with The Deep. The stunt built on an earlier 2021 collaboration where The Deep served as Liquid Death's "Chief Sustainability Associate," setting plastic on fire on a beach.

The campaign is a textbook example of authentic IP fit: both brands share the same subversive, anti-establishment sensibility, making the partnership feel native rather than forced. The fictional framing kept The Deep fully in character, blurring the line between advertising and content, and generating significant organic buzz in the lead-up to the Season 4 premiere.

The best ideas are native to the show's world. They couldn't exist without the partnership. The goal is to make something that couldn't exist any other way.

The format data reinforces this. Among all respondents who recalled a brand, Branded Food Items (11.1%) and Collectible Promotions (5.9%) both registered.¹⁴ Low frequency, but clearly memorable. Physical, tangible extensions of a show's world leave a trace precisely because they don't exist without the partnership. They're proof of commitment to the idea.

The most memorable partnerships don't stop when the credits roll, and audiences are already primed for what comes next.

What's striking in this research is that viewers aren't passive when they watch. They're already part of a shopping journey. The entertainment window is not separate from commercial consideration… for a significant share of audiences, it's intertwined with it.

When brand collaborations respect this by extending naturally across touchpoints, connecting the show world to a product experience, or using the talent and IP to sustain an idea beyond the original placement, they move from a moment to a relationship. When they don't, even a strong initial execution can feel like a missed opportunity.

The critical word here is naturally. Our respondents were unambiguous: natural integration (14.79%) and natural presence (15.41%) were the two most common answers to what brands should do better.¹⁵ Extending an idea across formats works best when each touchpoint earns its place, rather than simply replicating the same branding across unrelated content. The same audience that rewards genuine integration will punish the appearance of an unnatural integration.

Extending well means extending in character. The brand should feel like it belongs at every touchpoint for the same reason it belonged in the show: because it genuinely adds something.

The opportunity in the gap

The research tells a consistent story.

Audiences aren't skeptical of brand partnerships. But they’re ready for better ones, executions that actually earn their attention. 97% of audiences are not actively opposed to brand integrations. The opportunity isn't persuading a skeptical audience; it's earning the attention of a receptive one.

The path from meh to memorable runs through three places: choosing the right title for the right audience, building an idea that only works because you're in that world, and extending it in a way that feels earned at every touchpoint.

When those three things come together, the research shows what's possible. Recall lifts. The relationship with the show improves rather than suffers. Audiences talk about it. And a brand stops being a logo in the corner of someone's favourite show and becomes part of the story they tell about it.

That's the opportunity. The only question is which brands are ready to take it.

Sources

^1-15 Research conducted by Ideally, March 2026. N=1,236 Australian respondents. Commissioned in partnership with Amazon Ads.