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Omaha Productions, Words + Pictures, OBB Media and Fanatics Studios, Park Stories, Religion of Sports and others have gone into creative for brands. “We are much more active than ever in having discussions with brands and brands directly to fund projects,” Words + Pictures CEO Connor Schell said. “I want to make the distinction between branded content and brand-funded content. There is a very healthy business in branded content, which we, as a company, have done. That’s very different than going to brands explaining exactly what you’re going to do editorially and getting them on board to fund, either in whole or in part, a project because it checks a lot of the same boxes that they would get out of what would have been a traditional ad sales buy and a network.” According to CEO Ameeth Sankaran, Religion of Sports made a shift around three years ago to do more than just documentaries, including “live-adjacent” work. “We’ve kind of evolved into a mini-studio,” Sankaran said. “We have really expanded into the brand ecosystem. We just did a Trevor Noah alt-cast for the World Cup. … Our secret sauce has been the same, even though the formats have changed, which is creators, access and trust with great talent.” Brands such as Macy’s, FanDuel, Nestle, U.S. Bank, Nationwide, Topps, Toyota and the American Red Cross have tapped into the expertise that Omaha Brand Studio provides. The division has even produced unique movie trailers for “Anaconda,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” and “Turning Red.” Park Stories has done branded work for Nike, Adidas and EA Sports, while Religion of Sports’ campaigns include one with Coco Gauff and Naked Juice. OBB’s Bolded division has partnered in sports-related efforts with Dick’s Sporting Goods, UPS, Old Spice, Starbucks and others. “We’re seeing brands want to put a lot of investment into original content,” said Kfir Goldberg, senior vice president of creative development at OBB Media and Fanatics Studios. “That doesn’t mean that you have to have their logo in every scene, or their products. They just want to be associated with great sports storytelling.”