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Hereās a quick TL;DR of whatās below:
Walmart, Banana Republic, Cava, and dozens of other brands have launched social series, and TikTok now lets brands pay to boost them.
The For You page, the influencer recession, and short-lived posts all pushed brands toward recurring shows.
Alexis Bittar, Bilt, and Walmart built their series around stories only they could tell.
The format is getting crowded, and brand series now compete with Hollywood-backed shows in the same feed.
Social spent a decade tearing down TV and is now rebuilding it.
We rounded up 16 brand series weāre watching and will keep the list updated.
ā[Insert brand] has launched a social seriesā is one of the most reliable headlines in marketing news right now.
Walmart, Gap, Banana Republic, Figma, and Crocs all have one, and more brands roll them out every week. TikTok is even letting brands build and publish episodic dramas directly in the app, then pay to amplify them.
When a platform builds a feature around a format, itās officially a category. The feed now looks like a TV guide, and itās left brands with a new problem breaking through.
How the feed became TV
The social series was a rational response to a few problems.
TikTokās For You page broke the link between followers and views, so a brand posting every day could still be a stranger to its own audience.
The influencer recession taught audiences to spot a paid post from a mile away and distrust anything that looked polished.
One-off posts also disappear fast, so a series gives viewers recurring characters, a predictable cadence, and a reason to search for the next episode.
In our 2026 social insight report, 68% of marketers said they prioritize entertainment value over product messaging, and the org charts are following. Gap Inc. hired its first Chief Entertainment Officer, and Ramp was hiring someone to build āa media brand, not a content calendar.ā
The brands doing it best
Alexis Bittar is the blueprint. Its character Margeaux Goldrich, introduced in 2024, now has a following that exists almost independently of the jewelry, and she carries the brand further than a product shot ever could.
Bilt kept its own logo out of the show. Taking cues from Brooklyn Coffee Shop, its series explores renting and city life, the exact emotional territory a rent rewards company should own.
Walmartās contactless soap opera might be the smartest of the bunch. The plot came straight from years of shopper complaints, turning social listening into a script.
The social series gold rush
The issue is that everyone is doing this now, and weāve seen gold rushes like this on social before.
Influencer marketing started as a cheaper, more trusted alternative to traditional ads, then curdled once every brand was buying the same posts from the same people. Clipping followed that same arc, and now the social series is next in line.
Brands that want to find the gold instead of other miners should consider a few things before launching a series in a field this crowded.
Know who youāre up against. Your competition is no longer just other brands. TikTok is building a real studio slate, and according to TikTok, its Issa Raeābacked micro-series Screen Time has pulled in nearly 580 million views since April. Your brandās office sitcom now sits in the same feed as Hollywood-backed thrillers, so production value alone wonāt carry it.
Start with permission. Before picking a format, find the story your brand has a real right to tell. If the premise could belong to any company, it belongs to none of them.
Skip the default formats. Dating shows, workplace comedies, soap operas, and coffee shop satires have become the stock programming of brand social. Cava and Bilt got there early with stories only they could tell, and copying them now gets you neither.
Post less, commit more. Putting an episode number on daily output doesnāt make it a show. A consistent cadence, recurring characters, and a season with an actual arc do.
Programming with a point
The social series isnāt going anywhere, oversaturated or not.
Social spent a decade tearing down TV and is now rebuilding it piece by piece; platforms are becoming networks, and brands are becoming studios.
The social series earned its place as the escape from the ad break. At the rate brands are launching them, itās on track to become the new one.
The series weāre watching
These are the brand series weāve been keeping an eye on this year. Some are seasons deep and some just dropped their first episode, but each one shows what happens when a brand starts with a story only it can tell. Weāll keep this list updated as more brands step into the programming business.
Still airing
The list keeps getting longer, which is exactly the problem. Every brand on it started with a reason to exist, and the next fifty will have to work harder to find one.
The social series earned its place as the escape from the ad break. At the rate brands are launching them, itās on track to become the new one.
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