When Jo Boundy greenlighted the second series of CommBank's financial wellbeing series The Brighter Side on Paramount 10, she expected good things but maybe not as good as the audience engagement levels turned out. The bank’s The Brighter Side  TV series garnered 2 million viewers. Tailored social content, which was  “double stacked” in production with the TV series, reached another 8 million in social media and Boundy says 80 per cent of people who watched the show “took an action to improve their finances … so we're seeing when the content is relevant, when it's utility, when it connects with people, it's really making a difference.”

And Boundy is tantalisingly close to tagging her brand content program as a full funnel silver bullet. “It is such a critical piece in the full funnel tool kit,” she says. “It’s a really cluttered market so we have used our content to help build that consideration and then it ultimately goes through to conversion with customers.”

It’s the latter point around creating compelling, relevant brand-originated content across rapidly changing formats and distribution channels that Nick Smith, Managing Director of content agency Medium Rare, says has spawned a “nuanced shift” from in-house “content ecosystems”, often led by corporate affairs teams or viewed through the lense of performance marketing. "That’s a company-centric approach,” says Smith on how corporate content ecosystems are typically run. “We’ve got to get particular messages out on our own channels and it’s lined up with the calendar of business objectives and all the things we want to tell the customer.”

“Brand worlds” flip the content model to start with what “a consumer is doing in the real world,” says Smith. “It’s a different content approach than just talking about products.” Boundy says it’s a welcome shift – content starts with designing first for a customer problem or need.

All of this new thinking and brand content trends has been captured in News Australia’s recent 2026 Future of Brand Content report – among the headline statistics is that brand content consumption is up 11 per cent. Trust and the relevance of brand-originated content among consumers increased by double digits.

The former adman and CEO of WPP ANZ, Mike Connaghan, jumped from advertising to content when he was appointed to run News Australia’s commercial content division, which includes Medium Rare, Storyation, Suddenly and Visual Domain. Connaghan says the likes of CommBank, Qantas, Chemist Warehouse, Coles and Bunnings are all firing with their brand content programs. He agrees with Boundy that they drive results through the funnel to purchase, rather than just mid.

“They’re creating mini publishing businesses for themselves,” says Connaghan. “We also work with Chemist Warehouse on the House of Wellness. It’s a media conglomerate. They have a huge print presence, they advertise very heavily through News Corp newspapers, they've got their own radio, they've got their own podcasts, they've got their own TV shows, all of which we are helping them with. It's a really powerful platform for them. So the sector is in high demand and high interest. Having people like Jo and Commonwealth Bank step into the breach in financial services has only really stirred more interest.”