Over the past few months, I’ve read a steady stream of stories on the rise and rise of microdramas. With each one, the absence of ad agencies from the leading names associated with this content has kept nagging at me. Because what is an ad, if not a microdrama? A tightly constructed narrative, engineered for emotional payoff in seconds. Ad folks have spent decades, no, centuries perfecting this art.
Plus, they’ve built an entire subculture around speculative (spec) work, where a clever idea finds a friendly brand willing to lend its logo to an ad that can travel through award circuits. Microdramas, with their relatively low production demands, don’t seem like a leap from there. And yet, I don’t see agencies leading this wave.
If anything, this should have been their moment to shine. At a time when influencer marketing has steadily chipped away at ad agency relevance in the marketing world, you’d expect them to move quickly on a format that plays to their oldest strength: micro-storytelling. To stake a claim and remind the market where the narrative craft lives. But that hasn’t quite happened.
Having dabbled in the format recently, veteran adman Satbir Singh explains why: “The biggest challenge is not creating, that’s the easy part. The tricky bit is where do you distribute it? There are dozens of microdrama apps. Which do you choose? Brands want a clean, sanitary environment. Some of the stories currently on these apps may not pass the brand test.”
Creating your own YouTube channel will never get you numbers, he adds. “Besides, they require long-term commitment. You’ll need to consistently release new stories to create momentum and subscribers.” And then, there’s the issue of the content of the stories themselves. “The format is currently unable to break out of the ‘billionaire meets househelp’ zone. Creating something that is on brand and resonates may be a tad difficult. Having said that, brands are trying. One or two will succeed,” Singh notes.
For branding consultant Vaidehi Murthy, the disconnect feels more foundational. “The microdrama that’s blowing up right now is slightly different from the 30-second emotional arc agencies have always produced. It’s serial, episodic, vertical content built on cliffhangers. I feel it’s closer to a soap opera than a spot,” says Murthy.
That shift from resolution to continuation demands a different way of thinking, she adds. “Agencies are great at creating a more narrow intent film with a payoff at the end, but microdramas demand a writers’ room mindset, and a deeper thought process to create lasting character arcs.” Microdramas require more patience for a format that monetises slowly through engagement, and not the instant gratification of media spends.”
Agencies aren’t ignoring the format, though, observes Murthy. “The agencies that I’m speaking to are heavily pitching it as a social strategy right now, doing exactly what they always do, by speaking the language of what’s trending to sell what they already know how to make. The question is whether clients notice the difference.”
Maybe the industry that mastered the short story is not simply watching this serial unfold from the sidelines. It’s just skipping season 1.