From Films to Formats: How FCB is Rewriting the Language of Content



For decades, advertising spoke in the language of the film. The 30-second TVC became the grammar of creativity, the benchmark of craft, and the primary vessel for brand storytelling. And it remains one of the most powerful ways to move people at scale — a format that continues to define cultural memory.

What has changed is not the relevance of films, but the dominance of films. Today, consumers experience culture in multiple formats: reels, memes, live-streams, podcasts, shopping experiences, and even interactive chat windows. Each has its own syntax, rhythm, and audience behaviour — and brands that fail to speak in these native tongues risk being left out of the conversation.

“Advertising was built on the language of films. But today, culture speaks in formats. Our job as agencies is not to chase attention, but to create ideas that are elastic enough to live as memes, reels, AR, podcasts, or commerce hooks — whatever makes them part of people’s everyday lives.”
— Dheeraj Sinha, CEO, FCB India & South Asia

From Storytelling to Story-Living

At FCB, we believe the future of content is not about abandoning film but about expanding the canvas. Great films remain central to brand building — but the same idea now needs to live across multiple formats to create true participation.



  • Uber × Travis Head tapped into cricket fandom with real-time reels and memes, designed for social virality.



  • Adidas “You Got This” redefined sports storytelling through micro-documentaries, athlete-led shorts, and reels optimised for Gen Z inspiration.



  • KFC “9 for 299” featuring Mrunal Thakur leaned into digital-first snackable content, turning an offer into a trending cultural hook.



  • Azorte blurred advertising and retail, weaving fashion drops, social activations, and in-store content into a continuous content ecosystem.


These weren’t “films with extensions.” They were format-native ideas that invited participation and conversation, while still anchored in powerful storytelling.


Rewriting the Language of Content

This shift calls for a new creative operating system — one that is modular, multi-sensory, and format-inclusive. At FCB, we’re building teams that don’t just think in scripts but in grids, stitches, carousels, and journeys. Ideas must be elastic: powerful enough to hold in a film, nimble enough to mutate into reels, memes, podcasts, or live commerce.

“The biggest shift we’re seeing is that production is no longer a linear pipeline — brief to script to film. Today, every idea needs to be thought of as a multi-format ecosystem right from the start. A reel has different energy than a podcast, an AR filter demands a different kind of storytelling logic than a retail film. Our job in production is not just to execute but to anticipate these shifts, so creativity can truly scale across formats.”
— Aanandita Banerjee, Head of Productions, FCB India

That’s why work like Mahindra BE.6 “Unlimit Love” or Lucky Yatra (Indian Railways) were conceived not just as films but as cultural platforms — multi-format experiences designed to travel across digital, on-ground, and social touchpoints.



   


Why It Matters

For brands, this is not a stylistic choice but an economic one. A powerful TVC can still spark emotion at scale — but when the same idea is designed as a format ecosystem, it lives longer, scales wider, and delivers both cultural impact and commercial outcomes.

The question is no longer: What’s the film? The question is: What’s the format play?