How to Choose an Entertainment Marketing Agency: A Scorecard for Brands

Most brands hire an entertainment marketing partner after something has already happened. A production calls about a scene, a competitor shows up in a hit series, or a celebrity's team pitches a deal with a deadline attached. The partner you choose in that moment decides who negotiates for you, what you're actually paying for, and whether the deal turns into anything once the episode airs.

This guide is built to be used whether you hire Hollywood Branded or not. It covers the kinds of partners brands typically bring in, a 10-point scorecard for comparing them, the questions worth asking on a first call, and the red flags we see most often. At the end, we show how we answer our own scorecard.

The Short Answer

A strong entertainment marketing partner works for the brand rather than the talent or the production. It finds opportunities before they land in your inbox, checks for competitor conflicts before outreach, negotiates rights that extend past the on-screen moment, manages the deal through production and release, separates its own fees from third-party costs, and reports results in terms your finance team will recognize. If a partner can't show you how it handles each of those, keep looking.

Know Who You're Actually Hiring

Different partners are built for different jobs. Most problems start when a brand hires one type of partner to do another's job.

The Entertainment Partner Scorecard

Score your current partner, a prospective agency or your in-house setup on each item. Give 0 if it's missing, 1 if it's partly in place, and 2 if it's clear and documented.

1. Strategy before placements

A good partner starts with your business objective and a written plan, not a list of available shows. Ask: What do you deliver before you pitch us a single opportunity?

2. Proactive sourcing

Opportunities should be found through ongoing monitoring of productions, releases, creators and events, not only through pitches that happen to arrive. Ask: How do you find opportunities, and how early do we hear about them?

3. Conflict and category checks

Competitor commitments, category restrictions and existing deals should be checked before anyone reaches out. Ask: How do you check for conflicts before you contact a production?

4. Negotiation beyond the screen

The placement is one piece. Usage rights, social extensions, co-promotions and talent participation are where much of the value sits. Ask: What rights do you usually negotiate, and who holds the contract?

5. Production management

Scenes change, edits happen and products need to arrive on time. Someone has to manage that daily. Ask: Who is our day-to-day contact during production, and what happens if our scene is cut?

6. Brand safety

Storylines and talent need review before you commit, along with clear approval rights. Ask: How do you vet storylines and talent, and what approvals do we keep?

7. Fee transparency

You should be able to see which costs are the agency's fees and which go to rights holders, talent, production or media. Ask: Can you show us which costs are yours and which go to third parties?

8. An amplification plan grounded in real assets

PR, social and paid support only work when there's an actual moment, asset or announcement to build around. Ask: What will we be allowed to use after release, and how do you plan around it?

9. Measurement

Reporting should explain its methodology, not just total up impressions. Ask: How do you measure results, and can we see a sample report?

10. Repeatability

One great placement is nice. A system that improves each year is what builds lasting value. Ask: What does year two look like if year one works?

How to read your score

• 16 to 20: You have a strong foundation. Focus on scaling what's working.
• 10 to 15: There are gaps worth closing before your next significant deal.
• Under 10: You're likely depending on the other side of the table to look out for your brand.

Red Flags to Watch For

• Talk of "getting you into" a specific named show before the production has seen your brand or a deal exists.
• A single fee number with no breakdown between agency fees and third-party costs.
• Exclusivity promised before it has been negotiated and documented.
• Reports that count impressions with no explanation of how they were calculated.
• No clear answer to the question "Who do you represent in this deal?"
• No plan for what happens after the release date.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can our talent agency handle brand integrations?

A talent agency represents the talent. When a deal involves both the brand and the talent, the agency's obligation is to its client, so the brand needs its own representation in the negotiation.

We already have a PR agency. Do we need an entertainment partner too?

PR is strong at earning attention for a story. Securing and managing the partnership that creates the story is a different skill set involving production relationships, contracting and on-set logistics. The two work best together, with the entertainment partner building the moment and PR amplifying it.

Is product placement free?

Some placements happen on a trade basis with no placement fee, but they still require product, management time and negotiation. Paid integrations add fees to the production and often to talent. Either way, the cost of a poorly managed deal is usually higher than the cost of managing it well.

How Hollywood Branded Answers Its Own Scorecard

Hollywood Branded has built more than 10,000 partnerships for 250+ brands since 2007. Talent has agents. Your brand has us. Every program runs on the same six-step pathway, and each step maps directly to the scorecard above.

• Playbook: Strategy, objectives, opportunity mapping and contract setup come before any outreach. (Scorecard 1 and 3)
• Radar: Our team tracks more than 6,000 opportunities across film, TV, streaming, music, creators and events so brands hear about the right ones early. (Scorecard 2)
• Unlock Access: We negotiate the partnership, including rights, extensions and co-promotions, and manage contracting. (Scorecard 4 and 7)
• Produce: We manage the daily details through production, from product delivery to approvals and scene changes. (Scorecard 5 and 6)
• Amplify: We plan PR, social and paid support around the real assets the partnership creates. (Scorecard 8)
• Grow: We report on what happened and use it to build the next year's plan. (Scorecard 9 and 10)

What this looks like in practice

Expensify's partnership with F1 The Movie, managed by Hollywood Branded, generated more than 600 million impressions, and Expensify saw a $35 million one-day increase in market cap. Our work with FLIR shows the value of repeatability: 710+ productions over eight years, built through a system rather than one-off placements. Across our client work, Hollywood Branded partnerships have delivered more than one trillion impressions.

Score Yourself, Then Let's Compare Notes

If your score came in lower than you'd like, that's the most useful place to start a conversation. You can enroll your brand in [HB]Box for free to see how opportunities are matched, or book a time to talk with our team about where your program has room to grow.