Content creation is the catch phrase du jour for an increasing number of players, with agencies, production companies and now clients entering an increasingly crowded sandbox previously occupied by Hollywood studios and entertainment conglomerates. Within the past two months, Anheuser-Busch announced the creation of an online/mobile content production arm, and two major production companies, Believe Media and

@radical.media, announced new divisions, Beyond Belief and Radical Thinking respectively, geared towards longer-form content.

On the agency side, JWT, via its JWTwo Entertainment division, made a bold stride into IP with Lovebites, a co-production with Paul Reiser's Nuance Productions and the Greif Company for Unilever's new Sunsilk hair care brand. Taking the form of a "micro-series", the comedy, aimed at twentysomething females, airs on TBS in two-and-a-half minute episodes, tagging the end of shows such as Sex & The City. Webisodes are also prepared, as are episodes for in-store viewing at Wal-Mart. There are 82 in total.

John Garland, JWT COO and executive director of JWTwo Entertainment, says Lovebites is a concrete example of its "Brand Studio" concept, replacing blatant product placement with brand-relevant content.

"A brand is something that has a personality, a language, a look, style and feel - it's almost a living entity in itself," says Garland. "If you take those elements, and use a top Hollywood writer to write a show around a brand-driven brief, you're going to get a show that talks to its viewers in the tonality of the brand, in an entertaining way. You don't really need to stick packages of the brand in the show itself."

Garland says that with the fragmented media space creating something of a "feeding frenzy" as advertisers try to find the best route to ROI, the rules and relationships of branded entertainment are still evolving. Citing a recent partnership with @radical.media for Ford's Bold Moves online documentary series, Garland says, "Our job is trying to find whatever horse is best for whatever course we're trying to navigate.

"Everyone's in the mix now and it's all going to be about who gets the sequencing right first - they will dominate the market."

WTwo Entertainment http://www.jwtwoentertainment.com

Lovebites http://www.tbs.com/shows/lovebites