The news: The critical and commercial success of Bilt’s discreetly-backed “Roomies” short-form vertical series demonstrates how brands can connect to key audiences through alternate ad formats.

The original scripted series took home two People’s Voice Webby Awards at the 30th Annual Webby Awards for Best Writing and Series for Video & Film in April.

How we got here: Bilt launched season one of the series last year on TikTok and Instagram; both accounts now boast 138,000 and 193,000 followers, respectively.

• The made-for-social mockumentary series chronicles a twenty-something woman named Ellie from Ohio’s attempt to make it in New York, pulling from inspiration from “Friends” and “New Girl” per an expired Backstage classified.
• Episodes are capped at two minutes, making it friendly for short attention spans, younger audiences, and binge watching.

US microdrama viewership is also on the upswing, with our forecast anticipating engagement with the short-form content more than doubling in just over two years. Bilt benefits from a boom in the content style driven by the increase of eyeballs on short-form content and the lower production costs associated with microdramas:. A short-form vertical can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000, per the Ankler, while traditional TV ad campaigns can cost millions.