Why fintech firm Bilt is funding its own original series ‘Roomies’

At the Angelika Film Center in New York earlier this month, 115 people gathered around the theater’s big screen. But it wasn’t to watch a Hollywood movie. They came together to celebrate an original series produced by Bilt, a New York-based financial technology company that rewards consumers when they pay their rent.

Unlike some types of sponsored content, the first season of “Roomies” does not explicitly market the Bilt brand. Instead, the series tells the story of a woman who moves from Ohio to New York, finds a place to live, and tries to fit in. The first season lasts approximately 50 minutes and is released in 1½ to three minute episodes on social media.

Cyrus Ferguson, Bilt’s senior content director and co-creator of “Roomies,” said the series’ goal was to increase awareness of the Bilt brand. By implementing a narrative approach to the series, done in-house, Ferguson said he hopes it will better connect with audiences and give them a more positive feeling when they encounter the Bilt brand. Although Bilt is not a central premise of the series nor explicitly marketed in the series, characters have dined at Bilt partner restaurants and one character paid a bill using the Bilt app.

“It’s about building awareness of the brand and trying to reach a wide audience,” Ferguson said. “That’s something that we really thought about, modeling it in a certain way, like these shows in the past that reached a really wide audience and developing these characters that we thought could speak to a really wide range of people.

“There are so many different types of people who are or could be Bilt members. »

Other brands are turning to shows and movies to deliver corporate messages and get in front of people by quickly scrolling through ads. For example, Google has funded short films to present stories that soften the image of artificial intelligence. Companies such as HP, Nike and Church’s Chicken have also invested money in documentaries.

Ferguson said that so far the company has been happy with “Roomies,” noting that each episode can generate half a million views. He declined to say how much production costs, but said the company is already working on its second season. In addition to the original series, Bilt does other types of marketing for its products, including advertisements.

Ferguson said the idea for the show was approved in late spring. The series’ co-creators, Ferguson and independent producer, writer and actor Brooke Brazer, developed characters that one could relate to in the same way as Monica from “Friends” or Jess from “New Girl.”

They put out a casting notice for actors and got 300 to 700 applicants per role for the main cast, said Brazer, who also plays the character Rain on “Roomies.”

Bilt offers loyalty rewards such as restaurant discounts to tenants who choose to pay their rent by registering their credit cards through Bilt’s platform. Bilt makes money from payment processing fees.

Having production in-house gives Bilt more control in explaining its brand to the public.

Screening of Season 1 of “Roomies” with cast members, from left, Maddie Land, Rhys Athayde, co-creator Cyrus Ferguson, co-creator and actor Brooke Brazer and Oleode Oshotse.

(Bilt)

“Bilt is a pretty complex product, so we know it better than anyone,” Ferguson said. “We know how to integrate the brand or make it seem like it represents the brand in a fairly subtle way, whereas I think if we were to outsource that it would be quite difficult to do with the kind of skill that we want.”

To celebrate the end of the series’ first season, Bilt invited members of its “Close Friends” group, made up of Bilt users who have access to behind-the-scenes content and exclusive experiences, to come watch the entirety of Season 1 at a New York theater earlier this month.

Randi Priluck, a marketing professor at Pace University, was skeptical about the effectiveness of “Roomies” in attracting more customers to Bilt. She asked her social media and mobile marketing class about Bilt and the “Roomies,” and while some students knew one of them, they didn’t know the other.

“It’s never a good idea to let your client do all the work,” Priluck said. “They have very limited branding in the series. There are a lot of other things named ‘Roomies’ online, so it’s not clear that it’s Bilt.”

Ferguson said there is no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing or social media. For example, a company might hire a content creator to be the face of their brand, but what happens when the creator decides to move on and do something else?

“With scripted narrative content, we can really create a world where anything can happen and any situation can have meaning, so that was really a powerful element for us,” Ferguson said.