'Let it be authentic' - director of T Brand Studio at the New York Times, Kaylee King Balentine talks Orange is the New Black branded content
Having worked with Netflix to promote the second series of its breakout hit programme Orange is the New Black, Kaylee King Balentine, the director of the New York Times' international native content hub T Brand Studio, the spoke to The Drum about the process of developing the project and working with the online streaming platform.
Following speaking at The Drum’s Content Marketing Breakfast event in London, King Balentine answered questions about how T Brand Studio developed the brief to promote Orange is the New Black on its return in 2014.
She explained that initially Netflix wasn’t sure what it wanted, and allowed the studio to devise its own strategy, which saw it create a documentary about women who had left prison to find out what the experience had been like for them.
“What we found was that things that they were telling us about being a woman in prison were the very same things that were happening in the show, so it felt very much aligned and it was a real, authentic story,” she explained.
King Balentine also discussed the process of working with Netflix and how it met the expectations of the company when it started to offer its own input into the content as well as how it came to include Piper Kerman, who’s experience the whole show is based around, within the final content produced to promote the show.
Watch the interview with Kaylee King Balentine above.