Locaria Helps Launch Unreasonable Studios with Localised Expertise

Unreasonable Studios, a new branded content firm, launched at the Cannes Lions Festival only a month ago. Justin Barocas, one of Anomaly’s co-founders and now also the CEO of Stagwell’s consolidated production entity, strives to take expertise from the world of entertainment and apply it to brands, clients, and original material.

Multilingual content agency Locaria is supercharging Unreasonable Studios with its expertise in scaled adaptation and localisation in international markets. Justin said, “I’m excited about the partnership because we’re able now to turn a single asset into thousands of assets.”

The CEO explained that the agency operates by being “locally relevant” and optimises the performance of any assets created across all channels. “Without that component, we would lack the ability to scale effectively. We can now do it at a premium level whilst preserving the integrity of our creative message and make sure that it delivers against the right audiences at the right time, in the right languages, in the right places.”

Branded Content Is Hot and Here to Stay

While traditional branding is struggling, the lines between content and advertising are becoming increasingly blurred. The rise of branded content is partly due to “advertising fatigue and avoidance,” according to research by academics Nathalie Dens and Karolien Poels. Entertainment is now a core brand marketing strategy, as demonstrated by Tracksuit and Small World’s "Entertain or Die 2.0" report.

For Locaria CEO Hannes, Justin’s elevator pitch for Unreasonable Studios was a clear home run: “We go high value to high volume at high velocity. On the high-value side, we focus on original television and film. We do documentary, scripted television, episodic, all of that. We use that skill set to inform branded entertainment. And we create commercial productions, advertising, scaled content all the way through the funnel.”

When Hannes asked Justin how he tackles the changes in production in today’s advertising world, he answered: “Production is actually now the connective tissue, to link creative and media together. It’s the physical connection between the creative and media. Those two things become two sides of one coin that are linked with production.”

Production is the bridge that gets creative ideas into the world, thinks Justin. This belief ties into his betting on branded content production through Unreasonable Studios.

About the production company, the founder said, “I don’t know anybody in either entertainment or advertising that can seamlessly operate in two different worlds.” Original material is key, for Justin, while the production company merges company goals with what they know “from the entertainment world, talent, distribution, storytelling.”

But, cutting through the noise in the saturated content market is difficult. Justin adds, “We get that virtuous cycle. In today’s world, it’s super cluttered. So, having brands embedded into original concepts and having our original storytelling leveraging towards a brand impact is how those brands are going to stand out.”

Humanise the Top, Automate the Bottom

Hannes knows that AI can be helpful for efficiency. Agreeing with him, Justin added: “What I tell our clients is to humanise the top, automate the bottom.” While automation is helpful with “lower funnel” work, creative work still needs “humans to create, to produce, to develop.”

For Hannes, this philosophy maps directly onto the way Locaria operates. “In our work, ‘automating the bottom’ means using smart AI to scale repetitive, low-value tasks. That frees up our teams to focus their energy where it matters most: on strategic insight, cultural nuance, and high-value creative transcreation.”

Justin also stressed the importance of authenticity. “For us to use generative AI as a proxy for capturing what they do would do the brand and that audience a disservice. It has to be authentic to them.”

This exchange at Cannes outlined a clear vision for Unreasonable Studios’ partnership with Locaria and their thoughts on the future of branded content and technological advancement. Overall, the branded content production company aims to deliver creative work that is both high quality and globally relevant, combining human insight at the top with technology and local expertise at scale.