OKRE - Delivering Social Impact in Entertainment Content

At OKRE we understand that storytelling through entertainment content has the power to influence perceptions and shape culture. TV, film, social media and interactive entertainment are all uniquely placed to create conversations and expand people’s understanding of the world. But how much do we know about whether this has a lasting impact on society?

This report gathers the findings of an extensive qualitative and quantitative research project conducted in the latter half of 2023, following on from the work of OKRE’s Entertainment Industry Taskforce. The Taskforce, led by Hana Canter, was composed of leaders across the UK entertainment industry, representing major media corporations including Netflix, Prime Video, BBC, Sky, ITV, Spotify, Snap, Disney, and supported by Comic Relief.

The research undertaken by MTM, a strategy and research agency specialising in the fields of media, technology, and advertising, assessed how the different entertainment industries (focussing on TV, Film and Videogames) think about the impact of their content on people’s attitudes, on perceptions, on policy and generally in shaping the world.

• 89% of entertainment industry respondents agreed that measuring social impact is important.
• Organisations have prioritised areas for impact including DEI, environmental & sustainability and mental health in content, but the report highlights inconsistency around which issues are included in these categories.
• Entertainment companies are factoring social impact into various stages of the content lifecycle – from commissioning, through development – and amplifying impact as part of their launch strategies.
• However, only 28% of respondents reported that their organisations currently measure the social or societal impact of their content – with 33% citing a perceived difficulty in measuring impact as a reason.
• 73% of organisations agreed they would welcome more information on how to measure the impact of their content.

Continuing to lead in supporting the entertainment industry to measure social impact, OKRE have also announced we are working on the development of an ‘Entertainment Impact Index’. This new framework will complement existing impact measurements, while enabling greater cross-sector collaboration and shared understanding of definitions and impact language.

OKRE will work in conjunction with BAFTA – an arts charity and academy with over 12000 members working in film, games and television – to scope this project through the remainder of 2024.