Proof of Work: Why Brands Are Showing the Effort Behind the Effort
The most talked-about brand content right now is not the campaigns. It is the behind-the-scenes footage of how they got made. Something has shifted in what audiences expect from brands, and the ones paying attention are lifting the curtain on their process.
Balenciaga recently launched a dedicated Instagram account showing nothing but behind-the-scenes content. Instead of focusing on the final image, the account focuses on everything that happens before it.
And Balenciaga isn't alone. Across fashion, technology and culture, brands are increasingly marketing the effort behind the effort. The sketches. The fittings. The logistics. The giant productions. The hundreds of people involved. Artists, musicians and filmmakers are also creating separate spaces dedicated to references, work-in-progress moments and the thinking behind their work. Rather than promoting the finished product, they use these channels to document the creative process itself.
What brands are doing
At first glance, these campaigns might look like a return to large-scale productions and polished brand building. But what audiences are responding to is not the spectacle itself. It is the visible evidence of the work behind it. The revisions, physical builds and countless creative decisions have become part of the appeal.
Apple's latest Apple TV intro provides a perfect example. In showing the behind-the-scene action, Apple transformed the production process into part of the story, offering a rare glimpse into the standards and decision-making that sit behind its famously polished aesthetic. Rather than relying on CGI, Apple created a physical glass logo, carefully lit it and filmed it repeatedly until the team achieved the exact reflections and glow they were looking for.
In another example, LOEWE's 180th anniversary film, narrated by Antonio Banderas, was created using more than 2,000 hand-painted frames produced by a team of artists rather than a conventional digital animation workflow. The film's message about LOEWE's heritage, creativity and longevity is reinforced by the way it was made.
Coinbase's recent Oscars ad appeared to take place in a fully digital world, yet much of what viewers saw was created physically through printed sets, fabricated costumes and carefully choreographed performances. Coinbase subsequently released the behind-the-scenes footage, revealing the surprising amount of work hidden beneath what many assumed was a digitally generated aesthetic.
For Porsche we've taken a different approach. After releasing its holiday film, created by LOOP in collaboration with Paris-based Parallel Studio, behind-the-scenes materials began to circulate showing the drawings, revisions and creative process behind the final animation. The Porsche campaign was never positioned as anti-AI, yet much of the online conversation focused on exactly that. Audiences responded not just to the finished film, but to the visible evidence of the thinking, time and human involvement behind it. The brand never had to make a statement about craft or creativity. The process made that argument on its own.
Why this matters now
The answer has a lot to do with AI. For decades, consumers judged the final result. If a campaign looked great, few people questioned how it had been made. Today, that has changed. As AI makes it possible to generate sophisticated images, videos and ideas in a matter of seconds, the finished outcome no longer tells us very much about the process behind it.
A polished campaign could be the result of months of creative development, or it could have been produced in an afternoon. At the same time, audiences are becoming aware of that distinction. They are paying more attention to the signals that sit behind the final work: the expertise involved, the decisions that were made and the level of thought that went into the execution. In many ways, the process has become a proxy for value.
Evidence of effort
Part of the appeal of making-of content lies in its ability to show that a brand didn't simply arrive at the final result, but worked its way there. By showing the work behind the work, brands communicate something that the final campaign often cannot. They signal commitment, investment and expertise. More importantly, they remind audiences that real people were involved in shaping the outcome. This matters because trust is built through transparency. Consumers are becoming more skeptical of shortcuts. In a world where content can be generated at scale and polished to perfection, the finished result alone is no longer enough to build trust.
The making-of story helps brands demonstrate that there was thought, judgment and care behind what might otherwise appear effortless. It shows that ideas were debated, details were refined and alternatives were considered. We might think of this as a new form of "proof of work" marketing, where the process becomes part of the value proposition.
What it means for brands
The takeaway is not that every brand now needs a behind-the-scenes strategy or a dedicated BTS channel. Audiences are remarkably good at spotting content that feels manufactured purely for engagement. The most effective behind-the-scenes content emerges naturally from the work itself. It captures the discussions, iterations, problem-solving and attention to detail that are already part of the process. Rather than documenting perfection, it reveals the decisions, challenges and collaboration that shaped the final outcome.
This is what makes content like Balenciaga's backstage footage or Apple's making-of videos so compelling. They don't simply show that work happened, they show why the work mattered. In an era of effortless creation, people are looking for evidence that something was worth caring about in the first place.
What comes next
All signs suggest that this shift is here to stay. The growing appetite for behind-the-scenes content is not simply a content trend. It reflects a broader change in what people value. As content becomes easier to create and increasingly abundant, the finished result alone carries less weight. What stands out is no longer just what was made, but what it took to make it. Audiences are becoming more interested in the choices, effort and thinking behind creative work. The more effortless content appears, the more valuable those signals become. As content becomes cheaper, meaning becomes more valuable.
The next phase will not be anti-AI. If anything, AI will become more deeply embedded in the creative process. What audiences will continue to look for is evidence that someone made the decisions, invested the time and shaped the outcome. Underneath all of this sits a simple reaction: they actually did it. In that sense, behind-the-scenes content is about more than transparency. It helps answer a simple question: Why should I care? And that answer may matter as much as the final campaign itself.
