The Vertical Bloom: 5/28/26
Your guide on the happenings of the vertical drama landscape.
Welcome to The Vertical Bloom, a weekly dive into the fast-growing world of microdramas and vertical storytelling. Here, we unpack the platforms, creators, and deals shaping the format that’s quietly redefining what it means to make—and watch—television in the mobile age.
This week: Peacock jumps in, The All American Rejects make a Microdrama, and we consider the (vertical) impact of the upcoming US election.
But first, welcome to a new chapter of The Vertical Bloom.
I’m Scott Brown, founder and CEO of Second Rodeo Productions. My team and I are excited to be bringing you news, insights, and observations about this vertical moment we find ourselves in, with an eye always on its context within the larger boom of digitally native scripted content.
I’ve spent the better part of my career working at the intersection of creators, brands, studios, and emerging formats. I’ve done everything from launching Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s YouTube channel, to crashing a train with MrBeast, to helping bring legacy talent like Larry King into the digital era. But the space I can’t stop talking about right now is vertical storytelling.
Throughout my career I’ve watched initiatives like Youtube Originals, Quibi, or even Sony Crackle come and go, each proclaiming that digitally-native scripted content was here as a robust and lasting sector. Each time the data and the audience proved those claims wrong.
But this moment is different. It’s real. And it comes in a new aspect ratio.
Through Second Rodeo, we’ve had the chance to test that thesis directly. (You can read more here if you’d like.) And through the more than two years we’ve been building we’ve discovered so much, and met an amazing group of people having an incredible conversation about the future of entertainment, of storytelling, of the exploding possibilities of commerce and art.
That’s what I’m excited to share and explore here every week.
Not just the headlines. Not just the platforms. But the bigger question underneath all of it:
What does it mean when a new MEDIUM enters our lives, carried with us everywhere?
I believe vertical is still early. I believe it is more than a trend. And I believe the people who understand its evolving language now will help shape where entertainment goes next.
So, welcome back to The Vertical Bloom.
Let’s get into it.
Peacock Licenses ReelShort Microdramas
NBCUniversal is bringing 10 ReelShort titles to Peacock’s mobile app ahead of its own planned Bravo original verticals.
YouTube Shorts Moves Into the Living Room
YouTube viewers are now watching more than 2 billion hours of Shorts on TVs each month, a reminder that mobile-first formats are no longer staying on mobile-only screens.
Dr Pepper Turns Product Marketing Into Microdrama
Dr Pepper’s four-part TikTok series It’s A Pepper Fling turns the return of Creamy Coconut into a cliffhanger-driven summer romance, showing how brands are utilizing vertical drama grammar for campaign storytelling.
SUPERFAN
Platform: CandyJar
Genre: Comedy / Slasher / Music-Driven Meta-Comedy
This CandyJarTV series is a smart, funny swing for the vertical space: part slasher setup, part band comedy, part fan-service play. Built around The All-American Rejects’ own history, it riffs on their music, legacy, and current image in a way that feels fun for longtime fans but still accessible to casual viewers.
The superfan-kidnapping premise also works as a clever marketing engine, teasing new music inside the story and giving people a reason to keep watching. What makes it especially strong is how naturally it connects to the band’s real world, from the house party concept to the self-aware jokes about who they are now versus who they were in the early album days.
The rollout is also smart. By putting the first episodes on the band’s TikTok, CandyJarTV reaches fans where they already are. Some episodes also start with a quick moment from a band member, giving fans a familiar face before the story begins. That makes the show feel more personal and easier to enter.
The US Election is about to make Vertical Marketing much more expensive.
Part of what we try to do here is bring up things that we’re hearing people talk about. This week we’re tracking the upcoming impact of the election on microdrama apps.
As microdrama platforms scale through paid acquisition, the 2026 election cycle may create a major marketing challenge: the same social, mobile, CTV, and video inventory used to acquire viewers could become dramatically more expensive.
Paid acquisition is currently the primary growth engine for microdrama apps. Sensor Tower found that 68% of U.S. ad spend from major microdrama platforms went to social networks in the first nine months of 2025, while over 80% of DramaWave’s early downloads came from paid advertising.
At the same time, political ad spending is exploding. AdImpact projects $10.8B in political ad spend for the 2025–2026 cycle, Madison and Wall estimate roughly $6.9B in digital spend this cycle. These ads are sold at auction. That’s a lot of money driving up cost.
That matters because political campaigns are increasingly buying on Meta, YouTube, Instagram Reels, CTV, and programmatic video. the exact inventory microdrama apps depend on. Election cycles historically drive CPM inflation and inventory shortages, with some of the sharpest increases occurring in the final 30–45 days before Election Day.
What is this temporary surge in pricing going to do to the space? Will it create an opening for ad-supported platforms like Tik Tok/Pinedrama? Will it shine a brighter light on shows with built in followings via IP or notable names? Will it lead to more apps shutting down? We’ll be watching Q4 closely.
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That’s it for this week’s Vertical Bloom.
We’re excited to keep building this into a weekly home for the ideas, experiments, and creative voices shaping vertical storytelling in real time.
Expect more people from the creative and business trenches of this sector coming in for their own thoughts and opinions.
We’ll be back next Thursday with more headlines, more analysis, and another look at where this medium is headed.
See you then.