Since The X Factor USA premiered in the fall of 2011, the competitive landscape in branded entertainment has intensified significantly. The volume of branded content in the reality entertainment space has exploded both on broadcast television and across digital platforms. On broadcast, The Voice added a second season in one year, going head-to-head with The X Factor in the fall of 2012, and two new shows – Duets and Opening Act – also launched around the same period. On the digital front there was an explosion of branded entertainment – Red Bull's Stratos and a dozen others – launched across YouTube and other platforms.

The competition for brands to garner audiences through entertainment has never been more challenging.

Yet in this environment, not only did The X Factor USA sustain its digital and social lead from its first season vis-à-vis its competitors, but it significantly widened the gap between them, delivering greater brand exposure to its partners and retaining its social title even when compared to competitors who have launched new seasons in 2013.

The audience was drawn through three major avenues:

a) Social: The largest driver of audience was organic/earned social engagement, orchestrated by a dedicated team that leveraged the show's judges and contestants, engaged audiences 24/7, and directed them to branded content and integrations.

b) Broadcast: The second largest driver was messaging within the broadcast. This took the form of specific language within the show, directing viewers to participate in branded properties and integrations throughout the season.

c) Paid Media: Leveraged traditional marketing campaigns to draw in a wider audience into the digital ecosystem (e.g., street digi-boards promoted the week's Twitter hashtag debate.).

The season premiered with 1.4m social comments, still the most talked about premiere for a TV series ever, accounting for 74% of all social commentary in primetime TV that evening. Throughout the season, the show averaged over 500,000 social comments per episode and generated literally hundreds of trending topics every week. On YouTube, The X Factor bested all Premium YouTube channels by at least 3 times with more than 30m views per week. The X Factor also leveraged new platforms such as Instagram, creating 4 times the engagement of other shows on the platform. All in all, there were hundreds of millions of digital engagements and more than 6bn impressions.

Built on this base, brands saw their integrations achieve sensational growth. Verizon saw more than 60% growth in The Xtra Factor App. and a 168% boost in in-app voting. Pepsi saw 200% growth in their Pre-Show Live, 670% growth in their Fan Rewards program, and when they introduced their on-air creative with Drew Brees and The X Factor album's One Direction, the show’s fans made that the most talked about commercial of the fall, delivering millions of views to the spot on YouTube and significantly increasing the value of Pepsi’s on-air media.