Advanced Television

Refinery Media locks in brand partners across vertical slate

April 23, 2026

Unscripted producer Refinery Media is making a full pivot into vertical short-form — announcing a 10-title English-language slate, with five of those for COL Group’s FlareFlow platform, with brand integration partnerships in place with Shopee and Nippon Paint across the portfolio.

The slate comprises seven scripted dramas and three unscripted reality series, all produced natively for the 9:16 format, with titles premiering from Q2 2026. Among them is SupermodelMe: Make It or Break It, the vertical reimagining of the company’s flagship franchise announced last month at Hong Kong FilMart — but the brand deals and production infrastructure now being revealed make clear that Refinery’s move into vertical runs deeper than a single title.

Brands in the Story Architecture

The Shopee and Nippon Paint partnerships signal that Refinery is applying its branded entertainment model — built across 17 years of long-form production — directly to the vertical space. The company’s track record includes weaving brand narratives for clients such as Chopard and Louis Vuitton into its Man of the Hour horology format, integrating them at the development stage rather than as post-production overlays.

“We’re not treating brand integration as an add-on,” said Karen Seah, Founder & CEO of Refinery Media. “Our approach embeds brand narratives into story architecture from day one, so the integration becomes indistinguishable from the content itself. That’s what we’re bringing to vertical.”

For Shopee and Nippon Paint, the slate offers reach across FlareFlow’s fast-growing global user base — a platform that topped US entertainment app charts recently and has expanded rapidly across more than 200 countries and regions.

Influencer Talent, Premium Production

Refinery’s casting strategy is another differentiator. The company draws on its existing relationships with prominent regional influencers and talent it has helped build through its shows, working with management companies including Basic Models to bring known digital faces into its scripted and unscripted vertical projects. The approach is designed to accelerate audience acquisition on mobile-native platforms where influencer followings translate directly to viewership.

On the production side, Refinery operates its own virtual production studio, X3D Studio, alongside AI-integrated workflows through GENGIS AI — a setup the company says yields timelines approximately 20 per cent faster and costs approximately 30 per cent lower than conventional vertical production, without sacrificing cinematic quality.

The Slate

The anchor title, SupermodelMe: Make It or Break It, marks the first time a major global reality franchise has been fully redesigned for vertical episodic storytelling. Originally launched in 2009 as one of Asia’s earliest multi-platform reality formats, SupermodelMe was nominated for the Asia Academy Creative Awards, the Asian Television Awards and the International Digital Emmy Awards, with its final season distributed on Netflix. Three further Singapore-produced series (No-Volley Zone, My Best Friend, My Brother, My Rival and The Housemaid Wife) have also been confirmed for FlareFlow, with remaining titles to be unveiled ahead of the Q2 launch window.

The English-language focus is deliberate. Southeast Asia remains underserved by premium vertical content in English, while U.S. audiences are actively seeking alternatives to the Chinese-language titles that have dominated the vertical market to date.

“We’re positioned to serve both markets simultaneously,” said Seah. “That’s not an accident — it reflects 17 years of building content that travels.”

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