TikTok creator Thea von Engelbrechten has skyrocketed to virality for her zany, soap-opera-esque video series starring Calico Critters, cutesy animal figures known as “Sylvanian Families” outside of the U.S. and Canada. In contrast with the toys’ overly adorable designs, von Engelbrechten’s quick video dramas typically revolve around adult themes such as infidelity, alcoholism and gang violence—but with comedic dialogue—and they’ve attracted the attention of brands such as Amazon Prime Video, Burberry and Ruggable.  

Unlike a typical influencer partnership, marketers aren’t interested in having von Engelbrechten herself promote their products—they’re seeking to have their brands inserted into the melodramatic plot lines she acts out with miniature animal figures.

Ruggable, a direct-to-consumer rug brand, worked with von Engelbrechten in July to promote a sales event and “capture viewers’ attention in an unexpected and delightful way,” rather than turn to a more traditional influencer partner, a company spokesperson said in an email. “The goal for a campaign like this one is for the creators’ audience to enjoy the content just as much as they would a fully organic [unsponsored] video,” they said.

Von Engelbrechten, a 22-year-old from Ireland, started the @Sylvaniandrama account out of pandemic-fueled boredom while living at home and taking online college classes, she told Ad Age. On a whim, she dug out her old Calico Critter toys and decided to have them act out a “Desperate Housewives”-inspired plot line—the show she was binge-watching at the time—where one of the animal figures cheats on his wife. She initially posted the video to her personal TikTok account to share it with friends, but as it began receiving views outside of her friend group she created the @Sylvaniandrama channel. That video now has over 800,000 views.

Von Engelbrechten has amassed more than 2.4 million followers and over 60 million collective likes across her content, which is often set to popular songs such as “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

“I was like, ‘Okay, this would be really embarrassing if someone sees that I’m playing with toys.’ So I made a separate account,” von Engelbrechten said. “I didn’t think it would get views at all. I was so surprised—it was literally just for my friends that I was making these videos—and then there was just one day that the account really grew.” 

That turning point came at the end of January 2021 in the form of an episode revolving around an elephant figure being bullied into getting a nose job and featuring pro skateboarder Tony Hawk as a meerkat, she said. The video quickly amassed views—it’s currently sitting at 8 million views and 2.2 million likes—and spawned a loyal fan base that propelled her subsequent episodes of the Sylvaniandrama series to reach similar virality, she said. 

Brands soon cottoned on to the popularity of von Engelbrechten’s account, with Burberry reaching out to the creator in early 2022 for a partnership to promote its Lola Bag. Her Burberry-sponsored video, which revolves around a cheating scandal and features a miniature version of the brand’s advertised purse, received more than 6.5 million views and 1.4 million likes—as well as a slew of comments excitedly discussing the video’s sponsorship. 

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“I do feel kind of guilty as a content creator when I do ads,” von Engelbrechten said. “But people have been so supportive, and I think it’s because it’s toys behind these ads and not a ‘person,’ so people find the irony of me doing an ad really funny on its own. I always get people tagging their friends and being like, ‘This is so funny that Sylvaniandrama is doing a sponsored post.’ So, there’s layers to it, because some people will find the actual content funny whereas other people just find the irony of it funny.”

‘Definitely no blood’

Several other brands, including ASOS, Royal Caribbean, Amazon Prime Video and, most recently, Ruggable, have partnered with von Engelbrechten, with each sponsored video drawing anywhere from 550,000 to 1.5 million views. The sponsorships arose from the brands contacting her directly, she said; while she received a few offers prior to her deal with Burberry, she refused to partner with any brand that she didn’t use or admire in her personal life.

When it comes to weaving a brand sponsorship into her videos, von Engelbrechten must often soften the more adult plot lines of her Sylvaniandrama series. “They can’t have any violence at all—well, the Ruggable one kind of did—but definitely no blood,” she said.

Several unsponsored @Sylvaniandrama videos have included Calico Critters playing the role of gang members or criminals with missing ears and bloodied heads. “That could always be taken the wrong way and people who aren’t familiar with your content might be really shocked by it,” von Engelbrechten said. “So, you do have to keep it a little sweeter.”

She also can’t include copyrighted music in her sponsored content, forcing her to swap pop songs for classical music.

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Her favorite partnerships have been the brands that have largely allowed her to stay true to the unhinged nature of her unsponsored videos and simply incorporate the brand into those soap opera storylines, she said. Ruggable, for example, allowed her to have one of the characters roll her ex-boyfriend up in a miniature version of one of the brand’s rugs before throwing him down a staircase. “I didn’t think they were going to approve that, but they were so on board for it,” she added.

Von Engelbrechten included the promotional code in the description of the sponsored video, and Ruggable showed up in the comment section to add, “Girls night AND saving 20%?! Yes please!”

ASOS and Prime Video declined to comment for this story. Burberry did not respond in time for publication. 

Von Engelbrechten points to the level of creative freedom that brands including Ruggable and Prime Video provided her as the key to success in allowing sponsored videos to still resonate with her followers looking for soap opera antics. When partnering with Prime Video to promote the streaming service’s “Daisy Jones & The Six” series, for example, the company allowed her to include drugs and alcohol in the video and “almost make fun of the show” by having Calico Critters act out a simplified version of its plot, she said.

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“There was a really great response to that, and the guy in the show [Sam Claflin] even shared it on Twitter,” she said. “But some brands are still way more strict with how the content is. Obviously, it has to be clean—but people are becoming way more chill with ads now. People aren’t canceling brands for having ads that are ‘too funny.’”