Dentsu Entertainment, a division of dentsu, a global leader in advertising and marketing transformation, has formed a strategic global partnership with Iconic Arts, an entertainment and technology studio focused on building scalable, data-driven intellectual property for brands across content, experiences, interactive media and consumer products.

The partnership is rooted in a shared view that brands are increasingly moving beyond short-term, campaign-based marketing toward long-term entertainment IP and transmedia franchise development. Together, dentsu and Iconic Arts will help brands create original IP grounded in culture, audience demand and platform-native storytelling, with a particular focus on anime and serialized entertainment formats.

The collaboration was recently spotlighted at the Sundance Film Festival during the BrandStorytelling program, where dentsu and Iconic Arts led a joint session on IP creation for brands. The discussion examined how marketers are shifting from campaigns to franchise-driven entertainment ecosystems and featured a demonstration of Iconic Arts’ proprietary data intelligence platform, IP-IQ. The platform is designed to guide creative development, audience targeting, platform selection and long-term IP scalability before production begins.

“Brands are increasingly looking to build entertainment assets that can live far beyond a single campaign and to more effectively plan around IP, not simply invest,” said Angela Johnson, EVP and Global Client President at dentsu. “Iconic Arts brings a rare combination of creative execution and data intelligence that aligns strongly with where the industry is heading.”

A key focus of the partnership is supporting dentsu’s Japan ↔ US Synergy initiatives, helping Japanese and global brands develop IP that can travel seamlessly across markets. “Our Japan–US Synergy group exists to help brands move faster and more confidently across cultures,” said Ray Konishi, Head of Japan ↔ US Synergy at dentsu. “Iconic Arts and IP-IQ give our teams a powerful way to identify which stories, formats, and IP ideas have real global potential, and to align our clients around a shared, data-informed vision from day one. This partnership is the perfect example of how we’re ensuring clients get best-in-breed solutions that dovetail seamlessly with our existing capabilities.”

Founded by Steven Haddadian alongside co-founders Alec Roth, Jack Sheehan, Mo Yazdani and Aric Jain, Iconic Arts operates across the U.S., Japan and Latin America. The studio works with brands and entertainment companies to make data-informed decisions around IP strategy while also developing and producing original content across multiple formats. In 2025, Iconic Arts received a strategic investment from Suntory Holdings, further validating its IP development model.

“Dentsu understands both brand objectives and the cultural expectations of modern audiences,” said Steven Haddadian, founder and CEO of Iconic Arts. “This partnership allows us to scale IP creation globally by combining Dentsu’s brand ecosystem and expertise with our data-driven entertainment studio framework.” 

As the partnership evolves, dentsu and Iconic Arts will collaborate on multiple brand-led IP initiatives, using IP-IQ to guide creative decisions and increase cultural relevance, audience engagement and long-term franchise potential.