Japan – Dentsu Entertainment, the entertainment arm of dentsu, has entered into a global strategic partnership with Iconic Arts to develop scalable, data-driven intellectual property for brands across content, experiences, interactive media, and consumer products.
The partnership reflects a shared view that brands are increasingly moving beyond short-term, campaign-focused marketing toward long-term entertainment IP and transmedia franchise development.
Under the collaboration, 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 serialised entertainment formats.
“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. Iconic Arts brings a rare combination of creative execution and data intelligence that aligns strongly with where the industry is heading,” said Angela Johnson, EVP and global client president at dentsu.
Founded by Steven Haddadian with 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 on 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.
The partnership was recently highlighted at the Sundance Film Festival during the BrandStorytelling programme, where dentsu and Iconic Arts led a joint session on IP creation for brands. The discussion explored how marketers are shifting from campaigns to franchise-driven entertainment ecosystems and featured a demonstration of Iconic Arts’ proprietary data intelligence platform, IP-IQ, which guides creative development, audience targeting, platform selection, and long-term IP scalability before production begins.
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. 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,” said Ray Konishi, head of Japan ↔ US Synergy at dentsu.
As the partnership develops, dentsu and Iconic Arts plan to collaborate on multiple brand-led IP initiatives, using IP-IQ to inform creative decisions, enhance cultural relevance, boost audience engagement, and expand long-term franchise potential.
“Dentsu understands both brand objectives and the cultural expectations of modern audiences,” added 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.”
