Social Rocket
Dentsu wants to do more than place brands in series and films – it wants them involved earlier in the development of entertainment. The agency group is building a business around creator productions, its own investments and access to existing character and film rights. In talks around the TV trade fair Mipcom in mid-October 2026, entertainment chief Cathy Boxall described this direction. For marketing teams, one question is now central: are they simply buying attention – or are they sharing the economic risk of a format?
Three models brands should keep apart
A classic product placement secures visibility within someone else's content. A co-financed creator format, by contrast, can include co-decision rights on concept, exploitation and distribution. An IP or licensing partnership enables the use of existing stories, characters or fan worlds without the brand becoming their owner. These models differ markedly in budget risk, approvals, exclusivity and rights.
On its own entertainment page, Dentsu lists consulting, brand financing, investments, production and product integration as distinct services. According to the agency, it is also involved in the production and marketing of the third Angry Birds film announced for January 2027. Digiday reported on the 15 October that Dentsu intends to involve brand partners early in possible integrations. Which revenue shares or production rights individual advertisers receive is not publicly specified.
Creator series become the counterpart to the one-off social ad
Back in June, Dentsu announced a multi-year partnership with Made By Us Studios. Together, they aim to create fictional, documentary and animated formats with creators. According to Dentsu, brands can get involved already during development – not just book finished sponsorship slots. We have already described the related approach for specific platform formats in our report on TikTok's collaboration with Made By Us Studios.
The difference from individual paid posts lies in the exploitation chain: a format may first appear in social feeds, later be expanded on a video platform and finally be licensed through further partners. For brands and creators, rights to characters, raw material, music, follow-up formats and advertising therefore need to be agreed separately. Our overview of three contract models in the creator Hollywood business explains these risks.
Anime licences and fandom data: big promises, limited evidence
A further building block is Dentsu's partnership with Kodansha, announced in September. It gives participating clients access to promotion rights for anime and manga franchises such as Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell and Blue Lock – explicitly for markets in North and South America, not automatically for Germany.
Dentsu also points to its own fandom intelligence study with 21.139 online interviews across four market regions and roughly 200 entertainment brands. The company highlights particularly high purchase intent for collaborations with well-known fictional characters. These figures are based on surveys about brand perception and purchase intent; they are not experimental proof of additional sales from a specific sponsorship. Germany was not among the explicitly named survey regions.
What a German brand must calculate before entering
Alongside production costs, a realistic business case requires the contractually permitted markets, channels, durations, cut versions, approval processes and the option to reuse the material. A series' reach and fans do not automatically translate into buyers of a brand. Success should therefore be measured against separate criteria such as actual video usage, brand impact and incremental sales. Even with small social series this remains difficult, as our analysis of measuring creator microseries and the article on the ROI of short dramas show.
Assessment: Dentsu's strategy turns creator entertainment into a potential standalone buying and investment area. What is documented are partnerships and production plans – not that an IP stake performs economically better than a conventional campaign.
Sources: Digiday, 15.10.2026; Dentsu Entertainment, service overview; Dentsu/Made By Us Studios, 17.06.2026; Dentsu/Kodansha, 24.09.2026; Dentsu Fandom Intelligence, 17.06.2026.
Image: Official visual from dentsu Entertainment, source: dentsu.com; symbolic image for film production, not a photo of a specifically described collaboration.