Following ATF, which took place last December in Singapore, LM spoke with Clay Schouest, brand strategist at Dentsu, about the evolution of branded entertainment in the Asia Pacific.

What’s driving growth in branded entertainment in the Asia Pacific region?

From a brand strategy perspective, I see four key areas of growth. First, premium consumer attention is increasingly difficult to capture, and branded entertainment offers a powerful way for brands to engage audiences in the entertainment space.

Second, the creator and platform ecosystem across APAC has matured significantly. Traditional creators and influencers have evolved into IP co-owners, building their own brands and entertainment properties. This fundamentally shifts the industry model—brands are no longer simply creating assets and broadcasting them, but are now focused on owning and creating IP themselves.

Third, APAC has reached a tipping point in cultural exports. Korean content, anime, and esports are obvious examples, but there’s much more: Japanese craft storytelling, Southeast Asian travel and culinary content, Thai dramas, and Indonesian horror. The opportunity for brands in this region is to get in early on this export wave.

Fourth, APAC is leading the fusion of entertainment and commerce through live shopping, fandom commerce, and IP licensing—turning entertainment into transactions. This “story stack” model is uniquely packaged and is now exporting globally.

How do regional differences across APAC impact branded entertainment?

APAC isn’t one market—it’s a cluster of wildly different content cultures, which is precisely why branded entertainment is exploding here. Japan excels in anime, gaming, and craft storytelling. Korea operates as a world-class production engine with global export power. China demonstrates advanced commerce integrations, particularly where branded entertainment meets gaming. India leverages celebrity power and sports for mass branded entertainment. Thailand and Indonesia are creative-first cultures that produce lifestyle-driven content focused on food and travel. Singapore serves as a bridge of cultural fluency, translating content between East and West.

How will APAC influence Western markets?

You’re already seeing more branded entertainment born in APAC traveling west, rather than just Western content being localized and moving east. Global audiences now embrace K-pop, anime, esports, and Asian dramas—these aren’t regional trends anymore; they’re part of global mainstream culture. The next big entertainment formats won’t necessarily be Western localizations but APAC-born formats scaled back to the West, often led by brand-funded IP.

There’s such an appetite for Asian quality content that it’s now just great content, not “Asian content.” The cultural fusion and acceptance among Western viewers have reached a point where they are simply commonplace.

What’s the future of linear TV in this landscape?

Linear TV isn’t going away in this region—it still has strong programming, particularly in Korea and Thailand. What’s changing are the formats and the hybrid nature of storytelling. Sports documentaries with anime-style storytelling, travel shows hosted by gaming creators, and reality formats using gaming mechanics—these multi-platform universes that combine TikTok, TV, YouTube, gaming, and live events represent the future.

How important is fandom to content development?

Fandoms fuel franchise models and are crucial for broadcasters and producers. Working with clients like HBO Max, we see how franchise models develop branded entertainment around fandoms. Sports, travel, and food formats, lifestyle shows, and esports all appeal to different fandoms across Asia—it’s not just anime and K-pop, but also numerous subculture fandoms.

Looking ahead, what trends will shape APAC’s future?

Formula One exemplifies the future model: multi-platform IP with extensive touchpoints. Singapore’s F1 event demonstrates this perfectly—it’s no longer just about races, but concerts, spectacle, and destination entertainment, with multiple licensing opportunities.

Brands are increasingly acting like studios, commissioning or collaborating on IP, owning their own worlds and story platforms, operating as multi-format producers. Cross-fandom storytelling—anime meets sports, food meets esports, creators meet music—these mashup models will proliferate.

APAC is becoming a major export region for strong IP elements, from food culture to esports to K-content, and this trend will only accelerate.

Advice for producers pitching in APAC?

Think about extensions from the start. Demonstrate how your IP can be extended and adapted to other formats. Consider the social component, live elements, creator involvement, community building, and commerce opportunities. It’s not just about broadcasting to screens—it’s about bringing in fandoms, creators, and multiple touchpoints to tell your story across platforms.