Transmedia, cross-media, fandom, and the future of storytelling — Licensing Magazine sits down with Christian Fonnesbech, founder and Head of IP at Leverage, to explore how intellectual property has to evolve to survive in the new era of content development.

Your background spans video games, film, and digital storytelling. How did that journey shape your current vision?

I think each step has taught me something essential. Games showed me how deeply audiences engage when they have agency in a world worth caring about. Film provided me with narrative tools. Building digital learning games for commercial clients made me realize the future of storytelling was on interactive media — not just TV. Later, while heading IP development at Nordisk Games, I realised there was a critical gap in our industry: no clear method for creating new IPs with the clarity to span multiple media. That’s what our company, Leverage, is built around.

Industry professionals often use “cross-media” and “transmedia” interchangeably. Are they the same thing?

Not really, and this confusion can lead to serious strategic mistakes. Cross-media is about franchise thinking, where your main business thrives in one medium — like a game or a book — and other media are used as advertising or licensed extensions. Transmedia, a concept Henry Jenkins promoted in the 2010s, is more radical: it involves telling one story across many platforms, expecting audiences to follow the narrative through each, with the business model spread across all of them.

Yet European IPs like Smurfs and Miraculous create original content across games, TV, film, and publishing — not just licensing spin-offs. Isn’t that transmedia in action?

Those are exceptional cases rooted in huge, multi-generational fanbases. My skepticism is aimed at new IPs trying to do the same. If you launch something new across three media platforms at the same time, you’re not increasing your chances of success — you’re increasing your chances of failure. You spread talent too thin, increase costs, and dilute focus. For a new IP, expecting audiences to follow a story across multiple platforms is simply unrealistic.

So, what does a strong IP really need to travel effectively, in your view?

Three creative pillars. First, a “tentpole” character — one that stands out emotionally and is legally ownable. Second, an emotional journey audiences want to re-experience regardless of medium. Third, clear brand positioning: a distinctive emotional stance within its genre. What makes your superheroes, zombies, or fantasy dwarves feel different from those that already exist? Make me care, and add contemporary relevance, and you have a foundation. Without these, no cross-platform strategy will save you.

In-house production, licensing, co-productions — which business model do you recommend?

It depends on the scale. Large companies with substantial resources can bring things in-house, though executives still risk underestimating the complexity of related fields. For smaller companies, licensing is the safest choice — but not before you’ve clearly defined your IP core and retain strict approval rights. This approach allows specialists in each area to focus on their strengths while you safeguard brand integrity. Co-productions can also work, but they require a high level of trust among partners and building that trust takes time.

Fandom is increasingly central to IP value. But is fan creativity always positive?

Fans are everything — they create the IP’s cultural value. But there’s a real risk that fan creativity will dilute or blur the core identity. Coherence is commercial. An IP that loses its definition loses its defensibility, legally and emotionally.

How does AI change the equation?

Dramatically, we’re heading into a flood of AI-generated content, much of which is mediocre. In that landscape, strong IPs become more valuable than ever — but only if owners have done the hard work of defining what should be immutable. Even as AI allows characters to “come alive” in reactive, dynamically generated worlds, a Smurf will still have to behave like a Smurf. Without a deep, documented understanding of an IP’s core, the coherence falls apart. IP definition isn’t a creative luxury — in the AI era, it’s a survival strategy.

A final thought on publishing. Where does it fit in this evolving landscape?

Publishing continues to be a strong indicator of an IP’s popularity and cultural significance. What’s particularly exciting is the growing dialogue between publishers and the gaming industry. Gaming now surpasses film in market size, and creative influence flows both ways — Minecraft has inspired numerous books; The Witcher novel series achieved its greatest commercial success as a game. Publishers view gaming IPs as a way to attract new readers, while gaming companies seek publishing to add cultural depth to their content. That conversation is just beginning, and your ability to understand the core of the IP you’re adapting will decide how well you do. It’s going to be one of the most exciting changes in our industry.