Wieden+Kennedy has spent decades helping brands become part of culture. Now it wants to make the culture itself.
The independent agency has launched Wieden+Kennedy Entertainment, a new division developing film and television projects both with and without brand involvement. The effort has been quietly taking shape for several years and is now stepping into public view with its first announced project, Porto Rico, an independent historical drama starring Bad Bunny, Viggo Mortensen and Edward Norton.
W+K Entertainment is being led by global head of production Nick Setounski, global chief creative officer Karl Lieberman and Los Angeles producer Lakshmi Iyengar, whose background includes studio development work and a stint as an agent at CAA.
The new division has two tracks.
One is to develop and invest in original entertainment unrelated to advertising. The other is to help W+K clients move into film and television in ways that go beyond conventional branded content and product placement.
That distinction matters to Setounski, who has little interest in recreating the kind of branded entertainment he believes audiences already ignore.
“A lot of branded content just sucks,” he told Ad Age. “There’s so much bad product placement and work that’s hokey and ineffective for brands.”
Instead, W+K sees an opportunity to use the same tools that built brands such as Nike, Ford and McDonald’s – strategy, creative development and deep client knowledge – to create entertainment where a brand’s involvement feels organic to the story rather than bolted on afterward.
The division is exploring theatrical films, television series and independent features seeking distribution. W+K says several substantial branded projects are already in development, although details have not yet been announced.
Its first public project offers a clearer picture of the ambition.
Porto Rico, currently shooting in the Dominican Republic, is a Caribbean western and historical drama inspired by Puerto Rican revolutionary José Maldonado Román, known as Águila Blanca. The story explores his fight against colonialism and the U.S. takeover of Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898.
The film marks the feature directing debut of René “Residente” Pérez Joglar and features a cast that also includes Richard Gadd, Rhenzy Feliz, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Daniel Brühl, and Rubén Blades. Alejandro G. Iñárritu is among the executive producers, with W+K Entertainment participating as a strategic partner and executive producer.
For Setounski, that kind of artistically ambitious project is closer to the spirit W+K wants the division to embody. “What made Wieden+Kennedy great all those years ago was doing provocative things, supporting directors before they were well known and supporting artistic projects that could get under your skin,” he said. “It’s a little harder to do some of those things in a TikTok post.”
The agency was selective before choosing Porto Rico. According to Setounski, the team reviewed around 80 possible projects.
He, Iyengar, and Lieberman also built lists of their 100 favorite movies and used AI to identify common themes. The exercise revealed a shared preference for bold, artistically challenging stories built around conflict, authenticity and ambition.
That taste is intended to become the filter for future W+K Entertainment projects.
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The timing also reflects a broader shift in both advertising and Hollywood. Brands are increasingly looking for alternatives to traditional marketing, while studios and producers are more open to brand participation in entertainment financing and development. W+K believes its position between those two worlds could become a meaningful advantage.
The original-content team will remain relatively small for now, while branded projects can draw on W+K’s larger network of creatives, strategists, and account teams.
The idea is for both sides of the business to feed each other. Independent projects can deepen W+K’s relationships with filmmakers, producers, distributors and financiers, while the agency’s brand relationships could potentially help original projects find additional funding or partnerships.
W+K is hardly the first agency to chase Hollywood. Other shops have financed or produced films, while Known has expanded through Known Originals.
But the agency is approaching entertainment as an extension of its creative identity rather than a disconnected side business.
Setounski eventually envisions a slate of roughly 10 original projects, though he says W+K intends to remain selective as it learns an industry where projects can take years to reach the screen.
For an agency whose work has always been about putting brands inside culture, the next evolution is straightforward.
Make the thing people want to watch.
