Branded Entertainment Executives Anthony Damianakis, Pete Fergusson Launch Dubai-Based Startup IPX to Connect Brands With Content (EXCLUSIVE)

Branded entertainment executives Anthony Damianakis and Pete Fergusson are launching an ambitious startup called IPX headquartered in Dubai, with offices also in London and Sydney.

The innovative startup aims to connect brands with creators, producers, broadcasters, streamers and other content platforms to jointly develop premium content and ownable IP.

IPX – which is being touted as the world’s first global marketplace for branded entertainment – is launching with backing from prominent international branded industry figures such as Toby Hack, a former top exec at advertising and marketing conglomerate Omnicom’s PHD Worldwide, and media entrepreneur Juliette Otterburn-Hall, founder and managing partner of the U.K.’s consulting firm Value Squared.

Damianakis is a former commercial content director at Australia’s Boomtown Pictures and chief growth officer at innovative advertising company The Saudi Agency Network of which Fergusson is CEO and founder. Fergusson previously founded U.K.-based video agency Nemorin Film & Video whose client base included global brands NBCUniversal, Nat Geo, Hugo Boss, McDonalds, Amazon and American Express.

While operating globally, IPX will have a strategic focus on the Middle East, “capitalising on regional production incentives and the region’s growing momentum as a global content and entertainment hub,” according to a statement. “IPX is establishing its global headquarters in the UAE and has deep inroads into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Agency Network,” it added.

“Branded entertainment is a $100 billion industry with no real infrastructure,” said Damianakis in the statement. “Deals happen through personal networks, opportunities are invisible unless you’re in the room, and there’s no efficient way for the right brands to find the right creators,” he went on to note. “We are building the global marketplace this industry has needed for years using behavioural science and data insights instead of gut feel and relationships.”

“The Middle East uniquely combines attractive production incentives, ambitious distribution, a can‑do culture, and growing brand investment,” added Fergusson.

IPX is launching on Monday (Feb. 16) with a live pipeline of projects that are being kept under wraps and has secured unspecified early agreements from premium IP owners and major international agencies.