dentsu Sports & Entertainment Trends 2025: China Focus

As a committed specialist team of the Dentsu Group, dentsu Entertainment draws on decades of global practices in the sports and entertainment industries to invest in powerful IPs and build strategic long-term alliances with leading entertainment companies in Europe, the US, Japan, and the Greater North Asia region.

The dentsu Entertainment Greater North Asia team has introduced the 2025 dentsu Sports & Entertainment Trends: China Focus this year, offering an in-depth look at the key forces shaping culture and consumption in China’s entertainment landscape. The report is designed to help brands navigate the attention economy and build content ecosystems that create authentic connections with their audiences.

As we experience a period of heightened emotional engagement and an explosion of content options, audience entertainment preferences have become more emotional, fragmented, and personalised. Consumers are no longer passive viewers - they actively seek emotional resonance, cultural belonging, and identity recognition. To stay relevant, brands must go beyond capturing attention and create meaningful emotional connections.

The report introduces eight key trends - Emotional Frosting, Minimal Cultural Unit, Idol Decentralisation, The Era of Impatience, New Epoch of Sports, Consumer Sovereignty, Unleash AI Power, and Creating Entertainment Properties. These themes explore the evolving landscape of sports and entertainment through the lenses of emotional drivers, cultural expression, and technological innovation, offering valuable insights into how these shifts are reshaping brand communication.

TREND 01
EMOTIONAL FROSTING
In the whirlwind of everyday life, today’s young people are drawn to small, reliable bursts of emotional comfort. They engage in group interactions to find emotional togetherness and recognition, often resorting to immersive entertainment experiences as a way to channel their emotions.

TREND 02
MINIMAL CULTURAL UNIT
To create cultural phenomena and drive conversations, brands must weave themselves into the cultural landscape - re-envisioning traditional motifs through modern entertainment to craft enduring appeal.

TREND 03
IDOL DECENTRALISATION
In an industry where top stars often come and go, emerging talents infuse brands with new energy and unique allure. Celebrities on the rise, appreciated for their authenticity, and the advent of 'ugly chic' are making room for non-traditional entertainers to shine in brand collaborations.

TREND 04
THE ERA OF IMPATIENCE
As each piece of content captures attention for only two seconds, short-form formats are thriving. Their storytelling impacts long-form productions and attracts key industry players, prompting greater investment in micro content on various platforms.

TREND 05
NEW EPOCH OF SPORTS
Sports have evolved into a symbol of lifestyle and emotional healing. With 73.7% of young individuals willing to connect through sports, a new generation of athletes is rising as inspiring cultural icons, while major events help drive the growing ice and snow economy.

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TREND 06
CONSUMER SOVEREIGNTY
With 88% of users prefer user-generated content, compelling storytelling is key to boosting engagement and sharing. Brands should listen to their audience and co-create to maximise returns while minimizing costs.

TREND 07
UNLEASH AI POWER
AI is turning ads into interactive worlds, while in gaming, it creates uniquely immersive brand experiences that deliver hyper-realistic gameplay for players. At the same time, sports programming and event production are embracing a new era of intelligent management.

TREND 08
CREATING ENTERTAINMENT PROPERTIES
Understanding diverse cultural communities and their dynamics is crucial for brands seeking to build a successful entertainment matrix. By embracing entertainment-driven creativity, brands can evolve from mere logos into sought-after cultural icons, generating lasting impact and enhancing brand equity.

Three transformative forces are redefining engagement in China: sports becoming rallying points for national identity, entertainment splintering into micro-communities of superfans, and digital experiences evolving into fully immersive participation. For global brands, dentsu Entertainment team translates these shifts into actionable strategies to navigate the fragmented media landscape and create impactful entertainment assets - turning cultural insights into meaningful connections with China’s 1.4 billion consumers.

Guang Cui, the CEO of dentsu China, has seen the continuous innovation and success of dentsu in the sports and entertainment sectors over the past twenty years, from Tokyo to Beijing and beyond. He remarked, “In the evolution of culture-driven consumption, brands now have an unprecedented opportunity to creatively highlight their value and engage in meaningful dialogue with consumers. Dentsu has introduced some of the most culturally impactful works through sports and entertainment, drawing inspiration from diverse cultural influences worldwide. In the Chinese market, dentsu’s sports and entertainment marketing continues to be a key engine driving our integrated growth solutions, opening doors for new business model innovations and creating fresh value for our clients’ brands.”

Britney Pai, the head of dentsu Entertainment for Greater North Asia, shared, “In today’s attention economy, sports and entertainment have emerged as powerful vehicles for brands to cut through the noise and engage with audiences. Since the 1970s, dentsu has pioneered cultural transformation through sports and entertainment marketing. Now, through our ‘Sports & Entertainment ++’ approach, we fuse cutting-edge creativity, data intelligence and emerging technologies to redefine digital engagement - delivering always-on innovation for the streaming era and integrating dentsu’s global practices to be the growth partner for brands’ sustainable journeys.”

Visit the dentsu website to download the full dentsu Sports & Entertainment Trends: China Focus and gain deeper insights into China’s entertainment landscape.