This week: Dentsu wants in on brand publishing, and home design brand publishers eye editorial independence

Ad agencies are seeing opportunities to act as financiers and middlemen to help brands delve into content opportunities. Dentsu Creative – a global agency network that’s part of Japanese marketing agency Dentsu – has launched a new investment fund that will give its brand clients access to “entertainment specialists” to advise them on how they can finance new content initiatives, including films, TV projects, games, music and live events. The “every brand can be a media company” refrain has neatly extended into the “every brand can be an entertainment company” sphere – brands like Chipotle, for example, have for years tried to create content that entertains audiences (not just educates them.) Entertainment itself can be a form of value exchan