Creator-led animation has found a powerful new ally.

FOX Advertising and Toonstar announced a strategic partnership Thursday that aims to bring creator-led animation into the advertising mainstream, combining FOX’s sales and distribution capabilities with Toonstar’s technology-driven animation production model.

The deal creates opportunities for brands to sponsor existing animated series, fund creator projects, or develop original character-driven franchises designed to expand into merchandise, gaming, publishing, and other businesses.

For Toonstar, the partnership represents a significant validation of a model built around digital-first animation created for platforms like YouTube.

“We’re bringing digital-first, creator-led animation to FOX’s advertising infrastructure,” Toonstar CEO and co-founder John Attanasio told IndieWire. “What it means for brands is they can get into digital-first creator-led animation in a way they hadn’t really been able to before.”

Founded by former Disney and Warner Bros. executives John Attanasio and Luisa Huang, Toonstar has positioned itself at the intersection of the creator economy and animation production. The company develops animated projects with digital creators and internet-native talent, including upcoming series “Fried” from comedian and creator Nigel Ng, aka Uncle Roger.

The FOX partnership creates two primary avenues for advertisers.

The first is relatively straightforward: Brands can sponsor existing Toonstar series and creator-led projects. Attanasio said FOX’s advertising sales infrastructure should help increase monetization opportunities for those shows while creating a larger advertising marketplace around Toonstar’s growing slate.

“The more of these digital-first animated shows we do, you start to build out what is essentially a YouTube animation network,” he said.

The second opportunity is potentially more transformative. Rather than simply sponsoring content, brands can participate directly in creating it.

Attanasio describes these projects as “branded originals” — character-driven worlds developed in collaboration with advertisers that launch as entertainment properties before expanding into broader intellectual property franchises.

“More brands are seeing themselves as studios in a way,” he said. “They want to actually co-produce a character world. It’s really using content as a flywheel.”

The concept reflects a broader shift underway across media and marketing, as companies increasingly look beyond traditional advertising toward owned intellectual property and audience communities.

The partnership also highlights another change reshaping animation: speed.

Historically, animation production cycles have made it difficult to respond to cultural moments in real time. Toonstar believes advances in production technology have changed that equation.

“You’ve traditionally been able to do that with influencers and live-action creators because the content is timely and relatable,” Attanasio said. “You really haven’t been able to do that with animation.”

Toonstar says its proprietary production system, Ink & Pixel, allows the company to produce animation quickly enough to operate at the pace of social media and YouTube publishing schedules. The company says it can release episodes on a weekly cadence while incorporating audience feedback into future installments.

That feedback loop is powered by another Toonstar technology platform called SPOT, which analyzes audience behavior and engagement data.

According to Huang, the system helps creators understand not only who is watching but why certain characters, storylines, pacing choices, and creative decisions resonate with audiences. Those insights can then be incorporated into future episodes and shared with advertisers looking for a deeper understanding of audience affinity.

“The audience signals translate back into the development of the show,” Huang said. “Because of the speed in which we develop, we’re able to react to those audience signals.”

The announcement comes as major media companies increasingly embrace creator-led content and direct-to-consumer distribution strategies. It also arrives amid broader changes in the streaming landscape, including FOX’s recently announced acquisition of Roku, a deal that significantly expands the company’s reach in ad-supported streaming.

For Attanasio, the alignment between Toonstar and FOX reflects a growing recognition that creator-led digital content is no longer a niche category but an increasingly important part of the entertainment ecosystem.

“We feel like it’s important because this is where audiences are,” he said. “Especially millennials and Gen Z. This is where they are.”

The companies will showcase the partnership at Cannes Lions next week.