ARTiSTORY's Four IAI Awards Signal a New Era for Cultural IP: From Licensing Assets to Building Global Cultural Brands

Cultural IP is entering a new phase. For museums, libraries, heritage organizations and cultural institutions, licensing is no longer simply about placing recognizable artworks, characters or historical imagery on products. Increasingly, the challenge is how to transform cultural assets into compelling contemporary narratives, experiences and brands - without losing the meaning and credibility that made them culturally significant in the first place.

This shift is at the heart of ARTiSTORY's growing international business. The cultural and art IP licensing and operations company ARTiSTORY has received four honors at the 26th International Advertising Institute Awards (IAI Awards), including a Gold Award for its The British Library × CHAGEE collaboration. The Project Lead and Chief Marketing Officer of ARTiSTORY, Zoe Liang Liu, attended the ceremony to accept the awards. The recognition comes alongside ARTiSTORY's debut at No. 57 in License Global's 2026 Top Global Licensing Agents, with an estimated retail sales value of US$61 million. For ARTiSTORY, the two recognitions represent more than industry accolades. Together, they point to an emerging model for cultural IP: one that sits at the intersection of culture, creativity, commerce and technology.

Beyond Licensing: Building Cultural Brands

Licensing is only the beginning, " says Zoe Liang Liu, CMO of ARTiSTORY. " The greater opportunity is to build a cultural IP into a living brand - with a distinctive narrative, meaningful experiences and a system that allows it to evolve across categories and markets. " Liu has been developing this perspective through her work in cultural IP positioning, brand strategy, integrated marketing and international licensing. Her approach focuses on moving cultural IP beyond individual transactions and toward long-term brand development. At the center of this approach is a simple but fundamental question: How can cultural heritage become relevant to contemporary audiences without becoming diluted or commodified? ARTiSTORY addresses this through what Liu describes as a Story, Scene and System approach: Story creates the narrative and cultural meaning. Scene translates that narrative into products, experiences, retail environments and contemporary consumer touchpoints. System provides the licensing, operational and technological infrastructure that allows the IP to scale sustainably. Together, these elements create a pathway for cultural IP to move from a static asset to an evolving cultural brand.

When British Literature Meets Chinese Tea Culture ARTiSTORY's Gold-winning The British Library × CHAGEE: Afternoon Earl Grey Fresh Milk Tea Series illustrates this approach. The collaboration brought together CHAGEE's contemporary tea culture with the literary world of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, creating new products and pop-up experiences across Malaysia and Singapore. Rather than using cultural imagery simply as visual decoration, the campaign established a shared narrative around tea, literature and cross-cultural connection. It offered audiences a familiar cultural entry point while introducing Chinese tea culture to international consumers. The project was also shortlisted for Best Licensed Promotion at the 2026 Licensing International Excellence Awards. For ARTiSTORY, the significance lies in the mechanism behind the collaboration: cultural IP becomes more powerful when it is translated into a story that audiences can experience, participate in and carry into their everyday live...