Common Interest, a communications and entertainment group, has acquired an
initial 51 per cent stake in Amplify, a creative agency specialising in
experience.
The initial stake will be followed up with a commitment to
purchase the remaining 49 per cent of Amplify over the next five years. As part
of the deal, Amplify’s global leadership team will become partners and equity
holders in Common Interest.
Established in 2007 and led by chair Anton Mercier and
logbal CEO Jonathan Emmins, Amplify is best known for creating brand worlds,
campaigns and experiences that traverse channels and drive business
transformation through the power of culture. With offices in London, LA, Paris,
New York and Sydney, the agency works with clients including Lego, Google,
Pinterest, PlayStation and Nike. Amplify also has two audience specialist
agencies: Seed whose focus is on youth and Gen Z, and business experience
specialists Wonder. Mercier and Emmins will continue to lead the business,
alongside the global and local leadership teams, including those of Seed and Wonder.
“As audiences become more fragmented and culture becomes
increasingly fluid, modern brands need a different type of creative expertise.
One that better reflects the seamless expectations of their consumers. In this
evolving world, audiences and brands alike are looking for a new type of
creative agency,” said Emmins. Common Interest is the natural home for
Amplify, sharing this belief, the collaborative spirit and, above all, a
commitment to creativity and culture.”
Common Interest, a communications and entertainment group
focused on connecting brands and audiences through popular culture, was founded
in September 2023 by former Havas AUNZ chair, ‘One Green Bean’ and ‘Host’
agency founder, Anthony Freedman. Headquartered in London, the new group is
already home to companies including global brand transformation and growth
consultancy TwentyFirstCenturyBrand; design, motion and innovation studio
Otherway and CultureLab, the group’s first-of-its-kind AI cultural intelligence
platform.
Freedman added, “It's increasingly accepted that culturally
relevant brands materially outperform, and Common Interest was created to help
businesses unlock this competitive advantage by connecting with audiences in
popular culture. Our position as the world's first group focused on building
brands in popular culture is supercharged with the addition of Amplify which
brings its proven track record for delivering worldbuilding ideas that blur the
line between brand, entertainment, tech and modern media, both globally and
locally.”
