Common Interest

One subplot worth tracking as M&A ramps up this year: brand advertising — or, more accurately, its metamorphosis into a marketing-entertainment mashup. The days of this being mere theory are over. WPP teaming up with Universal Music Group for ad-fueled entertainment, talent agencies muscling into the ad industry, and the rise of new players like Common Interest all make one thing clear: the brand dollars are no longer waiting — they’re already there and moving fast. “For a long while, we’ve been witnessing the death of the campaign and the birth of the cultural moment. Traditional advertising is entertainment’s understudy, while brands are learning merely to be protagonists in culture stories,” James Kirkham, co-founder of brand consultancy Iconic, explained. In this piece by Seb Joseph, we also speak to Scott Sutton of Later, Matthew Lacey, and Anthony Freedman.

Hot news community... Today we have announced that creative design and innovation agency OTHERWAY has joined Rocket Companies agency roster to help ReStage, every aspect of the Rocket Mortgage brand. The work is truly iconic. It needs to be as it will sit atop of our offices across the country AND the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Thank you Jono Holt, and the incredible team OTHERWAY. You have delivered what I asked of you, which was to develop an iconic brand whilst making the team at Rocket smarter. #jobdonebutnotyetstarted. I'm excited to share the work with you all in January. Thank you ADWEEK and David Cohen for helping celebrate this important appointment.

Cultural relevance might be more accessible than you think. The rewards are there for the taking. For brands who are bold enough: everything, everywhere, all at once. For everyone else: something, here now is a great place to start the journey...

“Brands with high cultural relevance grow nearly 6x more than brands with low levels” according to Kantar. This is one of several interesting points in a recent paper by WARC Advisory in conjunction with (on behalf of) TikTok. Other hot takes… 💥 “At a time when attention is scarce, consumers gravitate toward content and trends that resonate with their interests and the communities they identify with.” 💥 “Brands that pursue personal and cultural relevance unlock new opportunities for growth.” 💥 “When brands pursue cultural and personal relevance, they are more likely to experience enhanced conversion.” 💥 “Relevance drives the opportunity for brands to play a more meaningful role in consumers’ lives, which translates to better metrics across the funnel.” All in all, it’s a useful ‘independent’ viewpoint that supports the argument that cultural relevance is good for business. Which is music to my Common Interest ears. For anyone who’s interested in building brands in popular culture, it’s well worth a read although it is also heavily spruiking TikTok as a platform that helps drive that (no doubt true but by no means the silver bullet in my view). Doing a bit of spruiking myself, one thing I don’t think it adequately covers is how to identify cultural trends in a more scientific way, nor how to measure a brand’s impact in culture in an equally empiric manner. For that, a shameless plug for Jed Hallam and CultureLab, leading the charge in unlocking culture to unleash growth. * Link in the comments.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY COMMON INTEREST !! 🎂 12 months ago today we introduced Common Interest to the world when we announced the acquisition of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand. We followed that incredible start with OTHERWAY and a few months after that launched CultureLab. There's lots more news we look forward to sharing very soon. But for now, a massive thanks to Jonathan Mildenhall Neil Barrie Colin Chow Simon Phipps Sara Tate Stephanie Nicolaides Dan Hauck Melissa McNutt Jono Holt Ben Lewin Stuart Finlayson Kristina Manasieva Tom Rowe Ed Terry Rosie Pearmain Jed Hallam Deepa Shah... an incredible team I am lucky to be working with. I've loved our first year and am excited for all the things we have planned for the future 🚀

CMOs have never been more valuable and never been more vulnerable and that needs to change. So I’m very proud to be launching a body of work designed to do exactly that - The CMO Thrive Guide. At TwentyFirstCenturyBrand we’ve worked with 150 of the best and brightest CMOs helping them develop iconic brands - from tech disruptors to legacy corporates - creating category-leading narratives across travel, fintech, entertainment, wellness, marketplaces and more. We’ve had a front-row seat in seeing what works and what doesn’t and the difference between CMOs that survive, and the elite group that really thrive. The modern CMO is an incredibly sophisticated role, requiring a unique mix of creative, commercial, tech and cultural expertise. Renaissance badasses! I’ve also personally seen that the role can be a lonely journey. I’ve informally mentored many throughout their onboarding and it’s repeatedly struck me that there’s no proper resource to guide that critical first 12 months where the seeds of success or failure are sown. So we decided to fill the gap and pooled the wisdom of a panel of some of the world’s leading CMOs, CFOs, and CEOs to create the CMO Thrive Guide. An intimate inspiration manual full of wisdom, proven tools, and  realtalk cases of success and struggle across the critical people and practice aspects of the role. Like having a mentor made up of the world’s best CMOs on your side during the critical first 12 months. Our hope is that it maximizes the impact of CMOs of all tenures as they seek to build iconic category-defining brands. Jonathan Mildenhall and I are honored to be interviewed by Dr. Marcus Collins for Forbes, shedding more light on our process and ambitions for the future of brand leaders. You can read more about it in the article below and find a link to the CMO Thrive Guide in the comments. Special thanks to Sara Tate for being a huge contributor and thought leader in bringing this vision to life. Love and respect, – Neil Barrie, Co-Founder and CEO TwentyFirstCenturyBrand https://lnkd.in/gEKc9ikK