Agency group Common Interest aims to fill a gap in marketing where cultural authenticity trumps appropriation.

If that sounds surprising in an industry that touts cultural reflection, remember that hits like the marketing for the Barbie movie are rare exceptions. Indeed, marketing often flirts with culture but rarely delivers.

Harsh? Maybe, but for every Barbie, there are countless flops that miss the cultural zeitgeist entirely. Bud Light, PepsiCo, Balenciaga, Burger King, Peloton — even these revered brands with savvy marketers have had their share of tone-deaf attempts to reflect culture in recent years.

Suddenly, Common Interest’s pitch starts to make perfect sense.

Of course, every agency aims for that. Where the group’s leaders hopes to stand out is in the execution. Founder Anthony Freedman, a former Havas regional chair, knows CMOs want to steward culturally relevant brands but struggle to sell it in the boardroom. As a result, marketing often gets dragged into an efficiency-driven race to the bottom. But it doesn’t have to be.

“One key thing we’re trying to do with Common Interest is to provide CMOs with the business case they need to develop, support and then measure a strategy that’s based on building cultural relevance,” Freedman said.

To do this, they’re focusing on weaving together a network of businesses that provide CMOs with the insights to understand culture and the tools to create content that earns its own media, rather than relying solely on paid reach.

So far, this consists of three businesses: brand consultants-cum-management experts TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, acquired last year; Otherway, the creative studio acquired in April; and CultureLab, the cultural intelligence platform launched in the spring. By the end of the year, there could be a few more to add to this list.

There is already one on the horizon, with Common Interest planning to launch another creative company later this year. Over the next year or so there could be another three deals.

“At that point we could have seven to eight businesses within the group with several hundred people across the U.K. and the U.S.,” said Freedman. “There are a few deals we’re looking at now.”

He’s unsurprisingly coy on the details, not just out of caution, but because it’s difficult to pin down the type of business he wants for Common Interest. They’re not the typical targets for marketing services groups. Think beyond the usual suspects — those in brand, entertainment, tech, and modern media. Discussions with several such companies have already taken place.

“We’re not trying to build another marketing services holding company,” said Freedman. “Instead, the idea is to create something that operates where brand meets entertainment, technology and modern media. To that end we want companies that will enable us to operate in those spaces, including some that are founded in entertainment, but can also be leveraged for brands.”

On that latter point, he’s eyeing companies in one of the more interesting and potentially lucrative trends in media today: branded entertainment. Slowly but surely, major advertisers are becoming entertainment financiers, getting their brands in front of people beyond the typical ad break — whether it’s between TV shows or social media posts. “We think it’s likely we will have an entertainment division because part of our strategy is to develop intellectual property and entertainment formats of our own,” said Freedman. This way, Common Interest has more credibility in convincing CMOs they can create their own entertainment.

There are two businesses the group believes could help with this: one is a startup they’re looking to invest in, the other is a business they’re looking to acquire — both straddling advertising and entertainment that Freedman declined to name.

“These companies will be built around people with ideas and an ambition to create original content that exists to entertain,” said Freedman. “We have a strong network to help both realize that ambition as well as find an audience for those ideas. We also build much more credibility to help brands operating in popular culture if we’re also operating as part of the entertainment industry.”

More broadly, the group’s credibility seems to be doing just fine. In fact, conversations are already happening with some clients about working with its businesses across the group rather than separately.

It’s a testament to how far Common Interest has come since its launch last September. __“What’s important to note is that cultural relevance goes beyond entertainment or a relevant celebrity in your ad,” said Diageo’s former head of culture and entertainment Leila Fataar, who now runs her own agency Platform13. “We are in a world of radical transformation. With consumer attention the fiercest it’s ever been, a fragmented media (digital and virtual) landscape, new commerce models driven by intuitive Web3 behaviors, and AI gone mainstream, the traditional funnel is no longer fit for purpose.”__

Clearly, Common Interest is being positioned to run counter to marketing’s obsession with quantification. Yet, the group’s bosses don’t dismiss those ideas completely. They know that paid performance, for instance, is important to amplify certain ideas for more reach, but they’re not driven by those metrics. Not when so much of that is controlled and increasingly commodities by the technology platforms themselves these days. It’s up to marketers to come up with strong ideas that can exist in spite of all that.
“We’re much more an origination business than a functional implementation business,” said Freedman.

This won’t be for every marketer, and he knows it. In many ways, it’s a niche play.

“Our strategy is not to try to persuade CMOs that are not inclined to think about things in this way to spend budget with Common Interest,” said Freedman. “We’re here to create a new and different option for CMOs who have already come to the conclusion that cultural relevance is a competitive advantage.”

He’s really talking about those marketers who have reached that point in their careers where they recognize the importance of building a strong brand. For many, the pandemic was a moment of clarity. Brand advertising was the key that enabled companies to corkscrew through the inflationary period of the past two years. Time and again, CEOs mentioned on conference calls how the strength of their brands allowed them to pass inflation costs to consumers. Not paid advertising. Not programmatic. Brand strength.

__“It’s a tough job,” said Fataar, who has written a book ‘Culture Led Brands’ on this topic. “Done right, it’s emotional, it makes people feel something by driving both reach and relevance, hype and depth, pulling people to your brand, not pushing your brand on people.”__

DIGIDAY, JUNE 2024, COVER IMAGE

DIGIDAY, JULY 2024

__"She has more influence than most billion-dollar companies"__

Only a few celebrities can shift things at a global scale, be it politics or the economy, and Taylor Swift is one of them. Speaking as a brand practitioner whose job is to make global brands culturally relevant, Swift's numbers are wild. YouGov reports that an astonishing 97% of British adults have heard of her, the kind of universal awareness usually reserved for multi-billion dollar companies like Google or Coca-Cola. She is the top streaming artist on both Spotify and Apple Music and has had 232 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. She is the most-liked person on Instagram, with each post averaging 7.8 million likes. At her Eras show in Seattle, the jumping of fans created a 2.3 magnitude earthquake. Her influence is, quite literally, groundbreaking.

I can put a pin in the moment that things changed for her. After Kanye West interrupted her during her MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech in 2009, she made global headlines, won sympathisers and a lot more listeners. Fan culture builds today's brands faster than ever before, and Swifties connect deeply with her relatable storytelling. From politics to trolls, relationships to anxiety, her lyrics are both true to her own experiences and reflective of what a generation is dealing with. 

But it's not just popular appeal that a brand needs to thrive - acknowledgement of your craft by industry gatekeepers helps too. Fourteen Grammy awards and being the first and only artist to win Album of the Year four times says a lot in a hugely competitive category. Her activism around artists' rights and fair treatment on global streaming platforms was awesome, and when her masters were sold by her ex-manager, her fightback by re-recording 1989 (Taylor's Version) showed her resilience in the face of the status quo.

At times, though, there have been questions about whether Brand Swift is nothing more than a marketing tactic. When Trump was on the election trail in 2020, she did use her platform to back the Democrats and explicitly fight for the rights of women and Black and LGBTQIA+ people, aligning with a younger generation of voters who had only a few months earlier driven the BLM protests across the world. However, in recent months she has been heavily criticised for her wasteful private jet usage and her silence on Gaza, raising questions about what she really stands for.

There's a fine line between cynically marketing for profit and being authentic, and it's in moments like this that Brand Swift is truly put to the test. As one of the world's most influential women who has used her platform to push for change that truly helps people, this year will show whether Taylor Swift can really be both: the cultural voice of a generation and a strategic businesswoman.


STYLIST.CO.UK - TAYLOR SWIFT - BANNER IMAGE

STYLIST, JUNE 2024

__Culture campaigns... culture-led brands__

“We create culture”. One thing our industry can agree on in 2024 is that we love to talk culture. But sure as culture changes and evolves, so has our use of the term, culture marketing, that has kicked around for well over a decade and has at times become shorthand for every campaign targeting the newest generation in, or simply anything we all universally decided was cool.

“Culture is often used as synonym for ‘Cool Gen Z’ activations, which is why it’s heavily associated with music, fashion and nightlife – but this overlooks other groups that engage with their own cultural worlds,” explains Gabriella Mascia, Insights Planner at PrettyGreen. “It’s about showing up in the moments and topical conversations that resonate with your audience. Everything from raving to running is ’culture’ with the right audience lens. Successful culture marketing is always audience-first – tapping into the insights that excite them, and ensuring your brand becomes a part of those discussions.”

__And while culture chatter in the industry has become ubiquitous – the art of creating the connections between brands and their audiences credibly is something that has been pioneered for decades explains Leila Fataar, founder of Platform13 which works with brands and organisations to champion culture-led creativity and storytelling. “Culture is how we communicate, what we wear, eat, see and listen to. It’s how we behave and what and/or who influences us and that includes politics, the media, technology, friends, family etc. It permeates every part of our lives.”__

__Defining a culturally-relevant brand as ‘one that engages a variety of different audiences consistently and positively, with these audiences in turn advocating for it and helping to attract new audiences’, Fataar explains that “This can only happen because that brand connects meaningfully with people within the context of what is happening in their own, and importantly, the wider world.”__

For Diego Pomareda, Marketing Director of Aguila at AB-InBev, it’s about starting with first principles before you start thinking about culture angles: “You need to know your audience, know your challenge, understand your objective and then, only then, bring creativity to the table. Culture marketing nowadays is a way to shape or use culture to engage, impact and most importantly not interrupt our consumers. In a nutshell, how are we aware of context, and how we use that knowledge as marketers… it’s one thing to surf the wave of culture, but quite another to be the one creating that wave.”

__Just do it (right)__

It’s a view shared by James Kirkham, CEO and founder of ICONIC, “it is about doing things right. It is connected with your audiences by being part of the conversations they’re having, and the communities they might be already building. If you are not part of the fabric of this cultural conversation, audiences and punters will ruthlessly filter you out. Instead of interrupting what your audience is interested in, you need to become what they’re interested in.”

And no interruptions includes no self-serving campaigns –  from fear of being cancelled through to ruthless TikTok parodies – brands are well aware of the pitfalls that can follow a perceived misstep. To ensure marketing campaigns are sustainable, brands need to prioritise the work that leaves a lasting change through creating an enduring positive impact.

That comes through connecting and investing with grassroots communities, says Chelsea Mtada, creative strategist at Amplify: “Brands wanting to embark on culture marketing campaigns should deeply connect with grassroots communities, not just as a strategy, but as a genuine investment in their growth and dreams. When brands pour resources and support into these communities, they become integral parts of their journey, fostering loyalty and authenticity.”

This longer-term commitment is essential to avoid being “a cultural plagiarist who thieves.. or a cultural gentrifier who tries to turn an existing community into something it isn’t,” says ICONIC’s Kirkham. Brands need to be in it for the long term, to show that they can add value to the community and the space. Citing Gymshark as a brand that consistently gets it right, due to an unwavering focus on community, he points to the witty ‘Sweat Gala’, which hijacked the Met Gala noise while showcasing workout fashion fit for the red carpet plus the brand’s Regents Park headquarters. “Their living, breathing, fully immersive retail space HQ is built community first, so young athletes who might not be able to afford gym memberships can learn how to lift weights at their ‘bench bar’, or meet their fitness heroes – creators and fitness influencers who regularly frequent the store and mix with the public.” 

__Celebrate the uncelebrated__

Mtada urges brands to find inspiration from uncelebrated talent – therefore making an early commitment to unheard voices. “The true power lies in being early investors in their potential, drawing inspiration from their raw, uncelebrated talent and ambition, rather than waiting for them to gain widespread clout. This approach not only amplifies the brand’s impact but also creates a symbiotic relationship that nurtures and celebrates the culture from the ground up.”

Celebrating the uncelebrated is an approach embraced by Snapchat for its ‘Hidden Black Stories’ campaign in partnership with The Black Cultural Archives. “Driven by the lack of black cultural icons represented in UK statues and landmarks, we worked with Snap to develop an AR lens that revealed the hidden black stories and people behind some of the UK’s biggest landmarks, fronted by Tukwini Mandela,” shares PrettyGreen’s Mascia.

__Meanwhile Platform13’s Fataar praises e.l.f Beauty’s ongoing work, from its So Many Dicks campaign to the brand’s Roblox game for entrepreneurs and their partnership of race car driver Katherine Legge “they live their social responsibility values consumer facing: every eye, lip, face, paw or fin.” And she adds, harnessing those values and understanding a brand’s unique culturing positioning in order to then unlock the role it can play for audiences – both within the business and to external communities, fans and consumers will always be core in developing the most relevant work.__

Add to this a singular focus and you’ve got enduring work that will keep resonating, says 

Maria McDowell, founder of Lollipop Mentoring. “Dove’s Crown Act and the “My Hair, My Crown” work was unapologetically direct. The brand didn’t try to pander to everyone – it was so specific and centred on black women and girls, and their hair. It’s complex and not everyone understands – I just loved the bravery of it all. People can get so afraid of being cancelled that they shy away from these choices, but I want to see more bravery – don’t try to placate everyone.”

__You can hear more from Leila in person at Brands & Culture in November and from Diego at The Brands&Culture Villa in Cannes.__

BRANDS AND CULTURE, MAY 2024, COVER IMAGE

BRANDS & CULTURE, MAY 2024

Recently there have been a multitude of posts on Linkedin about AI, the future of ‘the agency’, that ‘brand’ and ‘creativity’ are dead. There have been debates around brand vs performance marketing, data vs media; and for me, once again, adland is misunderstanding what cultural relevance is.

Here’s a secret - it’s all connected.

__Cultural relevance as a growth driver__

So, let’s start with my definition of a culturally relevant brand. Having worked with, and for, some of the world's biggest global brands for just under 30 years and been told by people I respect that my type and body of work consistently resonates, I feel like I have some expertise here. I have always seen “culture” as the stuff of life, a reflection of reality, a global connector of communities and intersectional audiences. This rhythm of life has always intertwined heritage, identity, lifestyle, politics, technology, unspoken codes and so on. It’s what we see, what we do, what we wear, what we listen to, how we act, how we communicate, who we connect with.

I refer to a brand being “culturally relevant” when a variety of people (internal and external audiences) engage with, advocate for, work for and/or buy that brand’s products or services at any time (this may or may not be only your target audience or in your traditional campaign cycle). Culture-led brands do this because they deeply connect with intersectional audiences within the cultural context of what is happening in their own, and the wider world, credibly. It’s emotional, it makes people feel something. It doesn’t always have to be worthy, but it pushes things forward. For brands, this means consistently being in conversation positively, but not necessarily always on or in the places that can be ‘measured’. This means that adland has for the longest time considered cultural relevance a marketing nice to have.

But, done right, cultural relevance fosters curiosity and a possibilities mindset. It breaks the traditional formulas and pushes creativity in the places and spaces where the audiences are. Externally, a culture-led brand attracts and engages existing, latent and new audiences (both from a talent, advocate and consumer perspective) and can drive sustained growth beyond its category and target consumers. To do this, cultural relevance must be brought upstream in brand and brand strategy.

__On the future of agencies__

Throughout my career, I have always curated a crack team of specialists, assembled according to lived experience and discipline expertise from the brand category and the culture it's trying to be part of. In-house, I was able to tweak traditional hiring and procurement processes, to usher in the diverse voices and perspectives I needed to work with.

What Adland doesn't understand is that cultural relevance has and will always be about this input. This, in turn, delivers culturally relevant output across whatever medium is relevant for your audience, in the spaces, formats and in the creative language (and I don’t mean slang) of that generation. And yes, it could include traditional OOH and TV too. What it’s never been is about just putting a culturally relevant person in your ad or campaign.

I created Platform13 to answer challenges faced by big brands in the ever-changing world of consumer behaviour, technology advancements, creative innovation and the swiftly moving cultural landscape. I saw a gap that big brand agencies back then did and (still) cannot deliver. And I knew this because I was brand side. First, as Global PR, Social and Content Director for Adidas Originals then on the leadership team at Diageo, creating and heading up their first Culture & Entertainment department across Europe, working across their portfolio of big brands: Guinness, Baileys, Smirnoff, Gordons, Johnnie Walker and Tanqueray. Before working for these global heavyweights, I launched and ran a boutique agency focused on youth culture, integrating online, social and traditional comms for 10 years, learning on the job with no formal education in ‘marketing’.

This unique mash-up has helped to make me fluent in three languages - culture, corporate and entrepreneurial with curiosity my superpower, guerilla-style marketing my training and a global network of cultural voices, creators, creatives and experts who shape, represent and influence culture.

__Evolving the playbooks__

Culture, in the sense that I used it above, is living and breathing, always changing and evolving. All our work starts with finding a brand's cultural positioning using a methodology that unlocks the credible role that only a single brand, product and/or service can play for its audience. It sounds simple, but it's not easy.

We answer audiences, communities and fans needs’ through real world insights and collaboration with and from our diverse and global network. Our ongoing cultural intelligence service continues to read and analyse relevant shifts specific to the brand's cultural positioning. This empowers us with our clients to flex their brand plans, create audience resonate content and experiences, innovate products and services, explore new media and platforms, experiment with emerging commerce and even evolve their business models accordingly. The right insight and actions helps to mitigate risk internally and to creatively drive reach and relevance, hype and depth, numbers & nuance externally.

I have noticed that brands continue to use the demographics of Boomer, GenX, Millennial, GenZ, Alpha, Beta and so on, but for me, it's always been about mindsets affected by era-defining politics, societal norms and technological adoption, no matter your age. These cultural shifts impact us all, and for brands, their response to these shifts is reflected both through the business and out to its consumers. In this era, with uncertainty, the only certainty, monumental global political and societal dynamics and the threat and promise of an AI-powered future, a new approach to brands and business is needed. For me, it feels like a culture-led approach.