Common Interest acquires Amplify to 'empower creativity'

Brand experience agency Amplify has been acquired by holding company Common Interest. 

Jonathan Emmins, global chief executive of Amplify, who founded the agency in 2008, said he was attracted to Common Interest by "the ambition, the spirit and the approach to culture".

Common Interest has acquired a 51% stake in Amplify, which won Campaign Brand Experience Agency of the Year 2024, with a plan to acquire the remaining 49% over the next five years.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

There will be no major structural changes to the agency’s leadership or operations as a result of the acquisition.

Current teams, including the leadership at Seed and Wonder (a youth marketing agency and a B2B and B2E events agency, respectively, which are part of Amplify), will continue to operate independently. They are led by Amplify's chair Anton Mercier alongside Emmins. 

Amplify will continue to operate independently while collaborating with other Common Interest agencies when it adds value for clients. Existing client relationships will remain unchanged, but opportunities for cross-agency collaboration will naturally emerge where beneficial. 

In an exclusive interview with Campaign, Emmins said: "We’ve obviously been independent for a long while now, and really enjoyed our independence. Anthony [Freedman] has always been someone I’ve respected from afar, from Host and One Green Bean days. We’ve chatted over the years, and when Common Interest started to take shape, it just felt like the perfect home for us. The ambition, the spirit, and the approach to culture – it just made sense.”

Amplify joins agencies including TwentyFirstCenturyBrand and Otherway under the Common Interest umbrella. 

Emmins said the move won’t change Amplify’s creative approach. 

He said: “It's business as usual for us in terms of creativity, but now we have added benefits. Anthony’s curating a group of top-tier agencies, and there’s a fantastic mix of culture-first, audience-driven work across the collective. It’s a perfect fit.”

Freedman, founder of Common Interest, echoed this sentiment, emphasising that the acquisition was driven by a desire to enhance Amplify’s creative excellence rather than stifle it. “What sets Amplify apart is its creative brilliance. That’s why we wanted them to join us. We’re not here to stifle their creativity — on the contrary, we want to empower them to be even more creative,” Freedman said.

Collaboration between Amplify and other Common Interest agencies has already begun, with the Paris office handling a significant project for the luxury brand Zimmermann. “It’s been an exciting start,” Emmins said. “We’re collaborating with 21CB, Otherway, and other businesses within Common Interest. There's more to come, and while we can't go into specifics just yet, the opportunities are already presenting themselves.”

Amplify has been focusing heavily on expanding its presence in the US, with new offices in New York and Los Angeles. Emmins sees the US as a major growth area for both Amplify and Common Interest. “The US is growing exponentially, and that’s where we’re focusing a lot of our efforts right now. We’re building a fantastic team in the US, and the work coming from that region is truly exciting.”

Design and communications studio Otherway opened an office in New York earlier this year. 

Freedman addressed the collaborative approach to expanding the collective, noting that the process for selecting future acquisitions will be democratic and values-driven. “We want to find the best in each space, and that means bringing in businesses that complement each other. It’s not about creating competition within the group but about building a strong ecosystem where collaboration thrives.”

Common Interest has expressed an intention to acquire 10 businesses during 2024 and 2025.

Emmins said: “We’re here to build something long-term. This is about the next five, 10, and 15 years. We’re excited about the opportunities this partnership brings, not just for Amplify, but for all the businesses in Common Interest.”

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.”