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One subplot worth watching M&A will strengthen this year: brand advertising — or, more precisely, its transformation into a marketing-entertainment mashup.
Gone are the days when it was just a theory. WPP’s tie-up with Universal Music Group for ad-heavy entertainment, talent agencies breaking into the ad industry, and the rise of new players like Common Interest all make one thing clear: brand dollars aren’t waiting anymore — they’re here, and moving fast.
“For a long time we have witnessed the death of a campaign and the birth of a cultural moment. Traditional advertising is the foundation of entertainment, while brands are learning to only be the protagonists of cultural stories,” explained James Kirkham, co-founder of consultancy Iconic.
Nowhere is this transition more acute than in the creator economy, where marketing and entertainment collide. Creators and influencers, once on the fringes, are now at the center of investment strategies and shaping the way brands pursue cultural relevance.
Dealmakers are naturally eager to make money. Publicis Groupe’s move for Influential, Stagwell’s purchase of Leaders and Trouble Maker’s move for branded entertainment production studio The Outfit were just some of last year’s moves that rode this wave. And if initial momentum is any indication, 2025 is set to bring much more.
Case in point: Later, a social media and influencer company bought social commerce app Mavely for $250 million. Why? Leveraging marketers’ growing obsession with influencer marketing as a performance game. Mavely’s model, which pays creators a commission for the sales they achieve, appeals to these senses by providing ROI with cultural relevance.
“When we run campaigns for clients, we use the data we’ve collected from over 350 million posts on our social platforms and 3 million influencer activations,” explained Scott Sutton, CEO of Later. “On Mavely, we will now see millions of transaction details from their 120,000 creators and over $1 billion in gross merchandising volume (GMV). So when we engage with a brand, we can now predict performance with great accuracy and achieve a demonstrable ROI for them.”
The fact that Sutton is already looking for other offers outside of Mavely speaks volumes. For brands, creators aren’t the end game – they’re a means to an end. And the end is clear: demonstrable performance wrapped in cultural relevance.
“While technology is becoming more important to everyone in terms of efficiency, we’ve seen brands really want to understand what’s culturally relevant to be authentic,” said Matthew Lacey, partner at M&A advisory firm Waypoint Partners. “We have long awaited the collision of these worlds and it is finally happening.
In many ways, it already is. A trickle of creativity-focused deals is showing signs of turning into a full-blown flood.
Among those to watch is Common Interest, the marketing holding group that is putting itself at the center of this marketing-entertainment crossover. Its founders are on M&A, building a network of companies designed to equip CMOs with the tools they need to create, support and measure strategies rooted in cultural relevance.
“In 2023, many brands were asking themselves and their partners, ‘How can I Barbify this brief,'” said founder Anthony Freedman, former regional chairman of Havas. “Furthermore, there was a sense of renewed interest in the brand more broadly, no doubt in part due to the continued squeeze economy where cost increases needed to be passed on to consumers and the recognition that strong brands were better placed to do so without widespread customer churn . “
This reality has played out repeatedly in the post-pandemic environment, where companies with the strongest brands have demonstrated better price elasticity—read: they could raise prices without losing customers. The industry, though slow to act, is starting to catch on.
For example, WPP’s acquisition of New Commercial Arts, Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, and the launch of LVMH’s entertainment division all underscore the growing recognition of the need to align marketing, entertainment, and cultural relevance. Each deal reflects this new focus in some way—not with urgency, but with deliberate intent.
“As WPP acquires creative power and Disney pours billions into games, they recognize that cultural currency is the only currency that really matters,” Kirkham said. “Epic Games and Disney are the true architects of tomorrow’s brand experiences. The boundaries between marketing, entertainment and culture are blurring beautifully.”
As M&A activity increases, the question is not whether the trend will continue—it’s how far it will go.
