Sister Group strikes partnership with Common Interest to develop brand-led IP

L-R : Elisabeth Murdoch, Anthony Freedman, Lucinda Hicks and Jane Featherstone

Elisabeth Murdoch and Jane Featherstone’s Sister Group has made a minority investment in Common Interest and entered into a strategic partnership with the communications and entertainment group.

The pact aims to combine the skills of both companies to originate IP for brand-led entertainment.

The two groups are collaborating on projects with the goal of producing a slate of multiplatform content with brand partners attached.

Executives from both said the partnership has been struck to capitalise on the industry’s pivot towards creative relationships with brands across a variety of formats.

Founded in 2019, Sister Group is run by CEO Lucinda Hicks and includes labels such as Sister Pictures, Yes Yes Media and Dorothy St Pictures.

London-based Common Interest was launched by Anthony Freedman and works at the intersection of brand, entertainment, technology and media. Its subsidiaries include 21st Century Brand, Amplify and Wonder.

Murdoch and Featherstone said in a statement: “We immediately found a cultural and creative kinship with Anthony and the exceptionally talented teams he has assembled across Common Interest.

“Their deep commitment to entertainment and brand strategies that people actually care about mirrors the values of creative excellence, authorship and risk-taking intrinsic to Sister. We’re not just aligned on paper but underway on some great ideas where the potency of that combination is very apparent.”

Freedman said: “”Advertising is looking for new ways to reach audiences, and entertainment has never been more open to working with brands as a genuine creative partner. Each needs what the other has, and the appetite for that is already visible, from Barbie to LEGO to Kraft Heinz’s new partnership with Disney.

“This partnership is more than a meeting of minds, it’s a real commitment from both sides to prove that brands can be part of shaping entertainment without compromising on what audiences love.”