Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa
Three-year-old TikTok marketing powerhouse Creed Media has officially sold a “strategic stake” to London-headquartered investment firm Aser Ventures.
Aser Ventures, which owns over 60 percent of Leeds United, revealed today that it had acquired an interest in Stockholm-based Creed Media. Founded by Timothy Collins and Hugo Leprince (age 25 and 22, respectively), Creed has inked deals with each of the Big Three labels and played a part in launching tracks such as Trevor Daniel’s “Falling” to commercial prominence.
Now, Creed Media – which spearheads promotional campaigns with “viral youth culture” in mind – is set to “bolster Aser’s marketing, digital and social media capabilities,” including by capitalizing upon “extensive opportunities for synergy” with Aser’s many divisions. Among the latter (besides the aforementioned Leeds United) are production company NEO Studios and the Eleven Sports channels.
Aser, for its part, intends to support the “continued growth” of Creed, which boasts a 40-person team and offices in Sweden, Canada, and the United States, with “strategic guidance and access to its global network of sports, media and entertainment partners.”
Addressing his business’s investment in Creed Media (the financial specifics of which weren’t publicly disclosed) via a statement, Andrea Radrizzani, founder and chairman of Aser Ventures, emphasized the deal’s potential in terms of the social-media marketing company’s ability to expand and develop moving forward.
“Timothy and Hugo have created something special in Creed Media. They have a deep understanding of the platforms and culture that excite young audiences and they have built a business with the potential to continue to grow rapidly,” said the 46-year-old Milan, Italy, native Radrizzani.
“At Aser Ventures we want to help them do that, by sharing our experience and our network with the Creed Media team, and by creating opportunities for synergy with the wider Aser group,” he finished.
Having seemingly overcome the threat of a stateside ban, the controversial TikTok appears poised to continue reaching a substantial number of young users – while also enabling emerging artists to find an audience and, inversely, helping veteran acts to secure new fans.
The likes of Benee and Lil Nas X achieved mainstream success after making a splash on TikTok, for instance, whereas Fleetwood Mac tapped into an entirely new collection of fans after “Dreams” (1977) hit it big on the short-form video-sharing app last fall.
And in terms of the monetary and career implications of the latter, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham alike sold their catalogs in multimillion-dollar deals across late 2020 and early 2021.
Back in July of 2020, Sony Music Publishing finalized a massive partnership with TikTok talent agency TalentX, and TikTok (which is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit for allegedly stealing proprietary code) this week teamed up with SiriusXM to jointly establish new audio initiatives designed to reach teenagers.