Why Lifestyle Brands Are the New Media Companies

Success in the media field is a moving target. While earlier media conglomerates focused largely on gathering audiences and monetization through advertising, emerging media brands are finding success by creating their own lifestyle brands to generate growth and engagement.

Media companies that are poised for success

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is rewriting the playbook for how production companies can rise to the top. Hello Sunshine first began to gain popularity among audiences through a modern book club model, reminiscent of Oprah’s books in the ’90s.

Witherspoon started a book club in 2017, offering monthly book recommendations to her fans. The book club became its own lifestyle brand that generated interest in content created by Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine.

Basically, Witherspoon’s media-lifestyle mix looks something like this:

• A book has been selected for the Reese’s Book Club
• His production company Hello Sunshine has acquired the on-screen rights to the books which the book club has featured
• Hello Sunshine produces and publishes films and television shows related to these books.
• The community that is already engaged with the books is eager to see the content of Hello Sunshine

…and the cycle repeats. What Witherspoon has created is a unique blend of a lifestyle brand and production company, creating a built-in audience for the content the company produces. This strategy paid off – in 2021 Hello Sunshine was sold to an undisclosed buyer for $900M.

Podcast host Alex Cooper is following a similar model to expand his content empire beyond his popular podcast call her daddy,

In 2021, Cooper made headlines after signing a $60 million deal with Spotify, giving the platform exclusive publishing rights to his podcasts for three years. This year, Cooper launched his own production company with his fiancée called Trending, which aimed to attract younger audiences.

The first offering is a podcast network called Unveil where they have signed popular Gen Z creators Alix Earl and Madison Argy, helping them launch their own high-profile shows using their podcasting playbook.

Apart from podcasts, he is also making trending films. First, called love at first sightIt premiered on Netflix last month, with Cooper fans and showrunners on deck building excitement for the film. By creating an ecosystem of media spanning a highly engaged audience across various podcasts, films and in-person appearances, Cooper is generating interest in every major project she touches.

Both of these examples offer a new blueprint for modern media companies as the industry landscape continues to evolve.