Stef Calcraft’s excursions into the media world since he left Mom, the company he co-founded after a profession as a senior consumer, have been attention-grabbing.
First he grew to become govt chairman of Dentsu Aegis Community UK (primarily however not solely media businesses) after which joined WPP’s Mediacom, initially as head of Artistic Methods. Now he’s been annointed as international chief govt of Artistic Futures at EssenceMedia.com, a brand new unit of the recently-merged two massive WPP media businesses.
So what is that this precisely?
Calcraft says: “We’re seeing our deal with integration and inventive transformation driving breakthrough work and outcomes for our shoppers, each inside and past promoting.
“Our development mannequin brings collectively essentially the most numerous, artistic and progressive groups all over the world and integrates them seamlessly into our consumer groups, media, platform and WPP companions.
“Artistic Futures is single-mindedly centered on the way forward for creativity and the breakthrough outcomes this delivers for our individuals, shoppers, and companions.”
EssenceMediacom says the brand new division will “assist shoppers navigate and leverage the explosion in alternatives within the burgeoning new communications economic system.”
However aren’t there different businesses that do (or attempt to do) this, many dotted across the WPP empire which incorporates AKQA Group (incorporating Gray), Ogilvy, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson?
As soon as upon a time, after all, artistic and media had been housed below the identical roof within the good previous days of so-called full service. Then the comparatively unremarked (typically underpaid) media lot broke away, principally to be purchased again by the large holding firms as soon as they’d pushed a coach and horses by company margins.
Varied makes an attempt to re-unite the 2 have since foundered and, occasionally, media businesses have tried to eat what’s left of artistic company lunches by launching their very own models, typically even with a worldwide CCO in place (often somebody you’d by no means heard of.)
The foundation of the issue, aside from the existence of entrenched managerial empires, is that the majority media individuals don’t perceive artistic. Their job is to get the consumer’s message in entrance of as many individuals as potential as profitably as potential. Even when thousands and thousands of so-called shoppers are literally digital bots. Do they really care a lot about what’s within the message, not to mention know how you can create it?
Calcraft has fairly a pedigree at Mom, nonetheless one of many world’s greatest businesses (and one of many smartest commercially) after almost 30 years in enterprise. So presumably he is aware of what he’s speaking about and has a transparent thought of what he, and WPP in the end, need to obtain.
To a extra cynical soul it could sound like mission creep, even a part of the traditional recreation of confuse-a-client.
