Can EssenceMediacom’s revamped Inventive Futures deliver media and artistic again collectively?

Stef Calcraft’s excursions into the media world since he left Mom, the company he co-founded after a profession as a senior shopper, have been attention-grabbing.

First he grew to become government chairman of Dentsu Aegis Community UK (primarily however not solely media companies) after which joined WPP’s Mediacom, initially as head of Inventive Programs. Now he’s been annointed as international chief government of Inventive Futures at EssenceMedia.com, a brand new unit of the recently-merged two large WPP media companies.

So what is that this precisely?

Calcraft says: “We’re seeing our concentrate on integration and artistic transformation driving breakthrough work and outcomes for our shoppers, each inside and past promoting.

“Our development mannequin brings collectively essentially the most various, inventive and revolutionary groups all over the world and integrates them seamlessly into our shopper groups, media, platform and WPP companions.

“Inventive Futures is single-mindedly centered on the way forward for creativity and the breakthrough outcomes this delivers for our folks, 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 companies 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, in fact, inventive and media had been housed underneath the identical roof within the good previous days of so-called full service. Then the comparatively unremarked (typically underpaid) media lot broke away, largely to be purchased again by the large holding corporations as soon as they’d pushed a coach and horses by way of company margins.

Numerous makes an attempt to re-unite the 2 have since foundered and, every now and then, media companies have tried to eat what’s left of inventive company lunches by launching their very own items, typically even with a worldwide CCO in place (normally somebody you’d by no means heard of.)

The basis of the issue, aside from the existence of entrenched managerial empires, is that almost all media folks don’t perceive inventive. Their job is to get the shopper’s message in entrance of as many individuals as potential as profitably as potential. Even when hundreds of thousands of so-called customers are literally digital bots. Do they really care a lot about what’s within the message, not to mention know the right way to create it?

Calcraft has fairly a pedigree at Mom, nonetheless one of many world’s finest companies (and one of many smartest commercially) after practically 30 years in enterprise. So presumably he is aware of what he’s speaking about and has a transparent concept of what he, and WPP finally, 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.