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 turned government 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 government of Artistic Futures at EssenceMedia.com, a brand new unit of the recently-merged two huge WPP media businesses.

So what is that this precisely?

Calcraft says: “We’re seeing our give attention to integration and artistic transformation driving breakthrough work and outcomes for our purchasers, each inside and past promoting.

“Our progress mannequin brings collectively probably the most numerous, artistic and revolutionary groups around the globe and integrates them seamlessly into our shopper groups, media, platform and WPP companions.

“Artistic Futures is single-mindedly targeted on the way forward for creativity and the breakthrough outcomes this delivers for our individuals, purchasers, and companions.”

EssenceMediacom says the brand new division will “assist purchasers navigate and leverage the explosion in alternatives within the burgeoning new communications financial 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As soon as upon a time, after all, artistic and media had been housed below the identical roof within the good outdated days of so-called full service.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 company margins.

Numerous makes an attempt to re-unite the 2 have since foundered and, infrequently, 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 (normally somebody you’d by no means heard of.)

The foundation of the issue, other than the existence of entrenched managerial empires, is that the majority media individuals don’t perceive artistic. Their job is to get the shopper’s message in entrance of as many individuals as doable as profitably as doable. Even when tens of millions of so-called customers are literally digital bots. Do they really care a lot about what’s within the message, not to mention know how one 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 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 in the end, need to obtain.

To a extra cynical soul it might sound like mission creep, even a part of the traditional recreation of confuse-a-client.