My (newish) role at MediaCom

Some of you will have noticed a couple of months back, that I changed my job title on Linkedin. I am now Executive Creative Director for MediaCom UK. Thanks for all the words of congratulations from those who sent them. I guess, according to Campaign, I was a shaker, not a mover.

A key reason I’ve been at MediaCom so long – beyond the unrivalled client roster, the culture, and the relationships built over many years - is the opportunity it’s offered to shape the career I want, all within the same company. As long as there’s a business need, and as long as you’re good (and are sometimes willing to wait), the opportunities here are remarkable. It’s no wonder so many of the senior team are termed ‘lifers’ by those outside the organisation.

We’re not the first media agency to have an ECD. Our own Gemma Hunter is MediaCom Beyond Advertising’s Global ECD based in Australia. Ann Wixley is ECD at Wavemaker. There are many others, I’m sure.

But for MediaCom UK, it’s an important step forward. A recognition that our clients’ businesses - and their needs - are changing. An acknowledgment of the significant pressures to the industry around us, and our need to adapt accordingly.

But also, from a more personal point of view, a realisation that we can’t continue being apologetic about our own creative capabilities.

The need is clear. Clients expect it. They constantly look to their media agency, just like all their agencies, for ideas. And that’s because good ideas are the things that will make a real difference to their businesses.

And so, we needed a dedicated creative resource within MediaCom - and now we have it. I’ve been joined by some real talent in the team – including Mike Gibbons & Naomi Barnwell – and working closely with the brilliant Lindsey Jordan, amongst others.

My focus as ECD will be developing big, bold ideas for clients, and ensuring the execution of those big, bold ideas is a good as it can possibly be. We’ll do that by working with the best people and the best partners in the industry. And yes, MediaCom Beyond Advertising, will be critical to much of it.

At MediaCom our creative approach is shaped by an unwavering belief that creativity can, and should, be inclusive. Anyone can come up with a good idea. And anyone can contribute to the process of coming up with ideas – say, by providing that vital ‘nugget’ that can subsequently be developed into a fully-formed campaign. One of my tasks will be to help nurture and grow the best of those ideas.

And those ideas don’t just need to come from within MediaCom. If you’re reading this, as a supplier, a media owner, a producer or a content creator, and you’re sitting on genuinely game-changing ideas, we want to know about them. (I’m just sorry in advance if my diary gets immediately clogged up with meetings.)

My aim is to work with the many talented people at MediaCom to help create the conditions in which big, bold ideas can thrive. After all, we’ve got plenty of clients that are hungry for them.

(And, of course, I’m not talking about telly ads. We’ll leave telly ads to others. Big, bold ideas shouldn’t be defined by medium. They should be big and bold enough to be executed across all types of media.)

I won’t pretend otherwise: our aim is that lots of the campaigns we work on, will end up being the type of stuff the industry needs more of (and MediaCom Beyond Advertising are experts at): editorial partnerships, branded experiences, sponsorship amplification, ad-funded TV shows - anything that sits under the loose terms ‘branded content’ or ‘branded entertainment’.

I also have to accept that some people in the industry will see MediaCom creating a new ECD role with indifference or even mild disdain. I genuinely hope our ad agency, PR agency, other specialist agency partners that we already work closely with, will continue to be open to collaboration. Because that will make the work better.

Running MediaCom Beyond Advertising for the past nearly 5 years was an absolute privilege. Always hugely rewarding, sometimes very challenging. We’ve played a part in lots of MediaCom’s big award wins, and contributed hugely to many of our clients’ business successes. But leadership of that team is now being undertaken by an incredibly capable group of individuals – not least Dan Wood and Paul Tremain, the new joint heads.

Here’s looking forward to my own next chapter at a remarkable business, and in an industry that’s still got a lot of legs in it yet.