Can creative agencies muscle their way back into media? Mother has launched its Media by Mother in the UK after some success in the US, marcoms group MSQ has Walk-In Media and VCCP, which has been in the media space for a while, has significantly boosted its firepower by hiring two senior execs from Interpublic’s Initiative.
James Shoreland and Will Parrish (below) have joined VCCP Media as CEO and CSO from the same roles at initiative.
VCCP Partnership CEO Michael Sugden says: “One of media’s challenges is the fragmentation of creative and media thinking. James and Will share our belief that the best work comes from treating creative and media as one so we’re absolutely thrilled to welcome them to the VCCP family.”
VCCP is currently the Uk’s biggest creative agency by billings so Shoreland and Parrish will have a pretty big canvas to work from. Media agencies split from creative back in the 1970s although most of them have been bought back by the big ad holding companies. The two rarely work together effectively though, each with their different agendas. The holding company media operations like EssenceMediaCom at WPP, Publicis Media and Omnicom’s OMG now account for most of the holding companies’ income and profits.
