The new creative arrangements at TMW - where Gareth James, former digital creative director, has been promoted joint creative director alongside TMW stalwart Daren Kay - are intriguing.
Joint ECDs are unusual, partly because the set-up is deemed not to work in the long run, just as joint MDs tend not to last.
Agencies, like any business, are pyramids and you need a person on top of the creative pyramid to make the final call as to whether that piece of work is right for the client.
It's tempting to see the Kay/James alignment as symbolic of the battle for creative supremacy between digital immigrants and natives.
That's the cynic's view anyway, but the facts are these:
- Daren Kay is one of the most decorated creatives in the business
- TMW is repositioning itself as 'channel neutral', for that read digital
- TMW can obviously afford to have two ECDs
- It's an indicator of how highly TMW/Creston value the creative product. TMW is a mature agency that obviously needs both Kay and James at the creative helm.
It's a fascinating scenario, especially when you throw in the fact that Daren is only one of two UK DM creative directors judging at Cannes this year.
