Barry Mowszowski to lead Starcom creative strategy
Starcom has joined the small number of Australian media agencies to appoint a senior creative strategist with the arrival of Barry Mowszowski from Ogilvy Sydney.
Mowszowski, who joined Starcom earlier this month, told Mumbrella: “I was fortunate enough to have other offers, but I saw a trend where the power has shifted away from creative agencies.”
His appointment follows that of Rupert Pay as head of creativity and innovation at media agency UM earlier this month.
Labelling Starcom a comms agency rather than media agency, Mowszowski said: “Comms agencies have a hunger to go after really big ideas. Comms agencies and PR agencies are all developing products and skillsets to allow them to develop ideas. Whereas creative agencies can offer belief that ideas will work, comms agencies have a more qualified voice. They can put measurement tools behind the conviction.”
Mowszowski’s previous experience has also included Droga 5 in New York where he was a creative strategist.
Meanwhile Mowszowski will be giving a talk at Sydney’s Apple Store this Wednesday night on brands instigating social change.
https://mumbrella.com.au/rupert-pay-um-mat-baxte-38355
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The big issue here is not ‘media’ vs ‘comms’ vs ‘creative’ and who has a more qualified voice, as Barry puts it.
The big issue is, what kind of environment encourages the greatest creativity to flourish?
If you have an environment where all the people have exactly the same personality types (ie media agencies or PR agencies) then its difficult for creativity to flourish as everyone thinks along the same lines. I guess that’s why you need to create ‘products’ to help you develop an idea, again, as Barry puts it.
And that’s the unique aspect of a creative agency – a hugely diverse group of people and personality types (production, acct service, strategy, creative etc) that is a natural breeding ground for different thinking…..and sometimes big ideas.
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I got the job (but I had other offers)
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Anon you’re kidding right. All those diverse people are all the same.
The issue is credibility ‘who do I believe will solve my problem’. By this count most agencies, media or creative are fucked.
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“I was fortunate enough to have other offers” … huh????
why even put that in. weird.
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Hi Logic,
In the context of the conversation it was a natural point to make – he could have chosen to go to an ad agency, but chose the media path instead.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I think this is an interesting and good move by Starcom, hope they can make it work.
Additionally you don’t see much media strategic talent going the other way?
Connections planning buys into the same cross disciplinary skill sets, but those types have in my experience often found it hard to eek out a role in the planning / creative department.
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Media agencies are about as good as cracking big ideas as clients.
Good luck with that.
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“I was fortunate enough to have other offers”….lets hope his creativity stretches beyond these egoistical quips.
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Well done Starcom
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Having worked with Barry at Ogilvy, I hope Starcom’s clients enjoy his enthusiasm and passion as much as I did. Whether or not ‘comms agencies’ such as Starcom “…have a more qualified voice…” in respect to developing Big Ideas is a controversial, and in my view unsubstantiated, claim. But let’s see what they get up to before canning the desire, at least, to do something differently. Good luck Barry.
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Well done Barry brave move
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Barry is the consumate sales person
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Media agencies aren’t even winning media awards?!
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