Justin Drape moves away from Exceptional Alien, starts new practice
Justin Drape was once described by Tim Burrowes as 'adland royalty'
Co-founder of The Monkeys Justin Drape has launched a marketing practice that aims to fuse the worlds of ideas and finance. In announcing the launch of Creativity & Commerce, Drape also revealed he has stepped down as CEO of the travel business he co-founded in 2021, Exceptional Alien.
Drape told Mumbrella he has actually been operating as Creativity & Commerce for the past 6 months, bringing in others to help as required.
“ I’ll just go in and hear what the objective is and then see if I can be of help. And when I say ‘I’ it changes to ‘we’ when I can bring in the resource that I have in the network, be it locally or internationally,” he said.
“I’ve been doing it now for over six months and that [sourcing labour from his network] is working really well because we’re living in a pretty borderless world where you can access some of the best talent quite seamlessly.”
“I’ve been able to really leverage that on the back of building the network out with Exceptional Alien.”
Drape said he is working with Exceptional Alien now only in an advisory capacity and is not across day-to-day operations.
”That happened [his stepping down as CEO] mid last year actually, we just haven’t announced that publicly … it’s not that significant to the business because everybody in the leadership team there is used to it.
“I’m still supporting Exceptional Alien in an advisory capacity, I just wasn’t going to move to London, which was where the business was focusing at that stage.”
He described Creativity & Commerce as a “practice” because it didn’t fit the agency or consultancy model. He does not pitch for work.
“It’s been coming through word of mouth to date. I’ve just mentioned it to a few colleagues and a few creative people that I’ve been working with on projects around the world, and what came out of that was opportunities: ‘Hey, would you like to come in and help us on this project? Would you like to come in and join us?’ And I would politely say ‘not full time, but I’ll certainly come in and help.'”
Drape said existing clients included The Many, Emotive – for the launch of El Arquero Tequila for cricketer Adam Gilchrist — Bullfrog, Marriott Luxury Collection, Intercontinental Hotel Group, and Millennium Hotels via T3 Media.
He elaborated on the El Arquero launch.
“ I’ve been working with [Emotive CEO] Simon Joyce on helping take that agency into the next phase of growth, and it was very timely that this project came in around that time.
“So from the very beginning, I met with Adam [Gilchrist, co-founder of the tequila brand]. I heard about the objective of the brand, and the business. I met with Mel, Gilly’s wife, and all of the partners, and I’m well placed to be able to help launch a brand because I’ve done that for myself before, and understand the process and understand that the marcoms go a lot deeper than just messaging.
“There are so many things that you have to consider – when it comes to the distribution and the producers and all of the other variables – in launching a brand and it’s really important to get it right. So I brought that expertise in from the start, and I think the results have been really good.
“The response has been fantastic for Gilly.”
In terms of his own branding, Drape said he had been clear on the name and identity of the practice from the beginning.
“ I went in deliberately calling it Creativity & Commerce. I’ve always been fascinated with the interplay between the two, and I think it’s been one of those interesting things in advertising in particular. It’s always been either great harmony or great friction between those two things, and when you get it right, it can lead to really amazing outsized results.
“I thought, I’ll just call it what it is.”
He said he would have some further client announcements soon.
“One thing has just been leading to another really, where people have been recommending me on the back of the projects that I’ve been doing. Some of those will come out in the next week, some of those will come out in the months before Christmas and some will come out after Christmas.”
Could he give Mumbrella some names?
“Some of them are major international brands, and you know the protocol that goes with those.”
