Hooper, Tompkins and Jacobs
Four ex-Karmarama bosses have set up an agency this week with the aim of “reinventing” the original partnership between media and creative agencies.
Wax/On has been created by Paul Jacobs and Ben Hooper – with the backing of Matthew Brown and Mark Runacus, founding partners of the Karma Communications Group, and by independent agency network MC&C Media.
As some top marketers call for change, the founders said they believe that for brands to grow in today’s media climate, agencies should be expected to “think and act fluidly” from creative brief to media placement.
“We looked long and hard at the pain points for clients and found the amount of value and quality lost in the gaps between different, often conflicting agencies is quite remarkable,” said Jacobs, managing partner, Wax/On.
“We firmly believe that putting creative and media back together at this scale offers better, more cost-effective work. Now is the time for agencies to stand up and prove that we can play a key role in the growth of modern businesses and our ambition is to a be a part of that.”
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Jacobs and Hooper, who were business director and content director respectively at Karmarama, also spent two years working together at communications firm Edelman.
By integrating with MC&C, they said they will operate a ‘creative drives media drives creative’ approach, offering clients creative business solutions based solely around their specific needs, rather than driven by ulterior ambitions such as awards and trading deals.
Genevieve Tompkins, managing partner of MC&C said of the deal: “The way in which brands grow is rapidly changing. We’ve always prided ourselves on creating genuine business outcomes through agile, data-led and transparent media campaigns; we believe now is the time for that same fluid thinking to be applied to the creative process.
“Combining with Wax/On means message and medium are planned together which helps us work faster, create better work and ultimately drive business growth for our clients.”
Clients at launch include Unicef, Fred Perry, Water Aid and Curious Brew.
