• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 6, 2007

In recent years, it's become a given that media is as much a part of Madison Avenue's creative process as, well, creative. Now a major media shop is seeking to formalize that process. As part of a broader reorganization, WPP's MediaCom unit Friday named Dene Callas to the new post of global director of creative. Callas, who had been CEO of MediaCom USA, is being replaced in that role by Doug Checkeris, a fast-rising star within MediaCom, who most recently was CEO of its Canadian operations.

The changes are the latest chapter in an ongoing saga for MediaCom's management team following its acquisition by WPP Group in 2005, and its integration into the holding company's GroupM operations, which also include Maxus, Mediaedge:cia and MindShare.

Callas, who comes out of a planning background, has a long history as a strategic thinker, and that seems to be where the focus of her creativity will be. While she was not available for comment, Alexander Schmidt-Vogel, MediaCom's worldwide's chairman and CEO, says it's part of an evolution for the agency.

"There isn't a media agency out there today that's not looking to create campaigns that go beyond traditional media, and engage consumers," he explains. "MediaCom's 'Real World Architecture' process already pushes our staff to new levels of creativity throughout the strategy, planning and buying process, but now we would like to take MediaCom's creative abilities to a new level."

While Callas won't be overseeing creative services in the traditional sense - writing copy, conceiving advertising messages, or executing advertising campaigns - Schmidt-Vogel says her new role will be, "concentrating on finding fresh ways to boost our creative quotient, whether it be through training of staff, actual involvement in the creative media process at local levels, or other means."

It's been a while since any major media shop has had a creative title of that stature, and the definition within MediaCom likely means something else, says Alan Schulman, senior vice president-creative director at imc², who previously was creative director at Interpublic's Universal McCann unit.

"I see this as a move to bring a connections strategist more into the process, but to frame it with a creative title," he says, suggesting that the role is likely more akin to the type of creativity coming out of communications planning boutiques like Naked Communications or Media Kitchen that seek to develop innovative ways of using media to serve an advertising message when and where a consumer will be open to it.

Schulman says the idea makes sense, because, "It's always the media people who find out about emerging platforms and media faster than the creatives do."