• by David Kaplan , August 31, 2004

Havas media shop MPG surprised Madison Avenue Tuesday by naming two former trade journalists--Richard Linnett and Hank Kim--directors of MPG Entertainment, a new division marking MPG's entry into the field of branded entertainment (MediaDailyNews Aug. 31). In the following interview, the former Advertising Age editors explain to MDN's David Kaplan the logic of the move, and just why they are eminently qualified to lead MPG's charge in the area.

Before working at weekly trades such as Crain's Advertising Age--where they covered the "Madison & Vine" branded entertainment beat--and VNU's Adweek, both had extensive backgrounds rooted in advertising agencies, film production, and artist management. From 1986 to 1998, Linnett worked as a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and a first assistant director for production companies associated with the likes of Roger Corman and Quentin Tarantino. And prior to his entry into the world of business trade reporting, Kim worked in account management at New York shops such as Backer Spielvogel Bates (itself founded by former journalist Carl Spielvogel) and Ammirati & Puris.

Both Linnett and Kim plan to develop a variety of branded entertainment opportunities for MPG's U.S. clients, such as Reckitt Benckiser, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Schering-Plough, and others.

MediaDailyNews: With much of the past decade spent as trade journalists, is this a bold move on the part of MPG to put you at the head of its branded entertainment unit?Richard Linnett: Not really, if you look at our backgrounds. We've been doing a number of different things over the past 20 years, and it is all tied in some way to entertainment and marketing. For example, Hank has more than six years' advertising experience, working with BMW and many other brands. I've worked for many years in film production, working my way up the ladder starting in low-budget movies to working as first AD on commercials and movies. The last director I worked with was Michel Gondry, who directed "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Between the two of us, we have experience in journalism, marketing, and entertainment. It might seem like an unconventional move--"Oh, two trade journalists moving to the other side!"--but not really, if you look at our backgrounds. Considering everything we've done, it's perfectly natural.

MediaDailyNews: What about transacting deals? How do your backgrounds come into play?

Hank Kim: As journalists, we've developed close relationships with commercial production companies, independent producers, video gaming companies, record labels, independent music companies, artist management firms. There are so many different places that we can mine for an idea. We want to take a grassroots approach when it comes to dealing with these companies, as opposed to signing a major deal with a big name and then having the marketing and entertainment machinery gather behind it. We want to focus on creating entertainment opportunities and getting our clients involved around it from the beginning.

Linnett: We see ourselves as talent agents for brand icons in a way. We fully understand all the different media and the implications of the various disciplines that come into play in entrepreneurial entertainment. One of the great inspirations for us is [CBS' "Survivor" creator] Mark Burnett. He was selling t-shirts on Venice Beach. Here was a guy who was so completely entrepreneurial in whatever he did, he ended up creating great opportunities for advertisers and really helped shift the business forward. That kind of chutzpah--that kind of entrepreneurship--is what we want to be seen as embodying.

MediaDailyNews: Havas and MPG haven't had the kind of branded entertainment marketing presence that some of the other major media shops and holding companies have had. Are there any challenges about differentiating MPG from the others?

Linnett: The way we're differentiating what we are doing is what we like to say is a bottoms-up rather than a top-down approach.

At many other companies, you have someone at the head of a large holding company who starts the process. Ours is more a grassroots approach, as Hank said. It involves working closely with the Havas creative siblings--Arnold and Euro RSCG--and developing entertainment properties that are not based on deals, but on what the brands have within themselves. A lot of these deals are done for a lot of money, with only a lot of star power to justify it. So you get Celine Dion and Chrysler together for $14 million. Or another deal that went south was Queen Latifah and Kmart. The talk there was $30 million. It doesn't have to cost that much money. These brands have it within them.

Kim: Not that we're necessarily going to be automatically averse to major deals or doing product placement or product integration. We want to create something that just doesn't deliver PR, but something that creates real entertainment impact and direct ROI.

Linnett: Plus, we want to stress that what we create will have a sense of loyalty to the client. Not loyalty to the client over here and loyalty to CBS over there. That's often overlooked when agencies do these kinds of deals. You can't serve two masters if you want it to work.