• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 25, 2007

In a surprise move that suggests the world of marketing is blurring beyond just media and creative services, WPP Group has appointed a senior creative post inside its Kantar media and marketing research unit, naming Aziz Cami its first creative director. Aziz, who was a founding partner of The Partners, a London-based design firm.

The move suggests that graphic delineation, presentation and interface design are becoming as critical a part of the research process, as advertising and media content.

The new post was created to help Kantar's burgeoning global research organization "deliver insights in more compelling ways and to help clients and their partners visualize the way in which the insights can be deployed," WPP stated, adding that creative design and execution was becoming particularly important in areas such as innovation, new product development, concept development and retail where powerful useable insights always need to be translated into real concepts which can be seen, touched, heard.

Most noteworthy is the fact that WPP felt the need to bring the resource in-house vs. farming it out to one of WPP's creative shops, though there was no indication that Kantar might also begin offering creative services directly to its research clients.

Some of Kantar's operation units include the Kantar Media Research Group, Millward Brown, and Dynamic Logic.