Photo L-R: THAT Co-Founder/CEO David Kalvert, Co-Founder/CCO Nathan Phillips, Managing Director Dena Graham
M&C Saatchi Worldwide has purchased a minority interest in Technology, Humans and Taste (THAT), a creative shop whose nontraditional approach is attracting brands such as Nike, Michael Kors, IBM, Kayak, The Kraken Rum, DKNY, Casper Mattress and Grubhub.
“As a network, we are committed to bringing our clients creative solutions that address the constantly shifting communications landscape,” said Moray Maclennan, Worldwide CEO at M&C Saatchi. “THAT has a completely new approach that nets consistently unique ideas – lots of them. We’re confident that bringing them into the network will push us all to stretch creatively and bring truly modern solutions to our clients.”
THAT Co-Founder/CEO David Kalvert said, “We’ve built THAT with the reliability of a traditional agency in our client services, strategy and production groups, to support our nontraditional creative department. M&C Saatchi is a network known for affording autonomy to entrepreneurs. They’re the right partner to help scale our model in a way that supports our creative process.”
THAT’s nontraditional approach is best represented through its proprietary ‘Creative Dim Sum’ methodology – a series of strategic workshops in a dinner party setting that inspire collaboration between subject matter experts, professional creatives and brand executives to drive breakthrough thinking.
The creative product resulting from Dim Sum is presented to clients as a “menu” of 25 strategic creative ideas, which the agency and clients collaboratively shape into a truly bespoke campaign. Recent examples include an augmented reality (AR) App to transform the big-box shopping experience, and an interactive film for one of the country’s top retailers that welcomes kids to test toys and share their favorites with Santa.
