Linus Karlsson, the chairman of Commonwealth and former chief chief creative officer of global brands at McCann-Erickson, has opened Ming Utility and Entertainment Group, an independent enterprise dedicated to creating experience-driven ideas centered on utility/design, technology and entertainment. Mr. Karlsson, who will be chief creative officer and chairman, launches the company with partners Brian DiLorenzo, chief production officer of McCann, who will serve as CEO; and President Tara DeVeaux, who last served at BBDO as exec VP-account manager.
According to Mr. Karlsson, the idea to launch a company like Ming has long been in the works, since both he and Mr. DiLorenzo were working at Fallon, Minneapolis around 15 years ago. “We were at a restaurant talking about starting a company,” said Mr. Karlsson. We had realized all these different ideas were coming out of Fallon — BMW Films; Buddy Lee for Lee Jeans; Timex; Brawny. It feels like once in a while, an agency touches upon work like that, but we want to make that our core. If you look at work that has been applauded in the last few years, the most amazing piece of content wasn’t done out of an agency — it was done by CAA and Chipotle. Or Red Bull. That’s telling us we have to do something differently. I don’t know what we’re waiting for. I’m tired of waiting.”
Such projects already feature on the CV’s of the company’s founders. Between them, they’ve launched multiplatform out-of-the box efforts that combine entertainment and technology, such as Target’s “Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular” (Mother, New York) and HBO “Voyeur” and “Imagine” (BBDO New York). While at McCann, they also launched digitally enabled utilities like Nature Valley “Trail View,” an award-winning Google Streetview-based app that takes viewers on a tour of America’s national parks, as well as a digital rethink of the Ikea catalog that brought the brand’s products closer than ever before to consumers’ homes via mobile technology.
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