Award-winning creative leader Justin Drape has launched CREATIVITY & COMMERCE, a global practice dedicated to unlocking the commercial value of creativity. With a clear mission to bring creative problem solving into boardrooms, cultural institutions, classrooms and policy making, CREATIVITY & COMMERCE aims to shift the way organisations think about and invest in creativity.
At its core, CREATIVITY & COMMERCE is a practice – not an agency, studio or consultancy – designed to help brands, artists, media groups, entertainment companies, governments and agencies identify and execute ideas that generate tangible commercial and cultural value.
Catching up with B&T ahead of the announcement, Drape said that distinction is business critical and deliberate.
“I wanted to be really clear that I’ll be working with agencies, I’m working with studios, I’m working with entertainment groups, I’m working directly with CMOs and brands, and I’m bringing in the best of my professional practice that I have garnered over the last few decades,” Drape explained.
“There is a trade craft and practice to making creativity and commerce work really well together. I want it to be differentiated from the start. I don’t aspire to be an agency; I’m not going to enter Agency of the Year categories. I’m here to help with the best practitioners in the world, creatively and commercially”.
“We exist to help clients see creativity not as a cost, but as a critical investment,” said Drape.
“The two cultural forces of creativity and commerce influence our lives daily, yet their pairing still struggles to be taken seriously in most boardrooms, in policy and in classrooms. Too often, they are thought of or utilised separately: left brain/right brain, logic/emotion or sandpit/spreadsheet.
“Creativity is the critical skill for people and organisations to innovate, compete, adapt and succeed in a world where AI will play a main character role. And creativity will continue to be a defining skill and competitive advantage, so it’s crucial for people and businesses to understand its power and how to commercialise it.”
The Business Case For Creativity
Drape said the biggest barrier to creativity being taken seriously in boardrooms and policymaking is “generally a lack of understanding. And what comes with a lack of understanding is a lack of trust.”
“If you can actually work with people and explain that creativity is not an exact science, but you can actually put some rigour around it to mitigate risk, and if you can take people, clients especially, on that journey, then I think the likelihood of success is increased substantially.”
So how does he convince CEOs and boards driven by short-term ROI that creativity is worth the investment?
“I think the simple way to do that is to show examples of creativity and its impact on certain organisations,” he said. “Whether that’s just as ephemeral as a campaign or something that is a little bit more embedded into a business. If you can show examples of how that’s worked in the past, and again give people a deeper understanding of where and when it’s worked, then I think it opens up the opportunities and the willingness for clients to try similar things.”
As artificial intelligence continues to play what Drape calls “a main character role,” he sees creativity not as a skill to be replaced, but refined.
“Access to technology and AI has really democratised creativity and allowed everybody to become a creator,” he said. “So the great differentiator is going to be curatorial. A lot of creators are going to become more curators, where they can actually understand the insights and some of the ideas that will help lead to a greater impact.”
“If you look at AI as another tool, like all of the other tools that we have access to, someone ultimately has to give the AI the prompts and have the curatorial responsibility. It will help expedite and enhance some human creativity, but at the end of the day, you still need somebody to define what that is. It will give you outputs, but you still have to judge the outputs.”
CREATIVITY & COMMERCE In Practice
CREATIVITY & COMMERCE has already partnered with a diverse mix of clients and collaborators, including The Many, Emotive on the launch of El Arquero Tequila for co-founder and cricket icon Adam Gilchrist, Bullfrog, Marriott Luxury Collection, Intercontinental Hotel Group and Millennium Hotels via T3 Media, producers of Eating Inn on Netflix and SBS Food.
“[Simon Joyce, Emotive CEO] brought me in really early to meet with Adam Gilchrist and then become part of that process, from essentially the inception of the platform all the way through to production. I brought in network connections and artisans that I know that helped us elevate that to a place that I don’t think would have happened otherwise.”
“If you look at that situation, you’ve got Simon, who’s a founder of an agency like Emotive, and then you’ve got Adam Gilchrist, who’s not only an Australian cricket icon, but he’s the founder of his business, so he’s also the star in the campaign, and therefore the client. So it was a really interesting experience.”
Drape said he’s excited about what’s next for the practice. “I’m looking forward to working with people who are willing to embrace the power of creativity and commerce together,” he said. “And hopefully we’ll let those projects speak for themselves.”
As CREATIVITY & COMMERCE takes shape, Drape’s mission is clear: to help organisations see creativity not as a cost centre but as a core capability. By blending decades of industry experience with a network of global talent, he’s setting out to prove that ideas, when properly nurtured, can deliver both cultural and commercial returns.
