RadicalMedia's New CEO Justin Barocas Wants to Test Business Models
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By Brian Steinberg, Senior TV Editor
At production powerhouse RadicalMedia, change is the only constant. Originally established by Jon Kamen and Frank Scherma as an outlet for exploring new content formats after their years in the advertising industry, the company has evolved into a go-to resource for music documentaries, branded entertainment, and long-form content.
From the acclaimed Summer of Soul to the Disney+ streaming version of Hamilton and This Is a Gardening Show on Netflix, RadicalMedia has touched a diverse range of projects.
The company's founders plan to continue pushing boundaries with a new CEO at the helm: Justin Barocas, a founder of Anomaly agency. Kamen will take on an executive-chairman role, while Scherma remains president.
Barocas aims to increase RadicalMedia's theatrical properties, moving from Broadway to screens, and take greater ownership in the content it creates. He believes in exploring business models that give the production powerhouse a stake in the work it does for others, including co-financing, backend rights, proprietary formats, and underlying rights in stage adaptations and branded projects.
Across the advertising industry, owning a piece of the work created for ads and promotions has always been a sought-after goal. While agencies once relied on commissions, they rarely profited from any secondary uses of the intellectual properties they contributed to. Many have attempted to make this happen, such as Crispin Porter + Bogusky's partnership with Haggar clothing in 2006, but it remains a challenging feat.