I popped in last week to meet Andy Millns, co-founder and creative director at Inition, the 12 year old digital media agency that was acquired by IT recruitment firm Parity for nearly £4m in May last year (see Parity buys into its digital dream).
Setting aside my views on the raison d'etre behind the transaction (see Parity 'places' digital media cards on the table), I have to say that the demonstrations I saw were truly impressive. It's clear that Inition are working on very exciting projects with very high profile clients.
And in some ways that’s the point – it’s a project business. As I see it, Inition's differentiation and value proposition is not in the technology – they have a raft of augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D printer technology in play but none of it is their own IP. The value proposition is in the team’s creative skills. Simply put, the business can only grow by hiring more ‘creatives’ i.e. it's a people business. There's nothing wrong with that of course if you can charge premium pricing and maintain margins as you grow.
It's a moot point whether Parity chairman Philip Swinstead is looking to build Inition into a digital media giant (they are just a couple of dozen strong at the moment) or whether it will find a new home with a large IT services player looking to build a digital media front-end to its more traditional services (and that's a matter for debate another time). Inition will have to prove it is 'special' enough either way, but it certainly looks good now.