TikTok Cannes Young Lions – Finalists!

Congratulations to Core Agency creatives Sarah Mould and Sophie Adams who were recently named finalists in the Cannes Young Lions competition.

Open to creative professionals at the start of their career from right across the world, the competition sets a creative challenge in five categories – Media, Digital, Film, Marketing and Design.

Sarah and Sophie entered the Digital category, and we are very proud to say their work was shortlisted as one of the Australian finalists!

Brief:
Launch a TikTok-first campaign that creates a movement and transcends the platform by encouraging Australian society to value and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultures and heritage as a proud part of a shared, national identity.

Check out their entry – ‘Original Sound’…

Rebecca Turner takes ownership stake in The Core Agency and becomes managing partner

The Core Agency has appointed Rebecca Turner to the newly created role of managing partner as well as taking a financial interest in the business as it scales for future growth.

Turner has worked at the independent Sydney creative agency for almost ten years, most recently as business director and now joins founding partners Christian Finucane and Jon Skinner with an ownership stake.

As managing partner she will be responsible for driving agency growth and managing all commercial elements of the business, in addition to overseeing client service, people and operations.

Turner said: “Business ownership has long been a goal of mine. Having spent the better part of a decade at The Core Agency, it’s a dream come true to be invited to go into partnership with two of my long-time friends and mentors.

“The Core Agency has given me such a broad and rewarding career, I’m excited to be able to offer those learnings to others and continue to build an incredible business for our clients. As a female leader, I’m particularly passionate about furthering gender equality and using this new role to champion diversity and inclusion in everything we do.”

The Core Agency was started 14 years ago and has built a reputation for delivering big brand thinking with service levels only owner-operator agencies can deliver. Its clients include IGA Supermarkets, QBE Insurance, Elders Insurance, PwC, Just Better Care, Quest Apartment Hotels and Doctors on Demand.

Finucane said: “With two creative founders, The Core Agency has always been a creative-led business. However, we recognise the important role people like Bec play in making great ideas happen. We’ve been looking for the right third partner who can represent this vital pillar of the business, complement the skills we have, and bring a new perspective to our ever-evolving industry. Bec was the clear choice across all points. It has been fantastic to see her grow in the business while she has helped the agency grow. She has an incredible ability to determine big-picture thinking while also minding the important details for our clients. She is a champion of the agency culture and always has time for the next wave of talent coming through the business.”

Skinner added: “This significant appointment is key to our growth plans as we scale and help more brands overachieve. Clients all tell us the same thing – they’re after big brand experience combined with the level of service that only owner-operated agencies can offer. This is exactly what our business model, driven by our new leadership team, can now take to the next level.

“Australia is fueled by ambitious mid-tier brands that are restless for growth. We want to show them they have a natural home with The Core Agency, where they’ll receive the number one treatment without compromising on big brand thinking. Every great brand needs a core idea and core team, so our next chapter will deliver that for more clients who share our ambition to punch above.”

When not to collaborate

Collaboration is a complete no-brainer. Right?

A bunch of brilliant examples spring straight to mind. Lennon and McCartney, Larry Page and Sergey Brin or Jane Turner and Gina Riley. And in our world, Procter and Gamble, Wieden and Kennedy, and Mo and Jo to name but a few…

The Beatles: Get Back documentary is a perfect demonstration of the power of collaboration and the heights to which ideas can be elevated beyond that of any of the individuals.

It’s why we have creatives working in teams today. Back when the Fab Four were in their heyday, an agency innovator realised that having writers and art directors talking across the same desk, rather than sitting in different departments, lead to better work.

Of course, creative teams collaborate on their ideas with film directors, photographers, animators and musicians to further amplify the concept. In fact, collaboration, across every aspect of our industry, is so routine now that we basically take it for granted. And that’s a great thing.

I’m always collaborating with clients, creatives, planners and account service (mainly because they’re smarter than me) and I love it because it’s (usually) always productive.

It’s actually surprising it took so long to be a thing we do in business. It’s relatively new. A quick Google (thanks Larry and Sergey) and you’ll find a litany of posts outlining the benefits working together.

Talking with other agency owners, those companies with a highly collaborative culture fared really well with the WFH routine we all faced during the COVID epidemic. The flexibility and openness to other people’s thinking that naturally comes with collaboration is magnified when we’re not working face-to-face. It builds trust amongst teams which can only be beneficial.

An engaged workplace (be it physical or virtual) promotes a team who are active participants in a values-based culture. People know their efforts count, they have a direct voice in the business and are not just a cog in the machine. That feeling of belonging has been shown to lower stress levels and improve work/life balance. And after the last couple of years, it’s great to know that our workplace families have brought comfort through challenging times.

It’s no surprise then that all this inclusion and sharing translates into a more productive environment where people feel confident to bring their best selves to work.

One of our clients, PwC, that is on the frontline of competing for the very best talent, recently found that millennials relish an environment where they can engage with and share ideas directly with senior management.

It’s easy to see how this kind of collaborative culture leads to higher retention rates, smarter innovation, better business alignment and ultimately more profit, as you now have a highly engaged team of the smartest people all standing on each other’s shoulders.

So, based on all the evidence I’ve just shared, you could say there’s never a time to not collaborate. Or is there?

It feels contrary to say it, but I believe there is a line, a thin red line, where collaboration can morph into other ‘c words’ – namely Compromise, Committee and Complicated. And this is particularly true when it comes to creative ideas.

More often than not, there comes a point in the collaboration process where you have to stop and say “Thanks, but no…” to that visual tweak or extra line of copy shoehorning in another small but suddenly equally important idea. Keeping an idea single-minded can sometimes be harder than coming up with the concept in the first place.

It’s when the uncomfortable conversations start to happen, where some input, feedback and ‘builds’ have to be debated away to keep the thinking sharp and cut-through.

It’s when egos should be left behind and rational thinking needs to win the day. I’m not advocating a return to the ‘my way or the highway’ ivory tower mentality projected by some agencies in the past. Simply that those with the power to add ‘more’ remember what when it comes to effective messaging that ‘Less is more’.

As professionals in a creative industry, it’s absolutely worth asking ourselves, “Are we collaborating too much today?” Are we in danger of creating a camel - something that pleases everyone but looks weird and makes little sense?

Someone, usually a Creative Director and a CMO, have to take on the role of protector of the idea, to safeguard its creative integrity. This can ensure that all the wonderful collaborative thinking at the beginning of the process isn’t sabotaged in the fragile latter stages.

In the Get Back documentary Paul McCartney was consistently seen having the hard conversations, debating (and putting his foot down) with his creative collaborators as to what to add and what to subtract. Yes, it creates friction. But it’s a good friction in pursuit of doing the right thing for the brand.

If you navigate the process well, being a protector as well as a creator, you have a great chance of making collaboration succeed in the best way possible. And then, when your work is getting noticed and working its socks off, everyone involved can say “We did that!”

QBE – Brand experience

Following our recent creation of QBE’s new Core Idea - Before & After - we were tasked with designing the insurer’s exhibition space at Australia’s largest industry event, Steadfast.

After the two COVID years brokers had just experienced, QBE wanted to demonstrate the importance of change and transformation – and how they were there for brokers along that journey. It was important they used the conference space to amplify our new brand idea to show partners that QBE is there to support them.

So that brokers could truly experience ‘Before & After’, we transformed the stand into a space where attendees could literally create a ‘Broker 2.0’ version of themselves. The stand had of series of ‘stations’ to enable them to physically transform - such as a hair stylist and a shoeshine person. At the end of the experience, a photographer took an ‘After’ picture of each broker to use on their LinkedIn profile. There was also a copywriter on the stand to help sharpen up their social media presence by rewriting their LinkedIn bio.

And finally, what better metaphor for support than man’s best friend? So, we sourced one of the only robotic dogs available in the region to help draw attendees to the stand. Stickered in QBE branding, ‘Qbie’ was the star of the event and helped bring a record number of people through the brand experience. It also served as a great photo opportunity with brokers to help spread the QBE brand across social and industry media channels.

Everyday Hollywood

When I was on work experience in London, years ago at a great agency, the copywriter who joined me actually took a two-week holiday from his ‘real’ job, in the hope that we’d land a gig in adland.

He was married with kids, so what on earth was he doing? He had responsibilities, he had bills to pay and mouths to feed. Things the fifty quid a week definitely wasn’t going to cover, not to mention the two weeks holiday his family would be never get back.

We got into work before anyone else, we worked later than everyone else and we worked on as many pitches as we could, hopeful that if our idea won then we would surely get a full-time job. We even worked the weekend in-between. I was beginning to wonder if he hated his family…

So why was the copywriter willing to do all this? Because… “If you love the job you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Imagine if your career’s officer shared these gems with you when you were at school…

There’s a job where you’ll be required to come up with ideas all day.

You’ll do that with a mate, because for very good reasons we still work in creative teams.

You won’t have to actually work ‘in the office’. All that’s required of you is to create the most original thinking you can muster. (So if you nail cracking ideas in the shower, stay in there until the water runs cold.)

The people you work with will fire your imagination and encourage you to create better and more outrageous campaigns. They won’t tell you to pull your head in, in fact quite the opposite, encouraging you to break some boundaries.

Of course, it will be challenging because most of the ideas that you reckon are brilliant have already been done. So there will be a few late nights, trying to find originality before the deadline finds you.

You’ll work with really smart people from all walks of life, who think strategically, have brilliant craft skills and can produce miracles to help your ideas come to life.

The vast majority of your ideas will die, so it’s essential you learn to be resilient. Experience will show you there’s numerous ways to skin a cat.

The best thing is when you do nail a big idea, you’ll get to make it.

It might be a film with a well-known director. It might involve a famous actor. It might require you to travel to an exotic location.

Or you might commission a top photographer who’ll help you see things in new way.

You could be creating an art installation or working with a famous animator. Perhaps you’ll collaborate with a composer on an inspiring soundscape.

Or it could be an inexpensive social campaign that goes viral, not because of the money behind it, but because of your thinking behind it.

Or maybe it’s a funny radio spot that makes your friends laugh when it pops up on a road trip.

You could actually shape our country’s culture through a tourism idea that “shrimps” anyone. Even help put people into jobs, take homeless people off the streets.

Even better you could actually save lives by creating effective ideas to promote road safety or quitting smoking.

And even if you gave it a red-hot go and then decided it wasn’t for you, you would have learned a great skill - to think without boundaries. Which is something that will set you up for whatever you want to do next. Just like these ex-admen David Bowie, Salman Rushdie, Sir Alec Guinness and Terry Gilliam.

Oh yeah, if nothing else, all the media you consume, from Netflix to your favourite music is tax deductible!*

Unfortunately, that copywriter and I didn’t convert our internship into a job. But somehow I did wangle an extension to stay on and work with Executive Creative Director. (You should have seen the looks on the faces of the other creatives when reviews were happening…)

One day, eager to learn how to unlock this amazing ‘Everyday Hollywood’ career, I asked the ECD, “What would you do if you were in my shoes?”

He said, “Give Australia a go!”

I’m glad I asked him…