We were lucky enough to host a panel at the 2024 Paradigms Brand Experience Summit, bringing brands and agencies together with our co-founder Nick Bell to deliberate what it takes to nurture great ideas, and make better, more effective creative work.
We discussed what great work actually looks and feels like, before moving onto how brands and agencies can bring exceptional ideas to life together – including finding the right partner, and balancing KPIs and creativity. We’ve gathered together some (lightly edited) soundbites from our panel of guests: Iona Carter @ Wise, Bomo Piri @ Native Instruments, Jolyon Varley @ OK COOL and Leo Porto @ Porto Rocha.
DEFINING GREAT WORK
AUFI: Everyone, brands and agencies, wants to make great work, that goes without saying. But it's possible it could mean different things to different people. So, how do you define "great work"?
“Great work is effective work. It’s effective at solving a problem, it’s not just art for art’s sake or a complex brand matrix that makes everyone in the room feel smart. It’s work that’s clear about the business problem it’s tackling and how it solves that problem.” – @Iona
“It’s about being effective. I’d describe great work in three adjectives: emotional, narrative and contextual. If it’s a great idea at the wrong time, it’s still not that great an idea. Context really is the thing that encapsulates a lot of what great work is. Am I able to deliver a solid message to someone at the right moment, and also drive the results we want from a client perspective? And then there’s everything that wraps around that – how does it make you feel? What does it say? What does it make you do?” – Bomo
“Great work is a solution that can fill more than one goal at once. A lot of the work we do involves several different strategic goals for the business, but they’re often at odds with each other. On the one hand, we need to be memorable and iconic. On the other, it needs to work and be utilitarian. There’s so many of these tensions that great work needs to navigate, and great work addresses all of those challenges at once.” – @Leo
“Great work is memorable. I have a friend who is one of those ad industry luminaries, and he once told me that the process of summoning great work to mind is a bit like thinking about your favourite movie. It all has the same qualities – it can be thrilling, or weird, or exciting, or inspiring, but it’s just good art. We have this mantra at OK COOL that if nobody hates it, nobody loves it. So my second adjective is that good work is also very divisive.” - Jolyon
FINDING THE RIGHT CREATIVE PARTNER
AUFI: How do you think about evaluating an agency or brand partner? Is it more an art or science? Are there signs that the partnership’s going to be built on a strong foundation?
“Often, it’s partners that can force me and my organisation to go one, two, three levels deeper – beyond what’s on the brief, beyond what we feel as a business, beyond our strap lines and history and heritage. Ultimately, what I’m looking to do is influence change, and change is hard.” – Bomo
“You can taxonomise – what are the elements that are going to make a great creative partner for this project? And depending on the project, it’s likely to be a different set of criteria or a different set of elements. You can define those and build a scoring matrix, which feels quite scientific and will turn out a score for each potential agency partner at the end. It’s a useful tool internally to then have a robust conversation and make a really informed, thoughtful decision.” – Iona
“We’re looking for energy and enthusiasm on call one. I want to see there’s a client stakeholder that’s in love with the brand, and that there’s a sense of shared possibility for the cool stuff we might make together from the jump.” – Jolyon
“I would say it’s almost a cliché, but we’re looking for chemistry, and for people that are passionate about the work and see potential in the transformation they want to create for the future. We are also looking for clients that are organised, that have a clear path for making decisions, and are not extremely risk-averse.” – Leo
WHAT KILLS GREAT WORK
AUFI: What are the things you actively look to avoid? Or, more specifically, what happens between agencies and brands to kill great work?
“As businesses get bigger, and become more performance driven, everything’s got to show immediate efficacy and we’ve got to put it through the pipeline to make sure we can drive as many eyeballs, KPIs, or whatever as possible. That starts to chip away at really good work.” – Bomo
“Dialogue is needed for great work. This idea that you hire a great agency and get out of their way is a bit of a misnomer … the reality is agencies bring tonnes of experience, creative firepower and strategic pattern recognition, but the client brings the customer understanding and the business context. The nature of strong, constructive dialogue between smart people is really refinement – and that’s the last five or 10% of a project that makes it go from good to great.” - Iona
“Lack of trust” – Jolyon
“Having too many cooks in the kitchen. Not having a clear vision. Not having a clear path for decision-making. I’ve seen this happen time and time again, where a company is too democratic for its own good and people with lots of different ideas want to chime in, and it derails the focus.” - Leo
IF YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING, REMEMBER THIS
AUFI: What’s the single most important learning you take into every new collaboration? And building on that, if you could share one unfiltered thought, what would it be?
“The biggest learning I take is being aware of my own biases and how they might show up or impact the project. Being aware of all the stuff you’re holding when you come to the table is really useful to get yourself out of the way, and engage in the process thoughtful and with presence, and to get to an optimal process and outcome. - Iona
“Trust the process and the role you play in it. It’s incredibly powerful if everyone knows their roles, communicates it upfront and doesn’t just allow the thing to happen but collaborates with a goal and destination in mind.” - Bomo
“Consider the alignment of interests between you and your agency. For larger agencies, there’s typically a gap between the individuals who pitch the project and those who execute it – leading to diluted accountability. A smaller, younger agency can provide a more aligned and focused partnership, where a fierce commitment to results is shared and deeply personal. These teams are highly motivated, tightly knit and directly accountable. The people you meet at the start are likely the same individuals invested in delivering your vision, ensuring you receive authentic, attentive service.” – Jolyon
“Every client is different and unique, and their structures and culture are different. The world they live in is different. Their audiences are different. There’s no single process that will work for all of them. We believe in understanding the clients, and creating the scope of work that’s tailored to those environments and those circumstances.” - Leo
