THE HABITS OF HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS AGENCIES

This article appeared in Contagious Magazine issue 47

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Feature / Contagious Pioneers
THE HABITS
OF HIGHLY
CONTAGIOUS
AGENCIES
Getting under the skin of the world’s best and bravest agencies to
learn how they consistently deliver exceptional work. By Alex Jenkins
T
here isn’t some secret formula. That may
save people a lot of time,’ says Droga5
founder David Droga when asked
about the key to his agency’s continued suc-
cess. ‘It isn’t something they can write down
and implement right away.’ What a shame.
It would be tempting to believe in an arcane
methodology known only to a cabal of adland’s
most successful practitioners. But if the most-
awarded creative director in the history of
Cannes Lions says there isn’t one, then there
probably isn’t.
However, when we analysed all of the work
featured on Contagious I/O during 2015, we
found a select group of agencies were manag-
ing to deliver exceptional work for their clients
with a level of consistency too high to attribute
to pure luck. These Contagious Pioneers as
we named them (see Contagious 46 for the
full list) share very few obvious traits on the
surface. Certainly not their size or location.
These agencies are from around the world
and range in size from 100 to 800 employees.
But one thing they do have in common is their
ability to reliably produce exceptional marketing.
So I set out to find the common practices –
the habits of highly Contagious agencies, if you
will – shared by those who set the standard for
the rest of the industry. I interviewed their heads
to find out how they structure their teams, the
way they work with clients, the type of cultures
and working environments they create, and the
way they define the remit of creativity itself.
No accidents
As a general macro observation, it struck
me that none of these agency leaders talked
about happy accidents. Instead, I heard a lot of
stories that started with ‘We took a conscious
decision to...’
For example, Nick Worthington, head of
Colenso BBDO in New Zealand, tells how,
six years ago, the leaders of the agency
consciously decided to define precisely what
they thought excellent work should look like.
They concluded that it was creatively brilliant,
extremely effective and made the client happy.
In the cold, subjective light of day, that may
not sound like a revelation, but Worthington
describes how ‘very, very little work was
18 / 19
actually hitting those three marks. You see
classic examples where there’s great work
that the world takes notice of, then, the fol-
lowing year, the client parts company with the
agency. A lot of great creative work doesn’t
drive business success and doesn’t make the
client happy.’
Many of the other Pioneer agency heads talk
about not only making a conscious attempt to
define creativity, but to redefine the remit of
creativity from an agency perspective. What
emerged was a need to go beyond selling
products to having a more purposeful, cultural
impact. For example, Droga outlines how ‘cre-
ativity with a purpose is a real belief system
for us’, while Nils Leonard, creative chairman
of Grey, London, shares how ‘in every pitch we
now ask: “Do you want to matter in culture and
communicate that?”’.
In light of a fast-moving and increasingly R/GA’s Love Has No Labels
campaign, watched by 57 million
complex marketing landscape, the need for people online, used motion-tracking
a redefinition makes a lot of sense. ‘What it to render life-size skeleton X-rays in
requires from an organisation is a broader idea real time.
of what creativity is,’ says Nick Law, global chief ‘Organisations need a much,
creative officer at R/GA, New York. ‘A broader much broader set of deliverables.’
Nick Law, R/GA
Feature / Contagious Pioneers 20 / 21
Forsman & Bodenfors’ Close
the Loop campaign for H&M.

‘The copywriter on that project

set of aptitudes, ways of thinking, processes
and a much, much broader set of deliverables.’
Pick your battles
But let’s not forget the people on the receiving
end of those deliverables: the clients. Does
the ability to consistently deliver great work
start even before the pitch – actually choosing
whether to pitch or not?
It was a mindset that a number of people
shared, including Law, who describes how,
at R/GA: ‘We talk about that all the time in a
way we didn’t five years ago.’ That kind of client
selectivity was also echoed by Leonard (‘We’ve
had to become fiercer about the partners we
select’) and Droga (‘As much as clients vet us,
we vet them’).
Being more selective about pitching was
clearly important to many of the Pioneer
agencies... until I asked Worthington whether
Colenso BBDO was unusually picky about who
was a newly hired, young creative.
In order to do that type of work
in a traditional agency you would
it chooses to work with. ‘Absolutely not at all. I
think there’s very little we wouldn’t have a crack
Those who think probably have to wait quite a few
years before you get there.’
at.’ However, Worthington advises agencies to being a creative Erik Sollenberg, Forsman & Bodenfors
make sure they can ‘educate’ clients. If they’re leader means being
‘hard clients’, you have to take the time to try
to make them see the world in the same way ferocious about the
you do. Grey London’s Leonard suggests the work at all costs aren’t
same, explaining how the agency constantly
shows its clients the type of work it believes
getting the dimensions
they should be doing. of the industry
In order to consistently deliver great work, you David Droga, Droga5
need a client who is receptive to it. And that
may involve new ways of working, especially
when it comes to new types of deliverables,
such as product- or service-driven work. Law
explains: ‘We couldn’t have had success selling
through those things with the old model. We
had to change our model. One way R/GA has
done that is by creating a consulting practice
so we’re having conversations with a broader
range of clients, not just CMOs.’

No more rockstars
One of the things I was interested to find out
was how these agencies worked internally,
and what they felt set them apart. Something
that came through strongly – both at a cultural
and an organisational level – was the idea
of ‘no more rockstar creatives’. The agency
built around a single, great creative genius,
enthroned on high, was not in favour.
As a creative himself, Leonard was frank
about the negative characteristics of these peo-
ple and the detrimental effects they can have
Grey London’s on an agency: ‘At their worst, creatives are the
iKitten AR app for most belligerent, single-minded, stuck-in-the-
McVitie’s required a
mix of copywriters, 3D
mud people. We love it our way. We love our big
animators, creative office. We love the awards. You knock on our
technologists and door. All of these things are barriers to speed
planners.
and progress in learning and collaboration.’
‘We give people Other agency heads argued that a rockstar
complete trust. Every creative has the potential to disempower and
one of our accounts
works completely
demotivate staff, eventually stifling creativity
differently. They can from other sources – all of which impede
engineer everything: the agency from producing great work. Erik
how they report to
the client, the nature
Sollenberg, CEO of Forsman & Bodenfors,
of the process, how sums up another ‘rockstar’ problem succinctly:
we produce the work, ‘In the worst scenario, you will have the best
how we get paid.’
Nils Leonard,
creative choosing what mediocre people do.
Grey London And what happens at an agency when the
superstar creative director leaves? The agency
is going to fail.’
Forsman & Bodenfors has no such hierar-
chies – something that Sollenberg believes is
one of the key factors behind the consistency
of the agency’s output. ‘We have created an
agency where our capabilities are more built
into the organisation than into individuals.’
The creative rockstar can also potentially
block an agency’s ability to evolve. R/GA’s
Law highlights this as a problem for many
traditional agencies attempting to keep pace
with an increasingly digital world. ‘An ECD of a
big agency isn’t going to say, “You know what?
I need to get someone in who has a skillset
that I don’t understand, that I don’t recognise
as creative.” It’s an ego thing. People aren’t
prepared to relinquish their power.’
Commenting on older, more traditional
agencies’ ability to evolve, Leonard’s view is
that ‘they might change but they’re not doing
it quick enough. As a competitor, I love that’.
The sun, not the sun
Droga offers a more generous view. ‘I believe
in creative rockstars... but also in strategy
rockstars and account rockstars.’ However, he
offers a word of warning to others who come
into leadership roles from a creative back-
ground, bringing with them an over-estimation
of the importance of the creative department
at the expense of all others. ‘Those who think
being a creative leader means being ferocious
about the work at all costs aren’t getting the
dimensions of the industry.’
But that isn’t to say that the people I spoke
to don’t believe in the need for strong creative
leaders – quite the opposite. Many of them
expressed the same sentiment: a good creative
leader makes everyone around them better.
While a creative rockstar might imagine them-
selves as the sun in the centre of their agency’s
galaxy, a real creative leader is more sun-like in
that they’re a nourishing force for those around
them. This ability to empower staff and nurture
an entrepreneurial spirit is vital. For example,
Grey London has eliminated ECD sign-off as a
way to speed up its processes and empower its
staff. ‘It’s about trust,’ explains Leonard. ‘When
you trust people, they work harder.’
That emphasis on empowerment is also
evident at Forsman & Bodenfors. ‘My main
ambition with our organisation is to create an
environment where people can be as good as
they possibly can,’ says Sollenberg. ‘Then I’ll
think we are running a successful business.’
Feature / Contagious Pioneers 22 / 23

Droga5’s Not There

campaign for the
Clinton Foundation.

‘I’m very taken by

doing work that
touches a nerve
and makes people
feel and think
something. I think
the industry spends
too much time
justifying mediocre
things. I would
rather we spend all
our time trying to do
great things.’
David Droga, Droga5

The future is fluid
Rather than relying on a rockstar at the helm,
many of the Pioneer agencies are placing
greater emphasis on making their teams more
flexible, allowing different disciplines to work
rooms of people and make sure the right people
are in those rooms.’
R/GA’s Law explains how creating this type
of fluidity allows the agency to address the
evolving needs of each client. In order to ensure
with management at the bottom, while client PRINCIPLES
teams sit at the top. ‘The highest level is the
team that is responsible for the client and that YOU ARE
OBLIGED TO
team is responsible for everything we do for
them,’ Sollenberg explains. ‘They are the people

together in a far less rigid way than a traditional
agency structure. For example, 70% of the
500 people at Grey London now hot-desk to
achieve that fluidity, allowing for collaboration
between producers, technologists and strate-
gists. ‘Everyone grows and it teaches people,’
explains Leonard, although he cautions that
that clients are receiving a solution tailored to
their unique problems, Law says that you have
to come up with team structures that have never
been used before. However, he also warns of
the danger of not appreciating the need for
rigour in deciding which people and skills to
bring together. ‘You could say, “Let’s get all of
LIVE BY WHEN
who will meet the client and they do all the work
for the client. The team is responsible for both
the creative work and the financial outcome.’
However, there is something that ranks even
higher than the client team. ‘The only boss is WORKING AT
FORSMAN &
the task itself,’ says Sollenberg. ‘Everything
else at the agency, the people, the structure,

success isn’t down to creating a haphazard these exotic talents in here. Let’s have a CG
collision of skills. ‘You have to really craft the animator work with a connections planner.” You
could have all of these things, but unless you
have a discipline around that, then you’re not
going to make money.’
The only boss is the Who’s the boss?
task itself. Everything Possibly the most radical approach to agency
else is only there to structure and hierarchy is evident at Forsman
& Bodenfors. CEO Sollenberg describes how
support the team to ‘the management of the company is more like
succeed in delivering a support function that has only one main task:
BODENFORS:
the support system, the politics is only there
to support the team to succeed in fulfilling the
assignment and delivering great results for
the client.’
Reinforcing the notion of fluidity, Forsman &
Bodenfors doesn’t have departments. Instead,
the client team is created by assigning people You have to show your You have to learn. You have to share
to work on a specific task for a client. The lack
colleagues what you are your success.
of departmental boundaries means that account
people are regularly involved in the planning working on. You have to be
process, planners work on the creative, etc.
prepared to change You have to engage
This promotes collaboration and openness not

results for the client

to help people do their best work’. only between disciplines but also across levels You have to listen your mind. in other people’s
Erik Sollenberg, Forsman & Bodenfors
Unlike most agencies, Forsman & Bodenfors
visualises its structure as an inverted pyramid
of seniority, with junior employees working side
by side with senior members of staff.
to their critique. work and give
your opinion.
Feature / Contagious Pioneers
You can be a rockstar
creative at a big
agency, but because
your system and your
culture don’t work like
ours, you’re going to
be slower, you’re going
to be more dependent
and you’re going to be
less creative
Nils Leonard, Grey London
In order to prevent any biases around hierar-
chy creeping in, the agency outlines six princi-
ples ‘you are obliged to live by when working at
F&B’, regardless of your role or level of seniority
(see page 23).
Client collaboration
Sollenberg believes that fostering processes
that promote collaboration and a willingness to
take on criticism inside the agency also result in
a deeper relationship with their clients too. ‘We
involve the client a lot earlier in the process than
most agencies. You want to create a situation
where the client feels part of the team. You
don’t want to feel that they are your opposition.’
For Colenso BBDO’s Worthington, creat-
ing exceptional client/agency relationships is
absolutely critical to delivering great work –
something he refers to as ‘the game of love
and trust’. His philosophy is: ‘If people love
you, you can sell them anything. If what you sell
is amazing, they will trust you with everything.’
And it’s that deeper level of trust which allows
the agency to have more meaningful conver-
sations with their clients about their business
challenges, going beyond just helping them
sell products.
To ensure that everyone understands the
importance of this mindset, ‘the game of love
and trust’ exists as a deck of playing cards given
out to all staff, illustrating a series of mantras
and mottos that staff are expected to embody
while at work. Keeping focus on the agency’s
cultural beliefs is a crucial behaviour for agency
heads, according to Worthington. ‘It’s easy for
those of us who lead, and are aware of these
values, to assume that everybody is aware
of them and what they mean,’ he says. ‘But
because of the rate of change in the agency,
with new people coming in and old people
leaving, you have to reinforce these values con-
stantly. You have to use them on a daily basis.’
Colenso BBDO’s Love & Trust cards
are designed to help agency staff
win the trust of clients.
‘We worked out we needed more
than our fair share of the most
talented clients. Having clients
that you respect and are like-
minded is key.’
Nick Worthington, Colenso BBDO
DO YOU HAVE THE
MAKINGS OF A HIGHLY
CONTAGIOUS AGENCY?
For anyone hoping to secure a place on Have you created an environment
the 2017 list of Contagious Pioneers, that allows for fluid teams?
ask yourself the following questions:
Are you able to organise around the
Do you have an up-to-date definition work, rather than departmental
for creativity and its remit? disciplines?
Do you take the time to educate clients Is your culture linked to the process
and explore ways of making them of creation, and are you actively
receptive to new deliverables? enforcing that culture?
Are you actively empowering Are you prepared to
staff at all levels of seniority? kill a rockstar?
The C word
Many, if not all, agencies will talk up the impor-
tance of their distinctive culture. However,
Sollenberg is clear that this is just half of the
secret to Forsman & Bodenfors’ success. ‘All
agencies claim to have a unique culture,’ he
says. ‘But what distances us is that we don’t
just have a unique culture, we have a unique
way of organising the work as well. I can’t say
if the culture is a result of the organisation or
the organisation is a result of the culture, but I
know that we are strongly dependent on both.’
Leonard also believes that culture should
not be isolated from output. Describing what
96 / 97
he feels sets Grey London apart, he explains:
‘There’s a culture for how we work and a culture
for what we make. I don’t think most agencies
have both.’ For Leonard, this is not merely a
point of differentiation but a genuine competitive
advantage. ‘You can be a rockstar creative at a
big agency, but because your system and your
culture don’t work like ours, you’re going to be
slower, you’re going to be more dependent and
you’re going to be less creative.’
True pioneers
In The Genius Survey (Contagious 46) some
of the smartest and most influential people
from the fields of marketing, technology and
academia identify what they believe to be the
six biggest challenges facing business. These
include motivating staff and finding ways to
evolve their businesses in a rapidly changing
environment. So it’s interesting to note that,
although our agency heads were quizzed about
how to produce excellent work, their wisdom
points to solutions that go beyond adland.
Empowering individuals, organising around
tasks rather than departments, creating struc-
tures that allow for their companies’ evolution
– these are all solutions to some of the biggest
problems faced by all businesses. Maybe that’s
why they truly deserve the title of Pioneers.
Opinion / On Briefs