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Thinking outside the box with the first truly remote agency | #CompanySpotlight

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As creatives, people are always telling us to “think outside the box” but one eclectic group of individuals took the advice quite literally.

Thought Boxes, you see, as as much an idea as it is an agency - a group of creative thinkers that came together over the pandemic and decided to create an agency that wasn’t really an agency. At least, not in the traditional sense.

What ECD and partner Tom Notman and his cohorts have managed to put together in just over a year is nothing short of remarkable. To say anymore would be to give the game away. So, let’s hear from the man himself, shall we?

How was your company born and where are you based? 

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Thought Boxes, based in Belfast and loads of other places around the world, was a child of COVID, when we all discovered that working from home wasn’t such a bad thing and in fact as far as thought workers were concerned, much the better for it. Ergo the company name. 

Thought Boxes – a virtual connection of spare rooms reaching as far as New Zealand, Vietnam, India, Sweden, the UK and U.S. – is an offering with an in-built promise. When you work with us you get the best thinkers on the planet, not just whoever happens to be available in the office (which incidentally as a client you don’t get to pay for the up keep of). 

What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company? 

Marketing directors are people and most people are uncomfortable with change. When you are a voice in the wilderness proclaiming that you have a better system with which to tackle their business challenges you come up against a lot of stoic cynicism.

The only way to win hearts and minds is through action. Giving clients better strategies and bigger Ideas, and sooner or later they’ll all want one. 

Which was the first huge success that you can remember? 

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When we opened our virtual doors in 2021 we were lucky enough to be invited to help Danske Bank launch their Domestic Abuse Policy. The work was not only effective but went on to pick up awards. Danske Bank have proven to be a wonderfully, open-minded clients who see the value in what we are doing for them and their brand. 

What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year? 

On the immediate horizon, I can’t say because it’s all very secret but it might be something to do with alcoholic beverages. I was Creative Director on Bass Breweries, and Whitbread, for over 10 years so I have quite a bit of experience to lean on.

And not only that, but one of our Thought Boxers happens to be none other than the legendary Walter Campbell. He of Guinness Surfer fame – and quite simply the most awarded creative in the history of advertising bar none, with three D&AD Black Pencils and a skip full of other international awards.

We are very much looking forward to working with Walter again this year, now there’s an opportunity. 

Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique? 

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We have experienced core teams who can work through a project in the way that any agency might do. However when we feel a project can benefit from a particular planner or writer – we can lean on our network, for example we have planners in Gothenburg, London, Bristol and Cairo.

They’ll research, seek insights and reduce it to the creative brief. Then, much as any agency, we assign the brief to a creative team to deliver a big idea. The difference is that usually they’re not in the same room or even the same continent. (How weird would it be if the best people in the world all happened to live in the same small town?) 

How does your team remain inspired and motivated? 

Our Senior Team members all tend to be fully fledged train spotters when it comes to advertising, they’ve been living and breathing it for years, they are some of the best in the business and require little motivation to stay at the top of their game.

When we use junior teams their motivation tends to be – ‘you’ll learn your trade from the best in the business’ they just don’t happen to be in the room. We also throw a Christmas party and an away day. 

How has COVID-19 affected your company? 

Sometimes it takes bad things to make good things happen. If It weren’t for Covid, we most likely wouldn’t be talking. 

Which agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry? 

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Back in the day I always admired Lowes, AMVBBDO, and BBH and have been lucky enough to work for all of them. No better places to learn the trade. I also have great admiration for Creatives who go beyond advertising.

Andrew Nichol was the creative director of BBDO London who went on to become a very famous Hollywood Screen Writer and Director, and Walter Campbell (did I mention him?) who wrote the screenplay for Under the Skin a weird and wonderful film about alien visitation, set in Glasgow and staring Scarlett Johansson. Everyone should see it provided they’re over 18. 

What is one tip that you would give to other agencies looking to grow? 

Recently I glimpsed an invoice from a competitor (don’t ask how) – it contained a range of peripheral services. Nowhere did it mention a costing for an idea. I have since been told that this is common. Why on earth would there be no charge for an idea – Surely this is fundamental bread and butter stuff? 

This is what we sell, this is how we evaluate ourselves and our competition, this is how we change perceptions, solve our client’s challenges and build brands. If you want to grow your business. Have big ideas. Hire people who know where to look for them, how to create them and how to deliver them because when you get them right, they have the power to change lives. 

How do you go about finding new clients/business? (Pitching, work with retainers, etc.) 

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I find tenders and pitching processes very strange but I suppose a necessary evil for now, so we jump through the usual hoops. When I was with the big London agencies, business came to your door because of your reputation. I want our reputation to grow based on the quality of the services we deliver, and most of all, on the quality of our ideas. 

What’s your one big hope for the future of the industry? 

The digital revolution slammed into the industry in the early noughties. The birth of multiple channels fractured media and caused KPI’s to nosedive. Many agencies sank without trace while others, battered by the winds of change and their reputations in tatters, were washed up on the shores of irrelevance, where once revered admen were forced to chop up their BMW’s for firewood

Years later the industry is still enduring an excruciatingly long and painful refit. I hope that as time grinds slowly forward it regains at least some of its former glory and reputation for employing weird and wonderfully childish people, who can perform magic and grow your brand before your very eyes, while the pretenders, false digital gurus and designers disguised as advertising thinkers, are rooted out and forced to walk the plank.

Jamie Watson, my partner in this venture, is pretty much half my age, and comes with twice the wisdom. People like Jamie are my hope for the future. But Jamie is a very rare gemstone indeed. 

Do you have any websites, books or resources that you would recommend? 

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Always treat D&AD as your industry compass. And along the way walk the deckofbrilliance.com a truly outstanding tool for helping you think, designed and built by our regular Thought Boxer and former ECD of Ogilvy Singapore, Captain Todd McCracken.

Those two tools are all you need to navigate your way to big ideas - the rest you can pretty much throw overboard (any more nautical metaphors and I’ll turn into Captain Jack Sparrow). Bon voyage for now. 

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