303 MullenLowe’s Derry Simpson shares the secret to being a good strategist at AdFest 2018

Derry Simpson, Group Managing Director at 303 MullenLowe Perth (pictured), has been judging the Media and Effective categories at AdFest 2018, where she’s one of eight Jury Presidents.

You judged Media & Effective this year.  Do you have any advice for agencies entering next year?

In the Effective category, there were some amazing entries and campaigns with lots of beautiful creative ideas, but none that ticked all the boxes in terms of having a big idea, a strong insight born from research, data or cultural relevance, and remarkable business results.

When it comes to effectiveness, we spoke a lot about the importance of creativity – the creativity really matters, data won’t win on its own. Some entries fell into the trap of getting lost in the data and sales results.

On the flip side, there were wonderful creative ideas, with no results to evaluate. Impressions and likes don’t count. When it comes to results, we’re looking for attitude or behaviour change measures, an explanation of ROI or business objectives they were chasing, or brand metrics – how this campaign shifted the perception of the brand. A Grande winner really needs to tick all these boxes.

What about Media?

Enter, enter, enter! We should have had hundreds of entries in Media, but I don’t think agencies are looking at the category as an opportunity. Those that did, did very well. So when agencies are entering in best print or best outdoor, they should also think about entering on the media side.

Perth seems to hit above its weight creatively. Why?

Perth absolutely hits above its weight. Perth’s always been this isolated city, not so much anymore, but there are benefits to being isolated. One of those is an amazing creative culture. We have so many talented individuals that come from Perth – artists, musicians, creatives, directors. They’ve really made Perth their own, particularly in the past five years. People aren’t leaving as soon as they finish university anymore. It’s a thriving little town and it produces great work.

You’ve won lots of effectiveness awards yourself. Is there a secret to being a good strategist?

I’ve always told my strategy team that our job is to be able to see great work. Look at a wealth of ideas and know which one is going to work for the client and work for the brand. From that point of view, it’s all about being open-minded and learning and reading and always being interested – making sure you’re totally obsessed with consumer behavior.

303 joined the MullenLowe network in 2016. Can you describe the agency’s culture today?

It’s pretty unique. We’ve been around for 30-something years. Three founders started the agency and left big agency networks with the desire to work differently and be different. They created a culture where there are no departments. We work in what we call cells; we’re totally integrated. We’ve got media, digital, PR, creative, programmatic – everything’s in-house and all of those skillsets work together as a team on a piece of clients’ business. We produce more collaborative, better work that way.

Which entries resonated most with you this year?

We loved ‘Tap for your town’ for Mastercard, by McCann Sydney, which was based on a beautiful insight and integrated the product beautifully.

‘Sweet Change’ tapped into a really interesting cultural insight and used lolly wrappers as the media. Apparently, a lot of shops in India don’t carry enough change, and it’s culturally acceptable to receive lollies as small change. So McCann Worldgroup India essentially introduced a new currency, putting lollies into circulation that represented specific change amounts. Once you’d opened an account with PayTM, you could open the lolly wrapper, go online to redeem the code inside, and be reimbursed directly into your bank account. It’s a fascinating solution.

The other campaign that was absolutely beautiful was created in Japan. No one knows how to prepare for a disaster or what to pack. So Dentsu Inc., Tokyo created a campaign called “Emergency Collectibles, creating a double page spread in the local newspaper that outlines everything you need to take with you in case of emergency. It sparked a conversation and had families creating their own emergency kits. It was a beautiful use of print.

Watch Derry’s AdFest interview here:

Video production by Miles Cooper & Milos Cubrilo at AdFest