June 2nd 2016

Five minutes with… Leigh Thomas, CEO of DARE

Creativebrief

Creativbrief

Career Highlights to date:

2013 – CEO, DARE
2010 – Managing Director, Saatchi & Saatchi
2007 – Client Services Director, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
2004 – Head of Account Management, Lowe Lintas

As CEO of DARE what is your primary focus?

Liberating the remarkable talent of DARE.

Please share a para on your career to date – specifically talking us through the high points.

My career has spanned across two continents (UK & South Africa), and I’ve been responsible for some highly awarded effective work across a range of dynamic UK and global brands from John Lewis, EE, Nike, to British Airways.

I was Managing Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, and three years ago joined DARE as CEO. I’ve been re-focusing the agency on its digital strengths which has led to significant client wins such as Nike, Investec, Irn Bru, and Experian in the last 12 months.

I chair the IPA groups for Client Relations and Commerciality, and am on the membership committee for WACL. In my spare time I try to keep up with technology and my two children (Graydon and Cameron) and my husband, Huw, makes sure I always have enough wine to keep my sense of humour intact.

What’s unique about your agency / business? Why did you join DARE?

In my first interview with John Bartle, I asked him what DARE is at its best. After some thought he responded: ‘DARE is at its best when it works with its clients towards the new and the unknown.’

This highly collaborative, client centric approach to digital innovation remains at the core of the DARE DNA, and has only been enhanced more recently as we joined the dynamic OLIVER Group.

Who are the people new to you (either within your business or externally) who have particularly impressed you in the last twelve months?

I was privileged to hear Sheryl Sandberg speak recently. Her humility, fierce intellect, and courage were breathtaking. As an industry we should take great heed of these fast growth digital-first businesses that put human behaviour at the heart of their thinking.

And by the same count, I am consistently impressed and delighted by the quality of the DARE talent. As someone in the agency recently put it:

‘We work like crazy, play like kids, and think like engineers.

And if we don’t like the script… we’ll rewrite it.

We’re here to stand out. Not to fit in.

We’re progress junkies, not process monkeys.

That’s what it is to be in our family.’

‘Jangle’, Experian by DARE

What has been your agency’s best work in the last year?

We have an array of great work over the last 12 months including work from EE, Barclays Lifeskills, GiveaHeart, Mellon Educate, Huawei, Converse and Sainsbury’s.

But the standout pieces were a smorgasbord of gorgeous products and content we created for Nike Europe, and a brilliant new product for Experian called Jangle which teaches children to save and manage their money (indirectly of course, allowing this brand to play a very positive role in the lives of families).

Industry wide, what work has excited you most this year?

P&G keep knocking it out the park at the moment.

I have just returned from a visit to Hong Kong and was really struck by the #changedestiny work from SK-II.

The campaign shines a light on China’s ‘Sheng Nu’ – a term used to label unmarried women over the age of 25, which translates to ‘leftover women’.

After the wonderful Always ‘Like a Girl’ global work, it seems to me that a global FMCG brand is changing the conversation in a way that resonates profoundly for its global audiences.

‘Marriage Market Takeover’ (#changedestiny) by SK-II

Who or what inspires you?

I regularly dose up on TedTalks on my commute in to work. Without fail I am given an injection of inspiration as I prepare to face my day, or the more challenging aspects of my role.

How do you stay in-touch with the industry’s best work and culturally relevant news?

That used to be the purpose of the smoke break.

No matter how busy, it’s important to me that I read something every day, whether from industry, business or individuals who are relevant and inspiring. I am a prolific consumer of platforms that allow me access to these insights and individuals, whether Medium, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or podcasts. Occasionally I actually get to read a book, but that is a rare luxury.

What work or agency from outside the UK do you think is particularly influential?

R/GA New York. They continue to re-invent themselves, and yet retain creative integrity, at scale.

What do you think are going to be the main challenges for agencies in the next two years?

Sustainable, profitable growth is important.

When even Sir Martin Sorrell is warning the industry to prepare for limited ‘growth’, there is clearly an issue, tied to the broader marketing landscape and global economy.

It is in this context that we have been privileged to join the OLIVER Group, which is bucking all industry trends with a unique and differentiated offer. OLIVER is the fastest growing independent agency in the UK, and according to The Times, the 44th fastest growing UK based agency globally. Our unique operating model allows us to deliver faster, more efficient and more effective work for our client. This is having a very healthy impact on DARE’s ability to grow, even only 6 months in to the new partnership.

Only in the context of growth, and therefore the ability to attract the best talent, will the agency business flourish in the next few years.

How do you see the media landscape unfolding in the next five years?

I am sure that no-one knows the exact answer to that. The only certainty is that it will change.

But what I do know is that the consumer has unreasonable expectations of our ability to deliver the right product and services to them in real time, with elegance and creativity.

In my estimation the global economy will continue to drive a focus on giving loyal customers more attention and care, and de-prioritising the scatter gun awareness driving marketing mechanics of the past.

In that context, I still believe the hugely exciting developments in AI, VR, quantum computing, mass personalisation and data will be subservient to the eternal fundamentals of marketing.

Ultimately the very basics of media will remain the same – human insight and creativity ensuring our brands remain relevant and compelling.

‘What the f**k have you done?’, Mellon Educate by DARE

What’s your attitude to the ‘traditional’ pitch? Do you think there is a better/more modern way?

We love a good pitch. It’s a good test of the agency’s mettle – to compete and win. However what pitches tend to create is what I technically call ‘jazz hands’ solutions. The charisma, the ‘manifestos’, the prototypes, procurement short cuts, and assertion based planning. I do worry whether that creates the wrong behaviours in agencies, and false promises for clients.

Modern pitching is probably an anachronism. Now more than ever, clients need partners. That’s where I would invest my effort if I were looking for an agency.

Find the right people, and work with them so you are confident that they can help solve your problems.

Great work and the value proposition will follow, without fail.

What’s the best pitch you’ve been involved in?

Investec ran an incredibly smart pitch last year for their digital transformation. Fundamentally it was a strategic and chemistry led pitch, within clear financial parameters. There was none of that speculative creative and financial tinkering. It was a very confident, efficient and clever approach. Ultimately, it inspired the agency to all genuinely want to do the work of their careers on this brand.

It felt like a great win as a result.