A year after the fusion that resulted in VML, the “new” network demonstrated its creative prowess. Jaime Mandelbaum and Bas Korsten reflect on the ingredients that allow creativity to flourish.
The fusion between VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson that gave rise to the far larger – but easier to say – VML took place in autumn 2023. Just over a year later, VML won Network of the Year at the Epica Awards with no less than 33 awarded projects, including three Grand Prix and ten Golds.
Creativity is sometimes associated with small, agile agencies – we called them “hot shops” back in the day – rather than city-sized networks. So how do you foster creativity across so many agencies and countries?
Jaime Mandelbaum, Chief Creative Officer, EMEA (on the left in pic), says: “You know, creatives are like-minded people. Bas and I got on in two seconds, the other creatives got on in two seconds, and we all knew what we had to do. It’s great to be Network of the Year, but within the new VML there are a lot of opportunities for creatives to permeate all the capabilities we have and bring the kind of solutions for clients that I think will help us reach even greater heights.”
It's not all about establishing methodologies or critiquing work, he adds. “I think it’s more about trying to foster a culture. Making sure people get to know each other so they can collaborate. It’s definitely more about working together than us checking everything and giving instructions.”
A licence to experiment
Bas Korsten, Global Chief Creative Officer, Innovation and Co-Chief Creative Officer, EMEA, elaborates. “What’s interesting is that we won this in the first year of coming together. It could easily have been two camps looking at each other, with egos getting in the way. But we just got stuck into it. We look at the quality of work in the same way, which allowed us to get to a unified approach very quickly. Plus we’ve got some great people who have this self-motivating drive to do great work for our clients.”
“When you have great people,” Jaime observes, “the best thing you can do is make sure they’re all heading in the same direction and then get out of their way so they have the space to do what they’re able to do.”
As Bas heads innovation, does he encourage creatives to tinker with potentially groundbreaking ideas, even if there isn’t a brief or a client yet? Is there a space for personal projects?
“In fact I want every project to be a personal project, so you feel that basically it needs you to get it over the finish line,” he says. “But sometimes you notice a new technology that’s out there, and you start thinking about ways you might be able to use it that could create a difference for a brand. But it can go both ways – sometimes innovative ideas come from client briefs.”
He does feel that an agency has a prerogative to “find things nobody is looking for.” He explains: “As a creative, you should feel secure in pursuing these things and bringing them forward, even if they’re not part of the day-to-day. As an industry we have a duty to our clients to be pioneering. In order to do that, you need to go beyond client briefs and what’s expected of you. That’s definitely a culture we foster and propagate.”
We’ve got great people who have this self-motivating drive to do great work for our clients.
Making connections
One concept that was carried over from VMLY&R is the goal of creating “connected brands.” Jaime says this was imperative given the way consumers interact with brands now. “It’s completely changed and it’s not going back. We work with the understanding that the way that people might interact with a brand for the very first time could be something as granular as somebody else’s review on an Amazon page.”
Gone are the times when you were most likely to discover a new brand via a TV spot or a poster. “We need to look at brands differently and consider all the places they might appear.”
Not to mention the tone they should adopt there. “In the past you had a lot of matching luggage, where brands would put the same thing in different places. But now we’ve come to accept that brands will behave differently depending on their surroundings. In the same way that when you go to a restaurant, you may have a different conversation with your wife than you will at home. You retain the core of your identity, but way you interact with people is not the same.”
This has not wiped out more traditional formats, but it has forced an evolution. Bas says: “If you think about how film has evolved, there’s now long-form film content, and there are six second shorts – so film is still there, it’s just not necessarily the archetypical 30 or 60 second TV commercial.”
The role of the agency is to bring creativity to all these formats and “elevate the experience” for both consumers and brands.
The issue the client brings to you may be only the surface of what their real problem is.
Consolidation and simplification
Will the trend towards ever larger networks intensify or alleviate this problem?
Jaime replies: “It’s a perfect segue from the last question, in that the world marketers and brands need to navigate to reach consumers has become so much more complex. If you compare the life of a CMO 20 years ago to now, it’s much harder for them. So I think consolidation comes from a need among clients for a simpler structure they can navigate to find the right solutions for them. Our industry is trying to address that complexity. Because as well as making brands famous and selling more goods, we also provide business solutions.”
Pressure is coming from another source too, says Bas. “Our competition is not just other agencies. Our competition is Google and Meta, and you need scale to be able to fight them, or at least have a fighting chance against them.”
He believes that WPP Open, the group’s AI-powered automated marketing system – which integrates technology, applications and data in one place – can provide an edge by galvanising everything that WPP has to offer and, as part of the group, empowering VML itself.
“But if you think about the advertising platforms at Google and Amazon, it’s no small feat. You have to be in top shape to be able to withstand that kind of competition. So I think that’s what the industry is doing: trying to get into top shape and reach the scale that’s needed to compete with the big tech brands.”
Despite the breathtaking speed and baffling complexity of today’s marketing environment, he feels it’s an exciting time to be in the industry. “Creativity now comes from so many more places – and so many unexpected places.”
That sense of positivity runs through the network, he believes. “Do people feel like they can do the best work of their careers in VML? I do feel that there’s a groundswell of that.”