The New Wave ~ Weave
The New Wave is Campaign Brief’s Q&A series spotlighting the next generation of independent creative companies and exploring how the indie model is evolving. From structure and speed to culture and capability, we unpack where these businesses are finding their edge and what’s driving client decisions today. Next up is Marijana Simunovic, Co-Founder and MD, Weave.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
Weave is a brand and experience design agency working with businesses to build brands that live in, and respond to, the real world through strategic clarity, story-driven design, and experiences that people love.
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
Indies are the norm these days. When Weave first started, around a decade ago, being independent – and quite small and boutique – felt like a point of difference. Now there are so many indies around, of every scale and size, which I believe is a great thing… it creates diversity in offerings and creative output, and more entry points for people coming into the industry. It’s also brilliant for clients, particularly small-to-medium businesses and startups, who might once have been lost inside a larger network agency, or who are simply a better cultural fit for an independent partner.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s our agility – we can quickly make decisions that are right for the client, the project or our team, without layers to move through. Working with startups is a great example. We’ve taken on opportunities that didn’t necessarily stack up on paper, simply because they were exciting, or new, or something we wanted to try – and we’ve had the freedom to say yes and throw ourselves in. It doesn’t always pay off, but sometimes it does in a big way. Four Pillars Gin is a perfect example: that relationship has had a huge, long-standing impact on our business – not to mention they’re a genuine pleasure to work with, and we happen to love the product too!
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
We’re experimenting with AI across the business, but the biggest impact has been in pitch situations – using 3D product renders and highly realistic storyboards. The quality we can now produce would have been cost-prohibitive for us in the past, and it used to put us at a real disadvantage against bigger agencies who had those capabilities in-house. Being able to show up in a pitch with that level of polish has made a genuine difference to our ability to be more competitive and showcase our thinking and design at a higher level.
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
There isn’t one type of client choosing indies – they come in all shapes and sizes, for all sorts of reasons, but it’s safe to say they are all curious, forward-thinking brands. For our clients specifically, the feedback we hear most is that they value working with a senior team. The people in the room during the pitch are the same people doing the work and building the relationship day-to-day, with direct access to the agency’s leaders. That’s really a function of being both independent and intentionally smaller – it’s core to our model. For clients who want that kind of access and continuity, it can be harder to find in a larger, more traditional agency structure with more layers. We’re lucky – our client roster is genuinely diverse, spanning craft beer and wine, paint and FMCG, right through to banking, finance and not-for-profits.
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
While the ambition remains ‘growth’, realistically, staying lean and nimble makes the most sense for us in this climate. However, where we are investing is in Weave Events. This is our dedicated division with its own specialist team that’s responding to brands that are increasingly looking to connect with their audiences in a real way in a world being dominated by AI and automation. We’ve always been firm believers in bringing brand thinking into experiences, and vice versa, so it’s a genuinely exciting opportunity for us, and something we’ll be talking a lot more about in the months ahead.
Check out the other New Wave Q&As below:
Read Oblong Creative’s Q&A here
Read The Many Australia’s Q&A here
Read Bureau of Everything’s Q&A here
Read Art of the Possible ANZ’s Q&A here
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