The New Wave ~ Paper Stone Scissors
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 Paper Stone Scissors.
Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
We are a tight-knit creative agency with a strong aesthetic sensibility and a commitment to creating work that delivers results. For more than 30 years, we’ve created desire for the brands we work with – with a soft spot in our hearts for fashion and lifestyle categories. We understand how to translate what makes a brand distinctive into compelling creative assets that connect with the right audience. Our experience means we know how to balance creativity with commercial intent, producing work that stakeholders are proud to own, audiences want to engage with and, ultimately, delivers meaningful commercial outcomes for the brands we work with.
Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
Some of the most powerful players in the industry these days are indies. They’re vital to a competitive and creatively ambitious industry. With no one but your clients and your own conscience to answer to, indies have the freedom to think independently. Unconstrained by corporate structures, agendas or convention, ideas are allowed to bubble up from a pure place of imagination.
What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
Our unfair advantage over the networks is our 30+ years of experience, our eye for beauty, a passion for our niche and a carefully curated, long-standing team. Our production arm shoots in Australia and across the globe for over 200 days a year, so our problem-solving and agility on that front are second to none.
The people our clients meet are the people doing the work, which means senior thinking stays close to every brief and decisions happen quickly. We have the freedom to follow the strongest idea rather than a process, allowing creativity to come from a purer place – driven by imagination first, then sharpened by more than 30 years of commercial experience. Our clients are our business, and their success genuinely matters to us. We bring an ownership mentality to every relationship and every piece of work. We’re smaller by design, but that makes us more invested, more agile and harder to outthink.
How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
We see AI as a powerful enabler which allows a lean, experienced team to operate with the speed and capacity of a much larger agency. By using AI to streamline research, administration and pre-production, we can gather, interrogate and present information in a fraction of the time. This frees our team to spend their time where it has the greatest value which is thinking, creating and applying our instinct and judgement, ultimately making the work better.
What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
Clients who value agile thinking, direct access to senior talent and the commercial efficiencies of a leaner, more focused and specialised team.
What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
We’ve sustained the quality of our work for more than three decades and our ambition is to continue doing exactly that. For us, what’s next is really about what has always mattered – doing great work, working with brilliant people, both within our team and on the client side, and creating an environment that people genuinely want to be part of. That will continue to underpin who we are and where we go next.
Check out the other New Wave Q&As below:
Read Curious Nation’s Q&A here
Read cummins&partners’ Q&A here
Read Connecting Plots Group’s Q&A here
Read Jacko Jacko & Jacko’s Q&A here
Read Chimera Project’s Q&A here
Read Today The Brave’s Q&A here
Read Tightknit Studio’s Q&A here
Read Bastion Australia’s Q&A here
Read We Are Different’s Q&A here
Read SICKDOGWOLFMAN’s Q&A here
Read Kill Boring Dead’s Q&A here
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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