Campaign Brief Q&A: A sense of optimism and collaboration is what 72andSunny is all about

This year 72andSunny took out the 2022 Campaign Brief Medium Agency of the Year title, selected from all Australian agencies with 30 to 100 employees. Here the agency chats exclusively with Campaign Brief…

 

Pictured top left to right: Ross Berthinussen (CEO), Luke Martin (ECD), Paul Leaning (Executive Producer)
Bottom left to right: Genevieve Hoey (Creative Lead), Shadi Sarreshtehdarzadeh (Strategy Director), Andy Flemming (Wordy McWord Spurt)

Campaign Brief: 72andSunny has been here for 5 years, you’ve only just won Campaign Brief Medium Agency of the Year, why have you found your mojo now? 

Ross: We’re a values based company so that drives everything we do. Our founding value is the belief in Optimism, which is why we have a funny name. For us, Optimism isn’t just about a positive outlook on the world but a belief that we can achieve the impossible if we all work together. That sense of positivity and collaboration is what 72andSunny is all about. I think we’ve found a team and client partners who really vibe with that way of working and our success has come from that.

Luke: It’s our energy – towards one another, the work and our partners. To try and rationalize it’s difficult. Perhaps it comes down to how we work, we are kind to one another, we embrace everyone’s thoughts and opinions, we support each other, we show empathy to all, we are all running in the same direction, everyone feels the freedom to show up as the best versions of themselves. Maybe it’s just simply because we are all enjoying waking up, and creative thinking about our client partner’s problems – I guess when you’re enjoying what they do, everyone’s energy is in sync.

Andy: I don’t think we’re anything like Mojo. They did a lot of guitar based stuff and we’re a bit fresher than they used to be I think.

Gen: We found this ancient advertising annual, which contained some sacred rituals to perform. Then we made a few sacrifices. Seems to be working. Although no-one is allowed to feed us after midnight. Weird.

CB: Did you get rid of all the junior talent I heard?

Ross: Haha, no, but we do run a senior talent model in Strategy and Creative. So our strategy team are all Strategy Directors or above and our Creative team Creative Directors and above. And then we run a lean, flat team, depending on what skills a project needs. We do have more junior team members in Design, Brand (what we call Account Management) and Production.

Gen: See my note above. Sacrifices have been made.

Andy: It was quick and humane. That’s all I can really say about the matter.

CB: And you’re still based in Manly? 

Luke: There is a studio in Manly. Which is a lovely space to work from when you want. We are 100% WFX or work from anywhere, so we let our team choose where they work best and we design our experience to be digital first. That has allowed us to hire team members who live outside of Sydney, we work with Gen in Brisbane and folks in Melbourne, New Zealand, and often from 72andSunny in LA, New York and Amsterdam.

Gen: WFX. I’m in Brisbane as Sydney just wasn’t fast enough. Seriously, Brisbane, aka the next home of the Olympics, is popping. And it gives me creative space and inspiration and humidity. One of our designers spent months in Bali last year, also chasing the humidity that unlocks creativity. Unofficially a few of us here also have Weird Workplace Wednesdays, where we challenge each other to go work from locations that inspire or energise us. Best on field so far is Andy, who works constantly inside the metaverse of Unreal Engine 5.

Andy: Tell me about it. I came here initially to work with you again Gen and found out you weren’t even in the same state.

Shadi: WFX also means more introverted planners like myself get to work in whichever environment is most conducive to getting the best out of them. I love days when I can go into the office and see the crew and the view, but there are days when I just know I’ll get more done, and get it done better, if I’m able to squirrel away at home.

Paul: Working from anywhere (mostly my kitchen table) is great. Especially on those days with back to back meetings when a commute to work is an unnecessary use of time. But we do have a great space in Manly that myself and the production team like to use. A bit of face to face time once or twice a week, as needed, to grab a coffee and discuss the work is really useful.

CB: What work are you most proud of?

Luke: That’s like choosing between your favourite children. Google continues to be a high point for us. We’ve made some work that we love with epic Aussie talent like Eddie Betts, Genesis Owusu, Danzal Baker aka Baker Boy, Sharon Strzelecki. And our Google AFL work has won a heap of awards here and internationally and still gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

Gen: So much. Google, Little Creatures, iLume and Paspaley – I was most proud of our team survival skills in that none of us were taken by crocodiles.

Andy: Google has been very big for us, but I have a lot of affection for the iLume claymation spot. Taco Bell has also been a fantastic journey as it’s the very definition of a challenger brand. It’s out marketed and hugely outspent so we have to be absolutely disruptive. That means pushing the envelope, having fun and basically doing work the others would never approve. Personally, low budget means simpler ideas and I’m all for that. Sometimes the more money you have, the more stakeholders start to fiddle.

Ross: We have some cool work going through at the moment for Rockwear, Edith Cowan University, Who Gives A Crap and 4 Pines. Watch this space.

CB: What’s your superpower?

Luke: I think we have two.

From an output perceptive: Emotion is key for us, brands are feelings. Our best work whether it be design or advertising is when we connect our clients brands with their audiences on an emotional level.

From a ways of working perspective: Our partners love working with us, we don’t just collaborate with them, we deeply believe that when we work together as one and everyone brings an optimistic mindset to the table, we enjoy our work, and we make more effective work.

Andy: I can see bullets in slow motion and flick them away. This also works for rain but not as well as your fingers still get wet. To the world, this means I’m moving really fast but I’m just controlling time really.

Gen: We dream and moonshot on behalf of our clients with an optimism and audacity that is staggering to behold. And also, we have the power to control the old space time continuum, as Andy said. That helps.

Paul: We work with the best creative partners. Partners that push us creatively and help take our ideas to the next level. A mix of long term collaborators and new, up and coming diverse talent.

Ross: Building ambitious brands. We work best with client partners who are super ambitious and we can sync, collaborate, push them to get work that helps them crush their goals.

CB: You’re a global company, how does that work? 

Ross: We have locations in LA, NY, Amsterdam and Sydney. We’re well connected which is one of the benefits of being small. We work on projects together, share talent, IP and learnings. We’re lucky to be able to bring learnings from some of the world’s most ambitious brands to Australia like Sonos, Audible, Call Of Duty, Adobe, United Airlines and the NFL.

Shadi: A lot of us have spent large chunks of our careers in other markets. It’s cool to be able to sync with other locations and other ways of thinking, to take inspiration globally and help our clients move to the forefront of culture rather than getting pigeonholed into a one market mindset.

Gen: What? There’s more of us?

CB: What drives you?

Ross: We have this epic brand, 72andSunny, and we’re inspired by doing justice to that brand in this part of the world. And we’re super competitive. We want our mates in the other 72 locations to be jealous of the brands we work with, the work we do and how we work.

Luke: We’re really motivating by disrupting what an advertising agency can or should be. When we hear things have always been done that way, we find that really inspiring to fuck with that and find new ways. The senior talent model was a good example of that and WFX. We are psyched when we can find new ways of working, or making the work that feels different and new. For such a creative industry it’s bullshit how conservative and stuck in the past we can be.

Gen: Luke and Ross. Man, those guys. Whipcrackers.

Andy: I think we’re primarily paradigm-shifting storytellers, amplifying and accelerating brands with channel agnostic Marketecture that’s audacious and holistic.

Gen: And this drives us. It drives us every day.