CB Q&A with HERO’s Ben Lilley and Shane Geffen: A new Silver Lion in a new orange office

Campaign Brief caught up with HERO founder Ben Lilley (right) and Melbourne ECD Shane Geffen (left) as they returned from Cannes to move into their new (and rather orange) office with a Silver Lion and a fresh optimism for 2024.

Campaign Brief: Judging from the work HERO has recently been putting out it looks like you both share the same creative ambition.

Ben Lilley: Well, we’re lucky to share a close working relationship. We even shared an Airbnb at Cannes and you don’t get to work much closer than that! We definitely share the same beliefs about what good creative looks like and that’s what was great about Cannes, to be able to live and breathe the world’s best work each day of the festival and workshop how that might look for our clients back home. I haven’t really been a hands-on creative for years, since I brought on John Mescall in our first agency SMART as my business partner and our Australian ECD (now Global ECD at McCann). But I never lost that passion and drive to create world-beating creative and that’s very much our ambition at HERO today.

Shane Geffen: That’s what drew me to HERO initially… not Ben’s unusual fixation with the colour orange, but his real belief in creativity. When he first reached out to discuss the ECD role, I can honestly say I shared his excitement and ambition to create world-class work, something I consistently strive for and encourage from those around me. And I was inspired by Ben’s willingness to give a young and hungry Associate CD a chance to step up. Ben encouraged me to take a leap of faith straight into the ECD role. It was a huge step up but HERO is all about creating, well, heroic opportunities for ambitious up and comers and being a place where people can really thrive.

CB: And you’ve created a new kind of creative workplace for HERO?

BL: Yes, we’ve just finished fitting our new Melbourne office and Sydney and Brisbane will be next. The best part about being independent is being able to create our own best version of how an agency should run, and that includes our offices. For HERO we wanted to create a much more modern and contemporary space where our people and our work can be their best and to better support hybrid working, which almost all our team do now. We also wanted to upgrade our tech and data infrastructure to better power this. So we bought and completely fitted out an empty two-story warehouse in Prahran, which we now call HERO HOUSE.

SG: It’s a really inspiring workspace. It has breakout spaces everywhere and a library, soundproofed pods for private meetings or just some personal time-out and of course an awesome kitchen and bar area. Upstairs we have a live theatre run by professional theatre company MC Showroom with a surround sound cinema, exhibition space and games area, as well as a sound studio for podcasting and recording guide VOs and pilots. We retained features of the original building – a manchester warehouse – like the old roller door and various industrial elements. So it’s a true creative hub, in the heart of Prahran. We love having people over too, so if anyone’s ever in the neighbourhood please pop in and say hi, you literally cannot miss the front entrance.

CB: We’ve noticed a common colour scheme in your offices, brand and socials.

BL: Ah yes, that would be Pantone Orange 021C. You could say I’m a fan. It’s kind of tragic but it started with my first car, a classic 1970’s BMW 1602. The official paint code was BMW Tangerine. I got so much crap from my friends and family for driving a Tangerine BMW that I decided to double-down and really own it. Over time almost everything I have (or am given) now comes with a touch of tangerine. Somebody once told me orange is the shakra of creative energy, which is good enough for me. So yes it’s now all over our HERO brand and our office and luckily for us, it’s the favourite colour of a number of our clients. Well, at least one. But it kinda grows on you.

SG: Yeah, like a fungus. Thankfully it’s applied tastefully across our office, which makes it not just very on-brand but also a really fun vibrant space. It does have great energy and from the street, it kind of has a gallery or bar vibe. Almost weekly we have people walking in to ask if they can hire it as an event space. They’re surprised to learn it’s a creative agency and no unfortunately it’s not available for venue hire.

CB: What work or projects have you been most proud of in the last 12 months?

SG: It’s hard to choose a favourite child but there are two that I’m particularly proud of, the first for Maybelline New York ‘Through Their Eyes’ which picked up a Silver Lion in Social and Influencer and the other being the launch of new GR Corolla in Australia titled Metalmorphosis, which picked up shortlists in craft at D&AD and Cannes. For Metalmorphosis we transformed Calder Park Thunderdome, an abandoned Nascar racetrack into an animation stage to launch the new Toyota GR Corolla. We pasted 1.2km of illustrated frames onto the racetrack walls, tarmac, and inside of tunnels, then put cameras onto the vehicle itself to capture the animation at speed. No green screen, no VFX, no CGI.

BL: Maybelline was championed by United Nations Women and culminated in a gaming tournament where 32 of the top female gamers in the country came together to not only compete but spread a message of solidarity. It was also Maybelline New York’s first ever Lion and the campaign has been a huge commercial success so we’re very happy to have a very happy client. The other piece of work I’m proud of is our brand launch for Coca Cola’s Topo Chico, which ended up running globally and is a really nice piece of film. And our eBay Museum of Authentics was a fun piece of work which also got some global kudos, including at the Caples.

CB: You say you help clients find their superpowers, but do you have any? 

BL: If orange was a superpower I’d be superhuman. But no, I’m very much focused on fulfilling our promise to our clients to turn their brands into heroes. And our promise to our people to help them achieve the best work of their careers at the best agency of their careers. I passionately believe great work starts with a great place to work and a great creative culture, so that’s very much what drives me now.

SG: I don’t know if it’s a superpower, but I used to be a super ad nerd. Back in the day when I was a young creative in South Africa, I used to study D&AD and One Show annuals, I still have stacks of them. I was obsessed. I could recite every campaign and the entire credit list. Nowadays my attention has shifted to helping my clients and agency teams to create world-class work on real briefs, with recognition at an award show the byproduct.