The New Wave ~ Hellions
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 Hellions.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
We’re Hellions, both in name and nature: optimistic and opportunistic in equal measure. We exist because too much of our industry confuses answering the brief with solving the problem. They’re not the same thing.
Over the last 18 months, we’ve helped build brands through a blend of commercial governance, strategy and creativity. Our work stretches across strategy, design, communications and content, but the disciplines matter less than the questions we ask. We believe every meaningful piece of work starts with a truth, demands action and creates consequences – good consequences.
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
The idea of the indie as a challenger feels old. Indies haven’t become the norm because they won, they’ve become the norm because the industry evolved towards what clients value: access and accountability.
For clients the choice isn’t made between indies and networks. It’s whether the people pitching the work are the people shaping it, and how committed they are to genuinely solving the problems they’re presented with.
Every agency is still a challenger when it comes to earning attention, trust and relevance. And that’s true whether you’re winning over clients or consumers. The advantage for us is that the relationship stays human. You’re not buying layers. In a market once flooded with scale, intimacy has become a competitive advantage.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
Our advantage isn’t that we’re smaller or can make quicker commercial decisions a bureaucracy can’t (although we can)… It’s that we’re closer. There’s less distance between a problem’s truth and the action it demands. We’re closer to the problems, closer to decision-makers, closer to the work itself.
Networks are often designed to manage complexity. We’re designed to remove it. Every person in our agency is there to roll up their sleeves, think, and make decisions – and that means carrying responsibility for the outcome. Accountability has a name and a face.
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
AI creates more space for what we do best, the thinking. Its real promise isn’t efficiency, it’s focus. The value is in the removal of distractions so attention can be spent where it matters.
Right now, the industry is understandably obsessed. Every new model is treated like a revolution. Over time, AI will become less interesting. No one shows up to a Taylor Swift concert and talks about the electricity. No one discusses the GTA 6 game engine. People talk about the experience.
AI will become another essential tool: powerful but invisible. When that happens, the advantage won’t come from access. Everyone will have that. It will come from judgement, taste and the quality of ideas. I can’t wait.
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
All kinds.They’re not defined by size or category, but by intent. They’re looking for proximity, partnership and outcomes. They want direct access to experience, genuine creativity, and their problems to go away. They don’t want layers standing between them and the work.
They’re also looking for adaptability. Sometimes they need an agency. Sometimes they need embedded capability. Sometimes they need a strategic partner who can move at the speed of their business. By design, we can do that and it’s something we’ll protect as we grow.
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
Bigger has never been our ambition. Better has. We’ll grow where it creates value for our clients, our people and the quality of what we make. Our only criteria for growth is “will this solve the problems more effectively and make the clients better?” If the answer’s yes, we’re in.
Check out the other New Wave Q&As below:
Read Art of the Possible ANZ’s Q&A here
Register for FREE HERE and receive the Campaign Brief Daily Bulletin and/or the global Best Ads Best of the Week Bulletin. Subscribe to Campaign Brief Magazine.
#More Creative News #No paywalls #No annual membership fees
Subscribe to Portfolio & Reel for current listings of Australian and NZ ad agency and production company leadership and key personnel