The New Wave ~ Pembleton
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 Pembleton.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
Pembleton is all killer, no filler.
Our team consists exclusively of industry leaders, and unlike other agencies, these leaders do the actual work, end to end.
If a client were to put a project into Pembleton tomorrow, they’d have a Chief Strategy Officer, a Chief Creative Officer, a Creative Director and a Managing Director working on that project with them, from start to finish.
When it comes time to execute, we draw on our clubhouse of equally experienced specialists and create fit-for-purpose teams to produce, make, and deliver our projects to the highest of standards.
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
Having spent most of our careers at network agencies, it’s tough to watch them being constantly consolidated, downsized, and streamlined. It’s not surprising that so many people have moved away from this model and started their own indies.
And, with so many indies on the rise, they are certainly becoming more ‘norm’ than challenger.
But despite indies becoming more ‘norm’ every day, some legacy perceptions remain in the minds of some clients. Like, the idea that a bigger team is a safer one. Or that full-time experts working permanently under one roof provide greater stability.
Outside the aforementioned network agency conditions, these views don’t take into account the realities of the post-Covid market we’re operating in, where so many of the industry’s best people are now free agents. We may have a tight, core team at Pembleton, but we have spent our careers building relationships with the best brains in the industry – both here in Australia and around the world. It’s incredible how quickly we can build a large team of heavy-hitting talent when we need to.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
Quite brutally, it’s not possible for network agencies to make enough money by putting senior talent on projects. This means most client projects are run by mid-level and junior talent, with team leaders managing the people, not the projects.
Any project that comes through Pembleton receives the full weight of an exclusively senior, fully focused, multi-disciplinary team. This can then be executed at scale via our clubhouse of specialist makers and do-ers.
We truly believe this streamlined level of senior focus delivers a far superior creative outcome. As an example, despite most Australian network agencies (and some big indies) having hundreds and hundreds of staff – Pembleton was the only Aussie team to win a yellow pencil at D&AD this year. Against 50,000 entries.
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
AI is a fantastic strategic input, delivering data, segmentation, category and competitive analysis. It’s also hugely helpful to inform and optimise delivery – through monitoring, assessment and real-time results. But AI is still built upon foundations of what’s been done before, and our job is to create completely new ideas and new ways of thinking.
So whilst we have integrated AI into strategy and delivery optimisation, the biggest advantage of AI for us is that it reduces and streamlines the tasks that draw our focus away our most valuable commodity: our creative product. As synthetic content gets cheaper, faster and louder, we truly believe that authored, human work will only become more valuable – so the more time we can spend thinking about that, the better.
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
All kinds! Look at how many clients used to work with big agencies who now work with smaller indies. There will always be big clients who want big agencies – but fewer and fewer actually need them.
For some clients, there is still some risk aversion in choosing a small indie over a bigger agency. But the trade-off for these clients is that they’ll always be one of ten / twenty / thirty projects being prioritised at any one time. They just don’t get the same focus.
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
We see growth coming from alliances with like-minded people and teams. But we’ll remain lean and potent: Our focus remains on offering exclusively senior teams who work directly on the problems, delivering the most creative solutions, in the smartest and most efficient ways.
Pictured top (L-R): Alex Speakman, Matilda Hobba, Mac Wright, Simon Bagnasco
Check out the other New Wave Q&As below:
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
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