The New Wave ~ Rick Barry
The New Wave is Campaign Brief’s Q&A series spotlighting the next generation of creative companies ~ all born in the 20s ~ 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 Alex Derwin and Hugh Munro, Co-Founders of Rick Barry.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
We’re a small but mighty independent creative studio who curate teams of unlikeminded specialist talent, bespoke for each and every job. We replace quantity with quality, dogma with experience, and cut-throat with kindness. We have a fearless focus on making what works.
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
Creative agencies, whatever their size, should see themselves as challengers and be constantly pushing up against industry conventions. It’s the only way to stay relevant. And if you aren’t doing that, it might be time to stop calling yourself creative. Embracing change and revelling in it is something all creative people want to do. Big networks put restraints on creative people that mean they can’t be as innovative or adaptable. Smaller independents allow more freedom to innovative thinkers as well as being more closely connected with culture and technology shifts. So I’d say Indies, whilst much more commonplace are still challengers.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
Motivation. Networks feel like they’re clinging on to size as their advantage. I’d much prefer a handful of highly skilled and motivated people than hundreds of willing people whose energy is drowned in bureaucracy.
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
We use it in every workstream now. It falls into two main buckets. Operational and output. It’s meant we need a lot less help from finance people, account people, and agency operations. And on the creative side it’s shifted the burden of a lot of the time-consuming technical elements of creative roles so that we can reinvest it in conceptual thinking and craft.
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
If you look across the industry it’s hard to pick one type of client. Bear have proved that indies can handle Australians largest and most iconic brands by building their operations around a clients needs. If they share anything I think it would be an appetite to embrace important change, a hunger to enjoy the possibility of shaking things up.
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
We look at growth differently. We are ready to embrace bigger and more challenging opportunities, but we’re not obsessed with headcount and getting paid for throwing people at a problem – that would mean we’re building back towards a model which is failing. We’re going to remain scalable – we’ll grow and shrink to meet the demands of each project.
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