The New Wave ~ Those That Do
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 Those That Do.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
We’re Those That Do, a brand experience company. Campaign, experiential, activation, all built around one journey: see it, experience it, buy it, love it. And the way we move people along that journey is with unruly ideas, ideas for difference, because brands today don’t just need to get noticed, they need to get acted on. Why just say it, when you can do it.
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
Being independent isn’t a positioning anymore, it’s a starting point.
What still separates agencies is behaviour, not structure. Plenty of indies run like small networks: same layers, same caution, same well-behaved ideas. We started in 2022 with the opposite instinct: the work has to be a bit unruly to earn attention, and it has to live in the real world to earn action. If “challenger” means anything now, it means being the ones willing to actually make the thing people experience, not just recommend it in a deck.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
We’re built around the full journey; see it, experience it, buy it, love it under one roof.
Strategy, creative, production and activation sit together, so an unruly idea doesn’t get sanded down at every handover; the person who sold it is in the room when it gets made, and on site when it goes live. That collapses timelines from months to weeks, and it means we can take a brand from a campaign thought to a physical experience to the moment of purchase without three P&Ls and a village of partner agencies if that’s what the client needs.
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
Practically, not performatively. We talk about AI being the workhorse, not the show pony.
AI has taken the heavy lifting out of the early stages: research, territory exploration, visualising an experience or build in 3D before a dollar is spent on fabrication, which lets a lean team show up with the depth of a network department. Where we draw the line is the idea itself. Unruly doesn’t come out of a prompt, and audiences can smell generated thinking. AI buys us time; it doesn’t do the doing.
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
Brands that have realised being seen isn’t the same as being chosen. Our roster runs from global names to startup challengers, and what they share is a need for work that gets acted on and can drive a quicker commercial return. They want senior people on their business every day, not just at the pitch.
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
Both, deliberately. We’ve grown fast: Sydney, Melbourne, London and Dubai in under four years, but the model only works if each market stays senior, hands-on and a little unruly, so we’re scaling teams, not layers. Next twelve months: deepening our Middle East operation, replicating the Australian model of in-house production capability, and staying (or maybe becoming!) picky about briefs. The ones where the opportunity is genuine and growth is the outcome.
And in short, maintaining our reputation as Those That Do.
Check out the other New Wave Q&As below:
Read Tightknit Studio’s Q&A here
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
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