Veteran agency ‘outsider’ Simon Hammond launches new assault on “masquerading creative transformers” with launch of 50 Crates
The Australian advertising and marketing industries must urgently and radically reform their business models in order to survive the onslaught from “overthinking rationalists masquerading as creative transformers,” says veteran creative thinker, Simon Hammond.
In a bold swipe at the ever-growing assault on the creative communication industry by multi-national management consulting groups, Hammond unveiled what he calls a creative counter-attack in the form of 50 Crates, his sixth brand agency since 1988.
With footprints in Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai and New York, Hammond says his new agency will fearlessly lead clients to greater self-awareness of their relevance to culture – not merely show them how to tighten reigns and rationalise decision making.
Says Hammond: “These are bold times with fewer boundaries and rules than ever. The great brands are no longer targeting or advertising, they are becoming culturally relevant by deeply resonating with consumers through what they stand for and the tribes they form.
“They enable consumers to be more powerful through their platforms, products and cultural stories. They share their power. To achieve this sort of consumer resonance, this new world requires creative bravery and genuine insights, not just rational safe steps.”
50 Crates will take the fight to the consulting world through a powerful mixture of proven IP processes and creative storytelling. It will use the 25-year proven Be Brands methodology, the latest thinking in cultural anthropology and a newly formed problem-solving approach based on Socratic skills of questioning and truth-seeking to “remove fear-based rationalisation and lead clients to bold new thinking.”
Hammond says his approach will hero the role of brand beyond logos, campaigns and marketing, to instead become the DNA cultural glue that binds an entire organisation: “Brands must be the sum of their people. Internally and externally, a brand must understand where it sits in the world and how it can be relevant to the real lives of the people it serves.
“The multi-national consultancies don’t get social culture, and as a result are never going to be creative forces. It’s not in their nature. We look for human cues and emotional moments of truth. They look for rational, provable transformation led by numbers.”
50 Crates is Hammond’s sixth independent creative brand agency since 1988 including Dare, The Edge (later to become Clemenger Harvie Edge), See (later bought by Photon), Bastion (now Bastion Collective) and Be Counsel.
It will launch with a team of senior thinkers driving the agency ethos. Joining Hammond are Natasha Roberton, a senior global strategist heading up the Sydney business; Age Conte, head of brand development; Dan Jobson, head of creative; and Alyece Shaw, general manager of operations. The agency’s client roster includes Frasers Property Australia, Swinburne University, YMCA, Endeavour healthcare, Pure Scot whisky, Porter Davis, Seqirus CSL, Leef, Masterpet, and fast-growing US beverage brand Crook & Marker.
For more information or to connect to the 50 Crates team visit www.50crates.com.au or via imready@50crates.com.au.
10 Comments
I just had a look at their website. It nice to see an agency born out of a strong sense of mission. Best of luck guys.
complete and utter bollocks
The work you do will define you.
Pretentious.
It just might work
Yet, like them, uttering the same meaningless bullshit-buzz-word-bingo.
FFS,
If you want to find some clear air out there, express your intentions with clarity and a sense of purpose that isn’t cloaked in all the excess verbage.
Advertising and ‘story telling’ (yuk) is fuelled by the clarity of creative thought, not by ‘resonance’ and ‘cultural glue’.
But hey, That’s just the opinion of one, and yes, I do hope your business is a success.
I dig it, need more people who think like this.
No one cares.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Take a deep breath and exhale. The idea and notion of ranking retailers based on a given metric is a good one, but without a strong rationale for each score and subsequent position in the Top 50, it’s all just hot air… isn’t it? Yeh sure, it’s easier to grade some categories rather than others, but putting the ranking down to ‘cultural anthropology’ and your own personal view just leaves me cold. That said, some of the articles in the report were interesting, couldn’t agree more on the assessment of Crumpler, which has lost its way in the absence of Sam Davy. Good luck Simon, I applaud your positioning and bravery, but dispense with the bullshit and attempts to position yourself as ‘science based creative agency’, you’re not.