Creative Marketing: Robyn Walsham and Isabelle du Plessis on Being Creative Every Day
Robyn Walsham is co-founder and chief brand officer of global creative studio Imagine This. As the studio’s brand guardian, Robyn is responsible for the brand's creative development, applying her decade plus of experience as a creative in the beauty industry, having looked after some of the biggest names in sport and music.
Isabelle du Plessis is Imagine This’ founding partner and director of communications, in addition to being founder and CEO PR Concierge. As former global director of communications at technicolor, The Mill, MPC and Mikros Animation, Isabelle has spent over a decade helping world-famous companies at the forefront of craft and innovation tell their stories.
LBB> What does creativity mean to your brand?
Robyn> In an industry flooded with copy-and-paste companies, we wanted our brand to stand out by being fun, silly, and, above all, original. We believe that having fun with colleagues and clients is the secret to forging lifelong relationships. It's about creating an environment where creativity can flourish and every interaction feels fresh and engaging. It was written into our founding principles at Imagine This to try and fail rather than inaction. I don’t have all the answers, but each and every day we wake up and we are creative.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but in a world so flooded with content, you can rest assured your bad idea will disappear quickly and people will only notice the good stuff.
Isabelle> Most company’s in our industry will tell you they are “founded with creativity at their core”, and yes, fundamentally they all hold the concept of creativity in high regard; but they are almost always referring to the work they produce on behalf of their clients.
As someone who works more ‘behind the scenes’ in the development of companies, creativity to me extends far beyond the ads we’re making, but into the fundamentals of everything we do. Establishing a truly creative company ethos means constantly asking ‘why’ when it comes to the way we do business, and exploring fresh ideas when the answer is ‘I don’t know’, or ‘because it’s just always been done that way’.
Creativity isn’t just about art, it’s about finding creative ways to lead, communicate, inspire, and operate - and that is very much a founding principle of Imagine This.
LBB> And more broadly what does creativity mean to you - outside of work, outside of the sphere of advertising and marketing?
Robyn> I've always been a visual person, with strong opinions about aesthetics and a critical eye for others' work. Over the last six months, since Imagine This was formed, I’ve come to realise what creativity truly means to me… it's about expression and storytelling. I’ve shifted from worrying about what’s right or wrong to focusing on ensuring that feelings are expressed.
Creativity is about spotting those little bursts of magic in the ordinary moments - those seemingly mundane snippets of life that, when you really pay attention, turn out to be pretty extraordinary.
Isabelle> Until recently I would have persistently described myself as a non-creative person, whose job it was to help truly creative people tell their stories. However in recent months I have noticed the increasing importance of having a creative outlet and means of expression outside of my career.
As someone who is more often than not sitting in front of a laptop all day, enmeshed in the world of ads, AI, Instagram etc, I have found a huge love (and need) for more analogue forms of creative expression that involve zero screen time, and act as escapism and meditation.
Whether it’s painting pottery, teaching myself how to knit or building LEGO, the act of getting creative with my hands has enabled me to fend off burn-out and switch off from work, so that I’m a better person when I switch back on (I can also now knit a mean cardigan, so that’s a plus).
LBB> What was the moment or experience in your career that really helped ferment the importance of creativity in marketing?
Isabelle> In 2020, as the world locked down due to the Covid19 pandemic, as a B2B marketer I was presented with a huge challenge. At the time I was the PR Director of a portfolio of brands all of which made content for commercials, film, TV and games.
One of the main vehicles we used to market ourselves within those respective industries in order to retain our position as thought leaders, connect with clients, hire new talent and promote our work were industry events such as Cannes Lions and SXSW, which were all cancelled for the foreseeable future.
With no events to attend, and no budget to attend them even if they existed, I came up with the concept for our own virtual festival (remember at this point, even the concept of video calls for meetings was still fairly new, driven by necessity due to the pandemic.) After months of meticulous planning, we succeeded in hosting a 5-day virtual festival on YouTube live, an accompanying podcast series, several white papers and a year’s worth of digital marketing and sales content to boot.
The metrics of how many people we reached, engaged with, hired and won business from globally far out performed any event we’d ever attended in person. The added bonus; it cost under $100 (I won’t even go into how much it costs to send someone to Cannes…)
LBB> What have you learned is the key to nurturing fruitful relationships with your creative partners?
Isabelle> Trust, respect and patience. Running a business with a group of partners is a lot like being in a relationship. It’s incredibly important to understand your partners’ strengths and your shortcomings (and vice versa), and let others take the lead when they are on a roll with an idea.
We are also never in the business of shutting down ideas at Imagine This - one of our favourite phrases is “fuck it, do it”. Magic happens when you let ideas run wild and give people the latitude to try things out. If it goes wrong - that’s ok - we’ll try something different next time.
LBB> Which creative campaigns from other brands (past or present) have inspired you most in your career and why?
Robyn> Right now, I'm loving brands that are jumping on viral TikTok trends with their marketing. Watching them respond quickly to trending content is often hilarious and makes them feel human. These campaigns are often lo-fi, intern-shot videos that perform brilliantly - and have nothing to do with the products themselves, but are shooting some smaller brands to stardom.
A great example of this is Days Brewing, an alcohol-free beer brand that went viral last year for convincing their boss to do the ‘Tube Girl Trend’ - amassing 4.9 Million likes, 50K new followers on TikTok, and leading them to completely sell out their stock.
Isabelle> There are two ad campaigns that I will never forget because they elicited such strong (and very different) emotional responses from me.
The first is Cadbury ‘Eyebrows’, created by Fallon and directed by Tom Kuntz. Bizarre, nonsensical and utterly hilarious. Its silliness makes it as unforgettable as my favourite Monty Python sketches - and proves that successful advertising is often rooted in entertainment.
The second is John Lewis ‘The Bear and The Hare’ (I have hairs standing up on my neck just thinking about it), out of Adam&Eve/DDB, directed by Elliot Dear and Yves Geleyn. The perfect combination of storytelling, craft and a Lily Allen rendition of Somewhere Only We Know that could move you to tears on its own. I honestly think this is one of the greatest ads of all time, and it demonstrates the power of creative marketing when it can tap into our rawest of emotions.
LBB> What areas of marketing are you seeing most exciting potential for creativity?
Robyn> It's so refreshing to see brands have fun with their marketing. Comedy is making a big comeback, we’re embracing humour and creating memorable, trending content that really stands out. It's exciting to witness this shift, where creativity is at the forefront, making marketing more engaging and entertaining than ever.
In this spirit, I want Imagine This to be a brand that doesn't take itself too seriously, and that’s something we’ve really been focusing on when it comes to marketing. We decided to make silly t-shirts to hand out at Cannes this year, emblazoned with slogans such as “Is there a Soho House in Cannes?” and “I hope this email finds you well… Shut Uuuuuup” . Our objective was to make people laugh, get people talking and poke a bit of fun.
There was no brand logo visible, and we handed them out to our competitors and clients. They became a huge conversation starter, snapped across the Croisette, with some snaps still rolling in from around the world. ROI wise, they cost less than our rosé budget and had far more impact.
We’ve also been known to host tours in the search for the best french fry…why? Because who doesn't love french fries! It's these silly, tongue-in-cheek activations that have been turning heads more than the average Instagram post. In fact, when asked how they heard about us at one of our events, one agency attendee said “I saw this on Linkedin, and it looked way more fun and interesting than any of the standard crap everyone else was posting”.
LBB> How do you encourage creative excellence among your team?
Robyn> We believe that creativity thrives in the right environment, and that’s different for everyone. We embrace a flexible ethos at Imagine This where as long as the work gets done, you're free to be creative wherever and whenever you want. This freedom helps our team tap into their unique sources of inspiration and produce their best work.
LBB> The big question. We know creativity is effective but when you’re assessing an idea that’s totally original and new, how do you figure out if it’s brilliant or indulgent?
Robyn> When assessing a new idea, we embrace a ‘try it and see’ approach. We’re all about rolling out ideas and watching how they perform in the real world. If they don’t get the response we hoped for, we pivot and try something new. There’s no hesitation - we believe in experimenting and learning from each step. It's all part of the creative journey.
LBB> What one piece of advice do you have for marketers at the beginning of their career who’re still figuring out how to drive impactful creative marketing?
Isabelle> Don’t be afraid to take risks and fight for the ideas you really believe in. As the next generation of marketers, you are tapped into modern trends and culture in an authentic way that your 40+ year old bosses probably aren’t. And always ask yourself; how will this make people feel?
