Creative agency Loud shoots for ‘cultural potency’ with new management team
Thomson, Jokovic and Cyron
Creative agency Loud is re-launching with a new management team as the agency aims to be known for work with “cultural potency”, as it looks to approach work with more than a creative communications solution in mind.
Joining CEO Lorraine Jokovic, who has been with the agency for the past 18 years, are BWM’s former creative director Steven Thomson as executive creative director and Ogilvy & Mather Sydney head of brand planning Gerry Cyron as head of planning and innovation.
Speaking to Mumbrella Jokovic said: “Loud’s an independent agency, it’s been independent for 25 years, which is a long time in this industry.When it started it was launched by three guys who were international and really experienced. They’d had long and stellar careers.
“I took over the business a couple of years ago and I’ve brought on two new partners. That’s what I was looking for, that same deep, international experience across the board.”
Cyron joins Loud after three-and-a-half years with Ogilvy & Mather Sydney where he picked up a Cannes Effectiveness Lion for Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. Prior to Ogilvy he was a senior strategic planner with BMF and has also worked across Singapore and Germany.
Thomson comes to Loud following a year with BWM as a creative director prior to which he founded Bondi Advertising where he spent two years as a creative. He has also worked with TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, Batey Ads and Publicis Mojo.
“We now have the three of us leading the agency with a united vision and a united goal,” said Jokovic.
She described the vision as remaining independent but offering clients “global capabilities”.
On how the new Loud is positioning itself, Cyron said the three of them spent a few weeks talking about other agencies and the type of work they like and want to aspire to.
“If you look at agencies in general we’re all preaching that we need to have a a point of difference, or we manufacture a point of difference. But if you look at agencies in general we are pretty lame at having our own voice or own opinion, we often define ourselves through work,” he said.
“What kind of work would we like to do? The work that we thought was the most potent was the work that had cultural potency, that had a point of view, a voice in the market. We really liked this idea of helping brands or giving brands cultural potency.
“It’s especially important if you look at the landscape at the moment, with fragmentation in media, but you as a brand owner have to earn the right to be heard, because if you don’t have that right, if you don’t have something interesting to say or an interesting voice people are switching off very quickly.
“We’re going to help brands have that right, give them that voice that cannot be ignored in popular culture.”
Thomson added: “It’s about creating work that infiltrates popular culture, that’s really what cultural potency is about. Work that has an affect on it in someway. Something that resonates within popular culture, it’s more than just more advertising.”
For Cyron it is important the agency does not just approach clients problems with a creative communications solution in mind.
“It could be a totally new business idea that solve’s a clients business problem. It could be a utility that transcends popular culture,” he said.
“If it’s just comms we’re pitching, we’re holding ourselves back a little. There’s great work been done where a new business idea solved the clients problem versus the 90 second commercial.
“If you go in with just comms in mind you only get comms out and that’s very limiting,” he added.
On how the agency is structuring itself, Loud will grow to 25 when BWM’s Tom Hartney comes on board as the agency’s new head of digital in December. That number also reflects four new hires made in the creative department.
On making those appointments Thomson said: “It was about coming in here first and having a look at the landscape and seeing where the holes were and the kind of fit that would go in here.
“I’m a big believer that creative culture comes out of chemistry, creative culture doesn’t come from bikes and bean bags, it’s about the people in the creative department.
“For me personalities are as important as portfolios. That’s something that’s relevant to the industry today in general when everyone’s in this new open plan world, we’re really trying to break that headphone culture that exists in a lot of agencies and the YouTube creatives that exist when you go into a place like that.”
Thomson wants his creative department to be constantly talking to each other, collaborating and sharing ideas. “That chemistry leads to collaboration and leads to better work,” he said.
Recent work from the agency includes this Responsible Gambling Fund work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ9kZPEPa2E
On how existing staff have reacted to the management styles, Jokovic said staff have been supportive.
“For us it means giving them a new way of working. Professional development is probably the primary motivator for people to stay, they want to evolve their skills as much as anybody else. This is an opportunity for them,” she said.
Looking to the future, Thomson said the agency is more concerned with a long-term plan rather than the immediate future.
“We’re still building a base here, a platform that’s going to go further into the future than the next 12 months,” he said.
“By the next 12 months we would obviously like to have some wins and work out there that we are proud of. We already are starting to make some work that we really feel good about.
“It’s building that base that can project the agency into the future and we’ve already started to make those changes around staffing and possibly looking into a new location.
“The three of us are laying the foundation of what Loud will become, and we see Loud as something that is really evolving,” he added.
On the type of clients the newly-positioned agency would like to attract, Thomson said he would like to move the “cultural potency positioning” into more mainstream clients.
“Personally I’d love a beer client,” he quipped.
For Cyron it is not about a particular category of client but rather a mindset.
“I’d look for a courageous marketer and those who have something to say or won’t necessarily shy away from a brand with a purpose or a point of view,” he said.
Complementing the agency repositioning has been a new logo, which Thomson describes as “evolving”. The new logo sees the “O” in the Loud logo change, sometimes a power button or a target or an eye or a speaker.
“It’s starting to represent the different facets of the agency,” said Thomson.
Loud’s current clients include Animals Australia, Arthritis Australia, Bupa, The Cancer Council, NEC, Western Union and The University of New England.
Miranda Ward
Linkedin
Good luck guys! I look forward to seeing some great work!
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Who’s the third guy in LOUD story? Caption says “jokovic, Thompson and…”
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Congrats Gerry. I’ll miss you in HK at the next GMU. Lorraine’s a great lady and I’m sure you’ll do unreal and have fun too.
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Hi Paul,
The third person is Gerry Cyron.
We’ve fixed the caption.
Cheers,
Miranda – Mumbrella
Thanks Miranda. Frankly, I preferred it as “and…”
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Anyone who knows Gerry will tell you its no surprise that he’s ended up somewhere called LOUD.
Good luck mate…you’ll smash it!
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Cultural potency? Sounds like puffed up puffery. The work speaks for itself. Don’t announce your significance before you’ve even thought of something to say. I guess the trademark on ‘reverberatingness’ has expired.
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@Alex.
It’s funny because it’s true.
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Granted Gerry’s one of the best, but disappointingly ‘Cultural Potency’ is hardly a differentiated positioning.
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Shut up Bill… you sound bitter and twisted. What isn’t puff puffery? This is advertising. Stop reading the press releases. Good luck guys. Go Loud amongst the haters.
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Good luck Gerry you depilous legend [and when did Alex Pacey get so funny…?]
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Nice one Gez!
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Brevity.
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Hey B.Posters, thanks for your advice. It’s clear you didn’t read the press release yourself. I envy you.
What it’s really saying is: Kissing ass and client/suit lead creative is our thing, and today we are calling it ‘cultural potency’.
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In Australia great work is differentiating – a position up for grabs for anyone capable of stop talking and start walking
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