6 Pages of Fame: Leavingstone in W&V

This week, the leading German magazine for marketing and advertising, Werben und Verkaufen (W&V) published a really well written article about Leavingstone that could not have described our creative company any better. Here's the pdf - and a translation to follow. Enjoy.

Translation

Header: The best agencies in the world 

Headline: Nerds with a heart.

Intro: For years, things went well for Leavingstone. The creative- and digital agency won award after award and it grew until it started to affect the substance of the company. Since six months, the German Folker Wrage is leading the agency. He reduced the growth pains without touching the heart of the brand.

Text:

A marriage proposal right on the stage? That actually doesn’t fit Levan very well. The creative leader of Leavingstone in Tbilisi is more of an introverted person that sometimes likes to sit at his computer until three in the morning, thinking about a smart solution for client’s problem. A stunt? Web? Mobile? Whatever it may take. Levan approaches people openly when he meets them for the first time, he introduces himself by his first name and is joking a lot when he leads us through the agency. But mostly he leaves the talking to others. But more about that later. Five words are allowed to each award winner when they enter the stage of the Webby Awards. Levan Lepsveridze is well prepared: on the evening of May 13th, the creative and his colleague Meli Bagdavadze are in New York on behalf of Leavingstone to receive this award for their social media campaign for Fox, “The Working Dead”. They enter the stage, standing in the focus of attention of more than a thousand people – when suddenly Levan is taking a knee, pulls a ring from the pockets of his cutaway and asks the question of all questions: “Will. You. Marry. Me?” – “Yes!” sagt sie. Five words – engaged! The crowd goes crazy.

Levan may be a shy guy in the limelight, but for the love of his life he jumped over his own shadow. He is too much of a creative person to not take advantage of such a situation. He was quite sure of the outcome and he loves to tell stories that touch people’s hearts. Just like he is fascinated by everything that has to do with technology. A nerd, but a romantic at the same time.

Somehow, this is how all of them seem to tick at Leavingstone, sometimes more, sometimes less, and it shows in the work of this young creative- and digital agency that won more than 120 international awards since they were founded in 2008, including Cannes and Webby, but also at Golden Drum, LIA, Eurobest and Ad Black Sea. “We wanted to continue working creatively after university, but not in art, and we have always been huge computer fans” says Managing Partner Vakho Vakhtangishvili, together with Levan one of the four owners.

They are all friends since university, but Vakho and Levan are connected by a special relationship: one of them comes from the digital side, a mega-nerd, but very well educated and very well connected in the business world. The other sees himself more like an artist. Their respectful interaction with each other is symbolic for the whole agency model.

The techies at Leavingstone all have brand knowledge or at least have an understanding of it, as much as for superior creativity. And it’s also true the other way round. The colleagues from the different disciplines, the advertising social media experts, the designers, web and mobile developers, the AI and big data specialists, they always sit together at one table when it comes to tackling a brief; all together they are 115 people. In every one of the last three years, the Georgian advertising association ACAG has named them agency of the year. Granted – the competition is not that fierce in the country. Leavingstone may have two serious competitors in Windfor’s and Redberry. Regarding employees, it’s the largest agency in the Caucasus region and basically developed the market.

Top Creativity from Georgia

This makes Leavingstone something like the Georgian Jung von Matt, super creative, innovative, but probably more technically advanced and obviously younger. The average age is somewhere in the mid 20s, the owners are in their early 30s. You just can’t say that the company is properly set up though, after all the rapid growth of the last years. That was the reason why the founders had decided to get help from a German. Since March, Folker Wrage is CEO of the agency, and he truly loves his new job.

He proudly presents Leavingstone’s conference room, the best looking room in an otherwise undecorated agency. The hallway that leads to the various offices of his “Leavingstonians”, as Wrage calls them lovingly, looks like the hallway of a hospital. But here in this conference room, all of the awards that the agency has one are crowding a shelf in the corner. The view through the window opens towards a rooftop terrace and the only tree that stands in the courtyard. Leavan excuses himself, he has work to do. His colleague Vakho sits down next to Wrage instead. While he is answering the question in a more composed manner, Wrage easily becomes enthused when talking about Leavingstone. If you have ever seen him behind the turntables in Cannes or in an ADC jury, if you can watch him here, you have a clear understanding of how he feels. He has been gripped by an overwhelming energy since has started working and living in Georgia. After 20 years in network agencies the creative had originally decided to focus on consulting agencies, not working for them (interview p. 65). Through his work in juries of creative festivals in Eastern Europe he met Levan two years ago when he was there to receive one award after another. “I basically had to urge him to accept the Grand Prix”, Wrage remembers. “Levan just didn’t want to go to the stage.”

This impressed the German that still has a strong distaste for the many egocentric show-offs of his industry – a fact that has spoiled his joy of advertising years ago. Levan and Wrage got along really well immediately. And when the Georgian found out what his colleague from the West was doing, he curiously asked for his advice. In this country, the experience of the older ones is of importance to the young people – here, they call it “meritocracy”.

The agency was stuck. The leadership was overworked, the employees were left alone, groups started to build, everyone did what they wanted. Leavingstone was in danger of falling apart under the pressure of the many tasks and challenges. The young advertising people were overburdened, and sooner or later the clients would have suffered as a consequence. Folker Wrage appeared right on cue. He didn’t even think about whether to go or not. For weeks he worked his way into the culture, the processes, tools, know-how and campaigns and clearly saw: the agency has huge potential. “With its unique combination of creativity, data and tech it is set up the way it should be in the 21st century.” He only had to start working on structure and process.

Wrage established a second level of leadership to relieve the pressure on the managers, and he prescribed agency meetings to improve communication. “Everyone should understand everyone”, and so he optimized the workflow, recommended to get rid of a few “toxic” employees with too big egos, and Leavingstone started to get back into the flow. “I see myself as a guardian of the culture”, he says. “One agency, one universe.” Since then the call him the Captain, just one of many names that describe the appreciation that the crew has for Wrage.

Intimidating: Wrage’s directness

No intercultural conflicts? “Well, sometimes I do scare them a little bit with my direct approach” admits Wrage, saying that he is doing his job with a lot of passion. But he is also learning a lot and he is able to let go more and more. The work day starts at eleven in Tbilisi, and this has lately started to give him mime for himself in the morning. He listens to music, lets his thoughts flow freely and lets them shape his vision of an agency of the future. He knows that the strength of Leavingstone is clearly based on its Georgian roots and characteristics. “That’s why I sure as hell won’t turn Leavingstone into a Western European agency” where everyone may sit at their desks at nine in the morning, but where you also miss all courage and creativity. For the four founders, it was just logical to offer the CEO post to Wrage. They value his German rationality, and his, well, his dedication. “I don’t mind that I could be the father of every employee here”, says the 57-year-old, as long as the agency founders can focus on their work again, without the burden of management and administration. “And they are doing their work really well.” Wrage on the other hand has found something that fulfills him like no other job in a very long time. The double digit margin that they will end the year with clearly proves that the path they have chosen is the right one. In 2018, the revenue was a little more than 4 Million Lari which is about 1,25 Million Euros.

“Leavingstone really is a fantastic agency,” says Darjean Tsurtsumia, Head of Marketing at the Georgian Chancellery. For the national holiday on May 26th, the agency regularly creates big social media campaigns for the government (see artwork), a campaign that is especially bringing millennials closer to the nation’s history. Last year, for the nation’s 100th birthday, they created Facebook profiles of famous personalities from Georgian history and re-created famous historic moments for the web. At the same time, they set up a website with a lot of love for detail, inviting people to discuss topics from politics, economy and culture. This is accepted very well in a country that is fully digital and in which everyone has an average of two and a half smartphones.

Expansion at offshore prices

If you look at Leavingstone’s work – be it the stunts for beer brands like Old Irish or the campaign for Fox “Working Dead” – you quickly understand how they work, over in Tbilisi, what their secret is. It’s all about the experience of a brand. They all carefully watch that whatever they do is clearly based on people’s everyday lives, needs and wishes. Data, technology, social media always help to do this as good and as successfully as possible.

In the evening, the whole crew is meeting at N1, an old wine factory from Soviet times, to celebrate the big success of the 26th May campaign. Including the client. It’s a pretty wild evening. Work hard, party hard; at Leavingstone, this is more than just a phrase.

In Cannes, this time there are no awards for the agency: the juries were particularly picky in 2019, no Georgian agency won anything. “Never mind”, says Levan, “we just take a breath and then we go on.”

They have big plans at Leavingstone: in September, they already want to start an office in Berlin. For the CEO this means even more travel: Wrage’s wife lives in Switzerland, and in Germany he wants to take care of the new office and the agency’s international clients. The project has top priority: Berlin is the gate to the EU. And the share of revenue coming from international clients should be 20 percent soon – instead of the current ten.

The money that’s required for the new office is waiting at the bank. Ever since it was founded, he founders have never taken any money out of the agency, the funds have always been invested in people and technology – and that’s how they can expand without having to take up any money. For them, that’s a question of honor, says Vakho.

They’re okay to work for agencies as well. “Simply because not everyone is able to do digitally what we are able to do”, says Wrage. And Leavingstone is offering competitive prices as well. Keyword: offshoring. They will continue production in Georgia, a clear advantage.

Fist they had massive problems, now they are expanding globally – a surprising development. Aren’t they afraid of their own courage at Leavingstone? Fear that this may fail? Not really, says Vakho, and talks about a tale: “I’m sure you know the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.” It’s the seagull the agency was named after. “Jonathan always wanted to be better at flying than his fellow seagulls – not out of arrogance but because of his love for the art of flying, out of love for life and its possibilities.” That’s their point of orientation. But the name is not exactly the same as in the title. “That’s right”, says Vakho, “we want to fly really high, and at the same time leave the Stone Age behind us.” Leaving the stone age of the old world of advertising. In Tbilisi it is newly created again.

Interview page 6:

“For me, it’s about friendship too.”

A German advertising man in Tbilisi.

Folker Wrage, 57, up to now working independently with Wrage/Antwort, is moving to the capital of Georgia to become CEO of the creative- and digital agency Leavingstone.

Mr. Wrage, after 20 years of network agencies, Ogilvy, Publicis, McCann, Havas, you didn’t want to work for agencies anymore and focus on being a consultant.

It simply didn’t feel good anymore. I wasn’t happy and I was looking for a job that would enable me to keep learning and developing.

And then, of all things, you start working for an agency in Tbilisi?

Here, I can actually be the kind of CEO that I never had. It’s not a secret that I mostly had a hard time with my bosses. Almost no sense for creativity, always thinking in numbers, but carrying giant egos.

And here everything is different?

I really get along well with the guys, and for me, it is about friendship too. Most of all, Leavingstone is an agency as it should be in the 21st century: creative, digital, with brand know-how, and absolutely on top regarding data and tech. Innovative, without hierarchies, very young, and mostly: hungry and curious for everything that’s new. In a way, it’s based on the lack of things. Georgia has potential. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit that I can’t find in Western Europe.

If everything is so great, why do they need you here?

The agency has grown very fast since it was founded in 2008, and it was in danger of breaking apart. I see myself as a guardian of culture.

It can’t really be the salary that persuaded you.

Yes, I could make a lot more money working as a copywriter in Zurich or a CD in Hamburg. But would that make me happy? I don’t think so. I finally have a truly meaningful job.

Couldn’t you have come to that point a little earlier?

Sometimes it takes a few years to understand where you belong. It’s not like I haven’t learned anything on the way that can be useful now.

Don’t you ever get homesick?

Sure, I would like to see my wife in Zurich more often. But I’m sitting here at my wobbly little desk on Kazbegi Avenue and I am really making a difference here. Honestly: I haven’t been this happy in my profession in a very long time.

So then your new friends are doing everything right?

Almost (laughing). The feed me too much Khachapuri. I am gaining weight.

(Big image page 2): Under the roofs of Tbilisi. The roof terrace can only be reached through the window of the conference room. You need to climb out. But the founders of Leavingstone are still young. From left: COO Irakli Tevzadze, creative Levan Lepsveridze, Head of Finance Erekle Zurmukhtashvili, Managing Director Vakho Vakhtangishvili and CEO Folker Wrage.

(Images page 3): Awards: For “Old Irish” (2016) Leavingstone invited passers-by to put on VR goggles to take a dive into Irish culture. When they took them off again, they were in a real pub.

Lately, the agency convinced with their “Working Dead” campaign for Fox. The film is looking at how a Georgian farmer might react to a zombie invasion. Farmer Gogita simply domesticated the undead. The mockumentary turned into a viral campaign. 

(Images page 4): Leavingstone invests their money in people and technology. You can see that when you approach the non-representative offices, located outside of the center on a big and busy street – between Jehova’s Witnesses and the Billionaire Club. Above the entrance: Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

The creative and the digital guy

When they founded Leavingstone, titles didn’t matter. All they knew: they wanted to be creative and they loved computers. Today, Levan Lepsveridze is CCO, Vakho Vakhtantgishvili Managing Partner. The creative leader sees himself more as an artist than an advertising man, Levan wants to touch people’s hearts; he leaves the talking to his friend Vakho.

A quota for Georgia

Leavingstone employs around 45% women. Celebrating at the old wine factory: copywriter Tatia Tabatadze with her clients. At the workplace: Designer Mariam Epitashvili. 

(Images page 5): Storyteller with a plan. This is how Leavingstone is making clients and employees happy at the same time. CFO Erekle Zurmukhtashvili distributing tasks. Creative leader Levan proposing to his girlfriend Meli at the Webby Awards.