Creative Courage: What does it mean for 2022 and beyond?

To kick off a new article series from McCann Leeds, Managing Director, Olly Sowden, sits down with PR and Social Account Manager Jemma, to talk about Creative Courage in 2022 and what the industry can expect from the platform in the future.

Can you tell me a bit about Creative Courage?

“When we first launched McCann Leeds, we wanted to make a mark on the industry, and to really celebrate and put a spotlight on creativity in the North of England. Creative Courage was borne out of a desire to spark conversation, not just within our agency, but collaboratively with other creatives, clients and with young people right at the beginning of their careers as well.

Creative Courage is a platform to collaborate on solving client challenges, showcase ideas and work, and to uplift creatives all over the region—but it’s also a place where we can really raise the bar, and show young people how rewarding a career in this industry can be.

We also wanted to foster a connection with our audience, to emphasise the importance of creativity, because we felt that there was a gap in the conversation in the North.

Where do you see the future of the creative industry heading in Leeds, and in the North?

What we’re trying to do as McCann in Leeds is to make brands think twice about heading to London for their creative needs, but also to reach out to young talent. We want to show young people that, not only is a successful, rewarding career in the creative industry possible, but that you don’t have to go to London to achieve it.

I also think that there is a really authentic, gritty nature to people in the North, a diversity of thought that makes for some incredible work. I see the future of the creative industry in the North pushing boundaries—there’s such a buzz in Leeds already, and hopefully we’ll see that growing into something even more special.

In this day and age, where we’re arguably the most forward-thinking and accepting we’ve ever been, why do you think it still takes courage to be creative?

?One thing that I always talk about when we talk to clients about courage and bravery is that one person’s ‘brave’ is another person’s ‘safe’. ‘Brave’ work for Coca-Cola and ‘brave’ work for a regulated industry like finance or healthcare will look very different, but it doesn’t mean that one is more courageous than the other.

There is no point being brave for the sake of it—of taking unnecessary risks and jeopardising your business purely because you feel you have to—because it’s the ‘done thing’. Bravery has to come from a place where there is room to grow.

Saying that, though, a lot of the time, we find that clients want to be pushed. They won’t necessarily always go for the most courageous idea, but they want to be challenged, and to examine their creative boundaries. If I was a client, personally I would much rather have an agency that pushed me so I had to reign them in, rather than one that didn’t challenge me enough, but some agencies don’t quite go for the big ideas.

The other big thing with bravery is that, in a lot of businesses, it’s hard to get approved. So really, that’s what Creative Courage is all about—it’s about having nuanced conversations about the challenges of being creatively courageous. It’s not always about swearing on a billboard; a lot of the time it’s about representing diversity in a client’s marketing comms or changing the tone of voice a client uses. It’s about understanding the category that our clients operate in and being bold and courageous within each of their individual parameters in order to stand out.

There is a lot of planning that goes into determining the level of courageousness that will work for each client. You can’t just jump straight into the design element of a project; you have to be led by insight and research. From there, you can help a client be ‘brave’ by standing out in their sector, against their own competitors.

You’re the Managing Director of McCann Leeds, which may not be a traditionally creative role, but is there a standout moment in your own career where you have been courageously creative?

?Well, as you say, I wouldn’t really label myself as creative, but I suppose in a lot of ways, my move to McCann was a courageous decision in itself. In my previous agency, I’d climbed the ladder, I was in a very comfortable position, and I could easily have stayed there for another 10 years.

Gavin (Shore, Creative Director) and I made the decision to leave our comfort zone, not only into an agency that we’d never worked in before, but also, starting McCann Leeds has been a bit like starting a business, like a start-up agency. So, that was a pretty courageous decision in my book.

Would you say, then, that you’ve looked to build a team who have a bit of courage themselves, then?

Absolutely. When we’ve been growing our team, we’ve looked for bold, courageous, and creative candidates: people who are ambitious and who really want this career. It’s another reason why we started Creative Courage—to attract the type of person we want on our team. We want to reach younger talent, to bring them into the industry as open-minded individuals with no creative parameters.

What advice would you give to budding creatives who want to get into the industry? People who are just leaving school, university, or people who want a career change?

?It’s no secret that the creative industry is very competitive. My advice would be to talk to as many people as you can. Spend as much time as possible inside agencies, whether that’s an internship or shadowing someone in a role you’d be interested in to really get an idea of what it’s all about and what stands out within the industry.

Don’t be afraid to do something very, very bold to get in front of someone like me, or the Creative Director. Do something different than just sending in your CV in a Word Document. Be courageous, stand out.

Another thing to really think about is what type of Creative you want to be. There are so many different types of designer, so many different types of copywriter, so which one speaks to you?

We held our Creative Courage event in June, which was one of the first in-person creative events in Leeds for over two years post-covid. Why do you think it’s still so important to step away from our laptops and attend events in person?

?I think our Creative Courage event really showed that you can’t replicate how special being in a room with people is. When everything is online, you miss some of the spontaneity, the collaboration, and really just that spark that you get when you’re in a room full of like-minded people.

There’s no doubt that working remotely is still hugely beneficial, but it’s easy to forget about the energy and excitement that you get at events like Creative Courage. You just can’t replicate that intangible feeling of being in a room with lots of people.

We will definitely be holding more; we’re planning our next one now for the beginning of next year.

Can you describe the reaction to Creative Courage? Is it different to what you expected when you first created the platform?

?The reaction to Creative Courage, particularly to our in-person events has been off the scale. We’ve had so many people contacting us after the events saying how great it is, how Leeds needs events like this, and to be honest we’ve been overwhelmed with how much people seem to like it.

So, we’ve obviously struck a nerve somewhere with people when we’re talking about what we do. We want to be unselfish with Creative Courage, this is a platform for everyone. It’s not just about McCann, it’s about everyone who wants to be a little braver with their creativity.”

If you would like to explore how you can be braver with your creativity, drop us an email at [email protected]