Gift of the Gabber: Tom Martin and Jules Schreiber
Tom Martin and Jules Schreiber are Partners and CCOs at Special Group Australia. They’ve been a creative team since the early years of their career, have won numerous awards and this year helped lead Special to win Campaign UK’s Global Creative Agency of the Year. Here they talk about the best and worst forms of self promotion, and the intersections of personal and agency brand.
Interview by Matt Bladin, Art Director at Special Group
Q: A young Jay Z famously used to borrow his uncle’s limousine to drop him at rap battles in Brooklyn. He was confident he was the best rapper on stage, but more importantly knew how crucial personal brand was to his success. If a young creative can’t borrow a limousine, what’s the next best thing for their personal brand?
Jules: Ok. Suddenly I’m acutely aware that this article, Tom, is itself... a piece of personal brand work, right here right now. We’re not just talking about it. We’re doing it. Right. Now. With every word we say, it’s ‘Personal Brand Inception’ hahaha.
Tom: (laughs) It’s pretty straight forward I think.
The best thing for a young creative’s brand is to just put in the hours and work hard.
You’re young, with energy and time and if you dig deep and do amazing work everything else will fall into place. When Jules and I first partnered up 15 years ago we did just that and the work we made then, is still the reason people don’t question our ability now.
Sorry if we start to sound like a broken record, but prioritising the work is a theme that will come up a lot.
Jules: It's a really interesting question talking about personal brand and ironically, I don’t know if Tom and I are particularly the greatest at doing it. We’ve learnt a lot along the way though, by trial and error, and key moments.
I’d say working on your personal brand is a bit like that old ad saying “Nothing kills a bad product like great advertising” because a great ad shines a giant spotlight on whatever you’re talking about.
So in this case, if you're gonna get some personal PR going it's pretty important to make sure you’ve got the creative work or something credible to back it up when people start looking at you. Hence the whole concentrating on the work thing.
Tom: Oh we’re a product of our ‘ad upbringing’ really. We spent the first 15 years in advertising working for someone who was amazing, but would never PR themselves. But we’ve definitely seen the benefit of PR since being partners in our own agency.
Q: And what should they avoid?
Jules: There’s plenty to avoid.
I think also there’s a lot to be said about what work you choose to PR and make everyone very aware you’re attached to it.
It takes discipline because let's be honest most work, good or bad is generally a lot of well, work. So at the end there’s a genuine desire to shout a bit about it. But the wider world doesn’t go on that journey, so it's a real exercise in taste, and what you want the world to see you’re proud of.
Tom: Also now that we’re doing more PR, we’ve learnt if you’re going to be involved in something that’s getting PR, say an event or a talk or an article, make sure it's something you understand and are on board with. It's easy to say ‘yes’ sometimes for the opportunity, not aware with what you’re actually aligning your ‘personal brand’ with.
Jules: More than once we’ve been asked to be on a panel or a talk to discuss something and you realise pretty quickly the panel exists to promote someone’s platform or business. Which is fine if you know that and can genuinely contribute with some substance and offer the audience something genuinely interesting they can learn from - as opposed to just promoting.
Q: Looking back at your early careers, how large of a role did self-promotion play in your progression or opportunity?
Jules: Did self promotion play a role in our early progression Tom? I think this is the bit where we admit again we haven’t been particularly great at it. The work always spoke the loudest. We definitely watched and listened carefully to our CD/mentors about PR impact. We also learnt what PR matters to whom. For example different publications are often talking to vastly different audiences.
A Mumbrella article is not the same as a Campaign Brief article which is not the same as an article in the Australian.
All serve their purpose, are you speaking more to clients, more to creatives, more to the wider Aussie public?
Tom: If anything, the question for us is more: did our lack of self-promotion hold us back? People knew our work, but I’m pretty sure no one knew who we were until more recently. Did it hold us back? Maybe, but we’ve ended up in an agency we love, with people who are like minded, making work we couldn’t be prouder of. And this opportunity happened because of our work and work ethic.
Jules: I’ve heard the expression ‘the comedian’s comedian’ - somebody all the comedians find funny and like, but the wider public has never even heard of them. I think sometimes we did for a while fall into that category for our industry counterparts. But as you said we’ve landed where we wanted to be so it seems to be on balance the right way to go.
Q: Is it possible to balance humility with self-promotion?
Jules: I think you can and you should. Particularly as you keep progressing and working with lots of different people.
For me, it's always been about making sure you take the time to acknowledge the truth that none of the good stuff happens just because of us, but because of all the efforts of so many people. I think the truth is a bit humbling.
Tom: I do really struggle with writing LinkedIn posts. I write them over and over and over again and then, even edit them after posting them, as I’d hate to look arrogant or like we’re bragging. But great work isn’t easy and when we succeed it deserves a moment in the sun. Thankfully, you can self promote while promoting others as well which helps and only positives come from shifting the spotlight to your people and your clients as they make the great work possible. If it’s your channel (eg LinkedIn), you’re always going to be the lead anyway.
Q: You don’t have to go deep into certain comment sections to see the term ‘scam work’ pop-up quickly. Has our industry become more obsessed with promoting the work rather than making an actual impact? Or is it all fair game?
Jules: I wouldn’t say more obsessed. I’d say ‘same obsessed’. This one has been around well before our time. There’s a bit to unpack here. I reckon creatives do this work because they believe the ‘real’ work for clients isn't helping their personal brand. And that has a lot to do with the award culture of our industry, some agency cultures that don’t always act like the creativity driven work pays the bills. We’ve always believed that real work on clients should be PR worthy and work you want to attach to your personal brand.
Tom: We speak to a lot of young teams and their first question is always “Do you do proactive work?” It says a lot about our industry and the way agencies and creative leaders are categorising clients and creative opportunities. When Jules and I first started working together we had a debate with our seniors about categorising clients into A’s (opportunities) and B’s (not opportunities). We strongly objected and then spent the next few years turning these perceived B’s into the most loved and awarded clients in the agency. And it wasn’t through scam, we just slowly made their work better and better with every brief.
I also remember 15 years ago being absolutely stoked if the agency thought my work was worthy of entering into an award show as they only entered the absolute best work.
It wasn’t like now where agencies spend the salary of a young employee on every award show. It’s become a numbers game and to fulfill those numbers agencies need to do proactive work. Hopefully we’ll get back to awards being a by-product of great work, not the reason for it. This may happen in our mid/post covid world as it’s much harder to justify the costs.
Jules: Also, I guess if you have to do scam work to do work you’re proud of (and PR), it might be a symptom that you’re not working somewhere that’s compatible with your personal brand goals. I don’t think your personal brand in this industry can survive just on a diet of scam. It can shine a light on you for a moment, but you need to back it up with real (and effective) work.
Q: While LinkedIn was once a handy digital resume it’s now been taken over by Linked-Influencers who’ve made the #humblebrag an obnoxious artform. If you scroll through your feed for 5 minutes, what’re the best and worst type of posts you’re seeing?
Jules: I’d say we’re guilty of the occasional humblebrag. But we try to temper it, by using it as a shout out to all the great people involved in projects. The best ones are when people either share genuine opinions, use the platform to genuinely congratulate peers or just show something really interesting for our industry.
Tom: Definitely. We all know how hard it is to make great work (especially over the past few years), so I’m not shy of congratulating peers who post great work or win awards. I guess the posts I cringe at is when people come across as arrogant or don’t acknowledge everyone else involved in their achievement. It doesn’t hurt to be generous with credit.
Jules:
The great thing about Linkedin is essentially its trollless and professional. So the silence is the biggest critique vs anonymous voices shouting.
Q: When it comes to winning Agency of the Year, an amazing body of work is only the start. How do you promote and talk about Special’s work in a way that reflects the agency’s unique brand of creativity?
Jules: Special is its own kinda beast really. It’s really built on a culture of letting people be themselves and I like to think the work reflects that. No house style, taking on big hairy projects and figuring out together with our clients and collaborators (super smart production people like Glue, Revolver, Finch, Scoundrel...etc). So we often talk about the work as a reflection of our culture.
Tom: Like Jules said we don’t really have a unique brand of creativity. We hire creatives to be the best version of themselves and the last thing we want is young teams to replicate or second guess Jules and myself. And when it comes to talking about our work, the agency and its people, we desperately try to be humble and avoid bragging as it just isn't in our DNA or that of our partners.
Jules:
I also think it's really important to keep in mind winning AOY isn't the end game, but only another moment in the agency’s journey.
But in absolute contradiction, I think you have to really PR and celebrate it so you can recognise everyone involved, because it is really rare. Undeniably it is a great calling card for clients and business. PR works best when there’s a bite size headline attached to you - they won ‘Agency of the Year’ is a great bite.
Tom: And let’s not forget, it's a great email signature. Email signatures seem to be the one place where being humble is thrown out the window.
Q: In recent years independents have been able to stand out from the network-agency pack with their unique voice or brand of work. What freedoms or limitations have you found come with promoting an independent agency?
Jules: That’s a great question. Being independent really means having no higher up mysterious figures that you never deal with day to day deciding what you do and don’t PR. But that freedom comes with serious responsibility as you and your partners are steering the conversation of not just you but your whole organisation. We’re really lucky now to have someone with serious PR chops like Abby Dawson (shout out to Abby) to offer us all wise counsel on where to and where not to appear.
Tom: I also think our industry really backs the independents and wants them to succeed. We all wanted The Monkeys to do well (we still do of course) and now I feel that positivity has also turned towards us which is really nice. But then again I don’t read anonymous comments in the industry press so I could be totally deluded and you all hate us.
Jules: When it comes to PR response.
Don’t listen to trolls. It’s just not worth it.
Tom: Yep. Don't take criticism from people you wouldn't take advice from. Words to live by.
Q: As CCOs, do you think an agency’s creative brand reflects the leaders’ personal brand?
Jules:
An agency’s creative brand is also the CCO’s personal brand.
No bones about it. It should be. Otherwise what is the CCO’s role in shaping the creative of the agency? Can the two be separate? I think they even kind of have a symbiotic relationship really. Like a CCO can bring ‘creative brand’ to an agency when they arrive and take the gig.
Tom: True, but even then, within a certain period, the agency needs to put out some work of good creative quality or it will start to define the CCO’s brand right back at them. They’re so linked together.
Q: Is there ever a level of success where you don’t need to worry about promoting yourself?
Tom: We will always do PR, just not for PR-sake. We will wait until the right time with the right story to really make it work. It's not about quantity or our names being out there, it's about quality and what we want our brand associated with.
Jules: I guess also it really depends on what your long term goals are in this industry. If you think about it, we are by definition an industry of promoting things. So it stands to reason, if you really intend to stick around or rise within it, you inevitably (like us for example) have to participate in some self promotion.
