Since it bought itself back a year and half ago, BWM has been doing what it wanted to do but couldn’t with its parents holding the reins: grow and prosper. The Pop Agency is BWM’s newest blossom – the social, PR and brand activation love child of BWM and Cox Inall Communications.
The Stable asked Ashley Douglas, Pop director, and Sally Fraser, client lead, what takes to Pop.
TS: Where did the idea for The Pop Agency come from?
AD: BWM’s Cox Inall had grown to about 30% of revenue and 8 people. The partners saw that the moment was ‘now’ to really take Ideas deeper into the PR, Social and Physical space. As for the name, POP, and the company philosophy of Popularity, it kinda just popped for us. Ideas That Get Australians Talking, are, by nature, fundamentally popular. Taking the philosophy of popularity and turning it into a mantra for the social, PR and activation space was a no brainer. Our path to popularity is paved with popular culture, creative ideas that pop and our populating conversations on- and offline to make messages multiply.
TS: Why Ashley and Sal?
AD: I have international experience with both agency and client-side experience under my belt, so for BWM, this was a good win in terms of leadership and skillset to add to the team. Having managed some pretty large-scale projects from digital to sponsorship and brand activation to global marketing and communication campaigns across Europe and in the US, I add broad experience an already meaty team. I think this approach, coupled with my understanding of how to work effectively with agency partners to align and deliver a strong business solution together, will enable business growth and future scope for expansion.
Sally and I have complementary skill sets. Sally really understands Australian business, media and culture and has built a very successful business based on traditional PR. She’s great at managing large projects and making sure clients get what they expect, and then some. I bring a different perspective and put that together, you have a strong team to deliver for clients.
TS: What did you do to get into shape to fit into BWM?
AD: I have a branding background, so I’m all about the brand analogy, the brand philosophy, brand language and how this translates into an approach. With that in mind, we spent a lot of time getting our USP and methodology right, and then our look and feel right. We wanted to be fresh and current, yet demonstrate a solid skillset and creative approach to business. Brand identity is always a fun process. I love working with creative directors and what they take out of your brief. The way they articulate your story through design – love it. Finally, our tagline of ‘we make ideas, brands and people popular’ took some finessing. We wanted to be clear, simple, straightforward and grounded in science and human behaviour. At the same time, we wanted to serve up a concept to the client that’s easily digestible, yet explosive on impact.
TS: What’s it like being part of the BWM family?
AD: There’s good energy in this place – that’s the first thing I noticed when I walked in the door. Being part of a company that’s not only built itself to become the iconic player that it has, but has the ability to evolve and react to the changing market place, is something I’m pretty proud to be part of. Being an independent, BWM likes to challenge the status quo (and challenge itself constantly in the process), so this kind of structure and approach aligns well with our clear proposition of challenging brands to strip things back to basics with the simple question, ‘What is going to make your brand popular?”
TS: Sibling stuff: How are you working out how to all work together?
AD: We are finding more and more that clients want the whole offering under one roof. They also want someone who’s innovative in how they react to the market and the changing consumer landscape in terms of engaging and interacting with brands through social, technology and digital. When a brief comes in, Sputnik, BWM and POP sit down and work together in the initial stages. Question one is, “how do we give the best solution possible to our clients?” When you explore briefs from different disciplines, things come to light and gaps get filled in. You end up with a really solid, all round proposition for clients.
TS: What aims have you been given?
AD: Be great. Do great business. Do it differently. Do it creatively. Be surprising. Have fun.
TS: Do you think that an agency’s bits on the side add to its offering? What are yours?
AD: I sure do. I still read a lot around my degree subjects like psychology, anthropology, social behaviour and philosophy. It’s maybe a bit nerdy, but I love it. I’m also a lover of business coaching with a bit of business psychology thrown in to better understand how the workplace, and people/groups operate and interact with one another. I’m a people watcher and love observing how ‘things’ work. When I’m given a business situation/proposition/brief, maybe I look at it different as a result of this training. I’m also a little obsessive about understanding the target consumer to the nth degree to make sure what we are doing maps effectively to them. If it doesn’t, then there’s no point in doing it, right?
