The Growth Agenda podcast: No longer a “dark art”, creativity takes its place in value chain

Not just decorative, not just for fun – commercial creativity has value, purpose, and much more. In episode six of The Growth Agenda podcast we speak with a top whisky brand, leading design expert and senior creative.

In episode six, creative collaboration lead and ambassador at Glenfiddich & The Balvenie Ross Blainey, chief creative officer at The Monkeys Tara Ford, MD at Accenture Song Celia Romaniuk and TGA editor Pippa Chambers discussed commercial creativity.

With many businesses doing it tough right now, perhaps looking to solve problems with more creative thinking could be the answer, according to guests on the latest podcast from The Growth Agenda.

In episode six, creative collaboration lead and ambassador at Glenfiddich & The Balvenie Ross Blainey, chief creative officer at The Monkeys Tara Ford, and MD at Accenture Song Celia Romaniuk, discussed creativity at all points of the customer journey.

Hosted by TGA editor Pippa Chambers, guests discussed the rise, role and rhetoric around ‘commercial creativity’ and questioned if it was becoming more evident as brands embrace and understand the power of creativity far beyond advertising.

Melbourne-based Ms Romaniuk, who formerly worked at Accenture Song’s design and innovation consultancy Fjord across the Nordics and the UK for nearly a decade, said solving all manner of business problems in a creative way is becoming more important.

“We are facing constant challenges and whether that‘s around inflation or sustainability, there’s so much going on all the time that it’s a struggle for brands to keep up and have that cut through,” Ms Romaniuk said.

“So how do you get the attention of people and really appeal to them? I think creativity is a really good answer to that question.”

Mr Blainey, who earlier this year avoided simply diving straight into mass market-reaching TV ads or ramping up its performance marketing efforts, but instead carefully selected five unique craftspeople in Australia to launch branded products with, explained how communicating the creative journey to key execs and stakeholders has been crucial for the brands he leads.

While he may not dig deep into the actual idea itself early on, he’ll discuss the influences, initial thinking, will ensure he gets the right people involved early on and will of course, “have a good reason” for the creative endeavour.

Mr Blainey, who has been at the William Grant & Sons-owned business for six years, said to push boundaries, be creative and do something new, brands must also be prepared that it might not work.

“If you want to be a creative business and be commercially creative, you’ve got to give things a try,” Mr Blainey said.

“Someone once said to me, ‘you're either winning or you’re learning and if you’re not doing that, then you’re losing’. Sometimes you just need to get in there and try something and if it doesn’t work exactly right that time, then you don’t do it again, or you’ll learn and do better the next time.”

Ms Ford argued that getting creativity to be truly valued can often depend on the organisational culture and the belief in it at the top.

“If there‘s someone championing creativity then that can help push ideas through,” she said.

On what both agencies and clients can do better to help champion commercial creativity, Ms Ford said while it can be hard to sell ideas that are completely new and unproven, from an agency‘s point of view, sharing innovative and inspirational examples as proof points can help.

On the client side, she said it’s about truly bolstering that two-way conversation, with brands sharing greater experiences and detail to give agencies a clearer view of deeper inside the business.

Listen to the full episode below, or via Spotify or Apple.