The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has wrapped up for 2023, with the event having brought together those that work in creative communications and advertising from every corner of the planet.
Mediaweek has been on location in the South of France, and spoke to some of the most influential people in both Australian and global media. Today is the Initiative global CEO Dimitri Maex, who joined Initiative Australia CEO Melissa Fein and managing director, Sam Geer.
See Also: Initiative: Why the “potential is lost in its packaging” for some of Australia’s game-changing work
Australia is a particularly strong division for Initiative, and Maex was not short on praise for the team Down Under.
Maex: “To be honest with you, they dominate – and definitely punch above their weight. I think the Initiative DNA may live most vibrantly in the Australian office.
“We’ve been relying on the team here to help us shape our global product and global proposition. These guys are getting involved in a lot of the global pitches as well, not just looking after the Australian or even APAC region. I’m very happy we have this team in Australia, they’re a key part of the network.”
When asked if there were any particular learnings or ideas that have come out of Australia to be applied in the wider Initiative network, Maex says that the interconnectedness of the business means that ideas come from everywhere,
Maex: “It’s hard to tell, because that’s not really how we’ve worked on the repositioning – we’ve really built it together. It’s not like Australia or the centre in New York come up with something and push it down the line. It’s been very collaborative.
“These guys were in New York earlier this year, really helping to co-create the next evolution.”
Geer: “The thing we do very well as a global network, I would say, is that sharing. It’s not just ideas, it’s everything from how we engage our staff to policies that we introduce. They get shared, and then you go back to your country, and I’ll get calls from the MD or CEO of several countries saying, ‘Oh, can you send us this slide? We want to implement that in this market’.
“More so than anywhere else I’ve ever worked, that sharing and the ability to just pick up the phone and say, ‘can you send me this’ is one of the Initiative strengths.”
Maex: “I think you can, as a global network, move a lot faster if you really mobilise the global enterprise. I think a lot of the best thinking often happens in the small countries, because you’ve got a little bit more freedom, you can move faster. For us as a global network, it’s really important to tap into that.”
One of the most recent accolades for the agency was taking gold for Media Agency of the Year at Campaign Magazine UK’s Global AOY awards. The award came off the back of Initiative winning the Nike account for Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America last year.
Maex: “At the global level, the key point last year was the Nike win – and that was obviously a very big win, but we had to rethink the way we operated at Initiative to win that. When Nike landed we all thought it was going to be the perfect brief for Initiative, because we’re all about cultural philosophy and creativity, and what brand moves faster through culture than Nike?
“When the brief landed it was a lot of D2C, a lot of commerce, so we got to really balance our strengths and culture philosophy with more focus on performance, commerce, and D2C. I think we succeeded at that – the current positioning actually was born during the Nike pitch. During that pitch, we really cracked the integration between all the performance capabilities of media brands, and the initial proposition.
“We had a phenomenal year last year on defence as well, which I’m very proud of. Everybody always talks about the wins, but we didn’t lose a single big client at Initiative. That means a lot.”
Reflecting on what makes Initiative tick on a global level, Fein says that the culture is the driving force – and that it all comes from the top down.
Fein: “One thing I’m super proud of is when Dimitri hosts these incredible conferences that we get to go to globally. When he’s doing his business update at the start, we look at market-by-market NPS – the net promoter scores. We pride ourselves on always being above a certain benchmark.
“People talk about dream teams, and through the network, culturally, that’s really inspiring. That’s how we want to show up every day, feeling motivated that we’re creating a great place to come to work
“Initiative has got a really special culture, and its DNA is quite different from any other agency I’ve worked with. Actually, before I joined Initiative, I worked with Initiative as well as other agencies. Initiative has a very strong personality and a very strong point of view in the world, which I think is its power.”
Ultimately, the message about Initiative that Maex want the market to hear is that the agency is full of proactive people who have struck a balance between clients and product.
Maex: “It starts with the DNA of the people, our DNA is in our name – Initiative. That really is reflected in the people. When you’re in a room with Initiative, things happen and you feel it. That’s something very, very special, we definitely want to keep, and that’s something we look for in every person we hire.
“Initiative has always been very strong at balancing client centricity with a strong point of view on the world, and with strong product. You get agencies that have a very strong product, but they may be not as flexible with the clients, or agencies that are very, very client-focused, but they don’t really look at the product. Initiative has always been very good at balancing both, so I think we have a very strong proposition.”
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Top Image: Dimitri Maex