5 Minutes with… Aimee Luther
Ever wondered how we can make Advertising great again?
Aimee met with LBBonline - Little Black Book’s Zoe Antonov recently to share her pearls of wisdom and hopes for regaining Advertising's rightful place as one of the most desirable industries to be part of.
What are you most passionate about changing in the industry today?
(A 5-minute read with a Pumpkin Latte and a Ginger Snap)
The Liberty Guild’s MD tells LBB’s Zoe Antonov why office croissants and glitter workshops should be replaced with freedom in adland, in order to “Make Advertising Great Again”
Most importantly, she leads with kindness. “When people are happy and enjoying themselves, they simply give a shit,” she tells me. She picked up that attitude when working at Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB) where she arrived within its first years as a startup (the best of its kind, in her opinion) and where late nights were never a junior’s responsibility, but having fun was.
Prior to BMB, Aimee worked at the ‘University of Advertising’, as she calls it, or more commonly known as Ogilvy and Mather, where she learned the ropes the hard and fast way. The agency back then was famously run “by gentleman, in a gentlemanly manner” and Aimee stayed on for six years after her grad scheme.
From the years of running up and down the West End and climbing the career ladder, Aimee kept the old-school need for community - the feeling of belonging in a family-like environment, without the lack of diversity. However, not because of a pinball machine or free breakfast at the office, but rather, because of a shared love for the work and pure creativity.
While she strives to reignite those feelings, she has ditched the 70-hour-long work weeks for a much freer way of existing within adland. A new and improved work-life balance, with all the benefits of old-school creativity and none of the ‘dickish behaviour’ of a huge, cold office.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov sat down with Aimee to find out more about why The Guild has the most incredible creative department in the world, how its distributed workforce is unkempt, why client bashing is not the answer, and much more.
LBB> Tell me about your upbringing – did you always know creativity will be a part of your life, or did you stumble upon it later?
Aimee> My parents separated when I was very young. I got a really wonderful stepfather out of that, who taught me a lot about life, balance and work ethic. I went to local state schools, I self-funded a gap year during which I went to Hong Kong – it was amazing.
I didn’t know anything about the industry, nor was it on my radar. I only knew I wanted to work with interesting and creative people… But, I couldn’t have been a creative myself. I knew I loved the world of business - pushing things forward and making money or growing things from nothing. Luckily, advertising (to me) is the only industry that blends in pretty equal portions creativity and business acumen.
So that's how I got into it. I then went to Lancaster University, and studied marketing – by that time I had discovered the world of advertising and went after it full force.
LBB> What were the first steps after you graduated from university?
Aimee> I did some old-school trips up and down the West End getting work experience in places that don’t even exist anymore. I was literally making coffee and tea and did whatever I could to just get company names on my CV to show that I gave a shit and I wanted to do the job more than the next person.
I was then lucky enough to get a place at the ‘University of Advertising’ – Ogilvy and Mather. It was the best place to go work back then – it was run by gentlemen in a very gentlemanly manner. There was no effing and blinding, only hard work and good fun. I spent three months learning the ropes in the best possible way, jumping through departments.
Then, I started working on the Central Office of Information (COI), Lucozade and Harrods accounts. The COI was the government’s quick turnaround business (today it would have dealt with things like covid-19) and was probably the most exciting one. Lucozade and Harrods were also incredible and were where I met some incredible people. It was a real induction and such a lovely place to be for the next six years.
LBB> What were the best lessons you drew from the ‘University of Advertising’ that you still carry today?
Aimee> Suck it up. Keep Learning. Find people to look up to. Surround yourself with these fascinating people, emulate them and learn from them. Push yourself and enjoy yourself.
I remember somebody saying: “You have to put yourself in the shoes of a creative.” Imagine being given a brief, a blank piece of paper and a sharpie to crack it. To everyone, that’s terrifying. You need to understand that sense of responsibility and empathise.
Empathy has to extend to clients as well. Nowadays I hear a lot of client bashing, which upsets me, because without them we wouldn’t have a business at all. We used to be taught to learn our client’s brand as well as them and understand their businesses intimately, not just where the brand stands. That was drummed into you.
LBB> What was the project or the step you took in your career that, in your own view, took you to the big leagues?
Aimee> In 2006 I moved to BMB (where I later became MD), within its first year of being a startup. And it was the finest startup of its time, led by literally the best leaders in the field at that time. Trevor Beattie, Andrew McGuinness, the astonishing David Bain - absolute titans. There, you learned fast and right away. Andrew McGuinness was a brilliant suit, but also a good planner and an average creative. That taught you that in order to be good at the job, you can’t be brilliant in all three – you should be able to write an average brief though.
Being part of that incredible growth curve in the self confidence the agency had, but also having the sense of camaraderie, was amazing. We were all in it together. It was like working with your siblings – an incredibly happy, productive environment. And it made good money and good work. That must be the Holy Grail of any business, right?
LBB> How did you make your move to the Liberty Guild?
Amiee> I left BMB after 12 years there – I don’t move around very much. After that I went to Colorado, at the European arms of an agency called Fortnight Collective, where they do everything in two weeks, as the name suggests. I was there for two years before Jon Williams – who I worked with at BMB – called me up and asked me if I would come over to help lead the Liberty Guild. I said I would absolutely love to, but I was doing IVF – I had done six rounds of IVF to have a baby.
If I was to leave Fortnite Collective to join The Guild, I could be pregnant. All he said was: “God willing you are.” I resigned right then and there, because to be of ‘childbearing age’ and be told that in an industry historically terrible to women gives me goosebumps even now. It took me a few more rounds of IVF to get there, but now I have a one-year-old!
LBB> And what does your day-to-day look like?
Aimee> As a managing director, I run the day-to-day businesses of the agency alongside John Williams, who is the chief executive. To put my role into nuggets, I think it’s about encouraging greatness and individuals to be the best they can be, which in turn makes the work the best it can be.
Happiness and kindness are a huge part of my role. When people are happy – and anybody will know this from their personal experience – they give so much more. If the work is good fun, and you’re enjoying it and you crack open a beer, working a bit late, it doesn’t feel like work anymore. This is what BMB taught me. There, the senior leaders were the first ones to arrive and the last ones to go. It would never be the juniors staying later. That leadership standard stuck with me and that’s what I try to be today.
In terms of a ‘typical’ day-to-day – I’m not so sure it exists, especially after I left big agency life. But there are some common running themes. Since having a baby last year, my day usually starts and ends with a two-stone lump of gorgeousness attached to me.
I’m lucky to have somebody help look after him, so I can put my eyeliner on and escape my slightly chaotic style of mothering to step into working with the most fascinating, smart, often odd, but always creative minds in the land.
LBB> Let’s talk a bit about the Liberty Guild’s distributed workforce and how it works.
Aimee> We have nearly 400 creatives and strategists spread across 28 countries. With 1,800 Cannes Lions and D&AD pencils shared amongst them, they are the best creative department in the world
Whichever metric you look at, we have a very diverse workforce, which leads to incredible diversity of thought. If you’ve only got pale, male and stale people, you don’t get that kind of stimulus. But if you’ve got a woman in Mumbai and a chap in Shanghai working on the same brief, you get a sort of insight into their imaginations – it’s incredible to see these differences come through in the work. And it’s helpful to clients because if somebody wants to have a hand care ad in Asia, we would get women from China and Singapore who would be happy to work on it and know the market.
We invite people to be part of the Guild, so most of these people we have on tend to have been through big agency life and come out the other end. Now they’re after some kind of balance. For example, we work with a creative team from North Scotland – a husband and wife who live in a fishing village with their two kids. They all go surfing in the summer and sledging in the winter… It’s a different pace of life.
We have 400 of these people, who have given up the old-school way of working and decided that freedom works for them. When you’re free you enjoy yourself, and you get more out of your work. Simply put, you give a shit.
Our own cost is also reduced, because we don’t have a massive office building with a pool table, barista, mindful-glitter-folding workshops, corporate croissants, dive-a-side kits and pinball machines. These short term perks are designed to ease the pain of working 70-hour weeks, being surrounded by dickish behaviour, static pay packets and an environment that is far removed from the colourful, eclectic, nurturing world it should and can be.
LBB> How does one build a successful distributed workforce?
Aimee> Invitation only – it needs to be very carefully monitored. It isn’t some hippie dippie collective of people that are chucking ideas. From a legal and process point of view it’s incredibly finely orchestrated. To build that you need time – it took us six years. You need respect. You need it to become a place that people want to and are asking to join.
Very importantly, you need regular communication. We have people all around the world and we communicate with them regularly – for example we recently did some amazing workshops to help people not be terrified by AI. We offered free psychiatric help when covid-19 hit. We offered competitions for their kids to do, to be occupied after school – making cool videos and winning prizes.
In terms of managing all that, we leverage technology to remove barriers, such as time zones. You don’t have to wait until you’re all in a circle in the same room. There are ways people submit or track their work like Asana, no matter how far apart they are. Having brilliant briefs that people want to work on is really important. And you need to get a model where people get paid properly – we never, ever pay late. I didn’t get my PAYE pay packet late, so why should you?
LBB> What is the thing you’re most passionate about regarding change being made in the industry today?
Aimee> Kindness, diversity, freedom and even elements of AI. But fortunately, they all seem to be gaining positive momentum and airspace at the moment.
So, I’ll go for ‘Making advertising great again’ (no Trump here). We should be regaining our rightful place as one of the most desirable industries to be part of. We used to be. But, over time, advertising has slipped down the list and is now seen as hard work, late nights and average pay.
But what about the wonder of harnessing our imaginations? As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” As marketeers, we’re the masters of creative repositioning. The off-cuts of the brightly coloured Wine Gums, the sweets, became the lauded black ones. ‘Dress Down Friday’ existed to see more casual – machine washable clothes – being worn, versus dry-clean only suits, to sell more washing powder. Fucking brilliant. Or De Beers, setting the price of an engagement right diamond at two months’ salary – increasing sales from $23m to $2.1bn.
That’s exciting. And all whilst working alongside some of the world’s most colourful, fascinating, passionate and, as I said before, odd people.
LBB> And what are your passions outside of work?
Aimee> Collecting art, Cosmo, and the constant quest for sleep.
I’m not an artist myself, and have no artistic ability, but I get drawn into the pictures and sculptures of others. I find myself imagining what the artist was thinking when they were putting a piece together. I think it’s a real honour to own an artwork that started as a blank sheet of paper or a lump of clay, but was turned into something that makes you feel something inside.
And of course, six rounds of IVF later, my beautiful son arrived in March last year. He occupies my head and heart more than I ever imagined possible.
