Creative agency Arcade: ‘Publicis Groupe sees us as a model for the future’
Although partly owned by the French holding company Publicis, the Singaporean-based founders of Arcade still see the creative agency very much as an independent – they speak to Eleanor Dickinson about the journey so far
Creative shop Arcade was founded in Singapore seven years ago by four ex-agency execs looking to put the spirit of entrepreneurialism back into ad land. In the time since, the founders – Nick Marrett, Gary Tranter, Mark Taylor and Matt Cullen – have managed to turn Arcade from a small experimental shop to a five-office network, handling regional and global projects for the likes of Unilever, Heineken and McDonald’s.
Four years after its founding, Publicis Groupe actually bought a minority stake in the agency and the global holding company is expected to take full ownership soon. Today Arcade has 175 people in Singapore, Tokyo, Indonesia, Shanghai and most recently opened an office in Cape Town, South Africa.
Here is what the founders, plus managing director Lesley John, had to say about the agency’s journey, the state of the industry today and where things might go next.
L-R – Mark Taylor, Gary Tranter, Matt Cullen, Nick Marrett.
Arcade has been going for some time now. What are the biggest shake-ups you’ve seen hit the industry since you first started the agency?
Nick Marrett: “At the time when we founded, things were changing quite rapidly. We just felt there was a need for a different model: something that was more nimble. It seemed that there needed to be a simpler way of doing things. And now the world seems to be changing exponentially faster. Now the media is very fragmented; there are lots of ways of speaking to people. You can either look at that as a threat or see it as people needing more creativity.”
Mark Taylor: “Everyone now wants to say they can work across all disciplines, but it’s easier said than done. You need a collaborative agency model to do it, and most are not that.”
When you first started, one of Arcade’s most unique aspects was the research and development arm known as ‘Ventures’. Is that still an important part of the business today?
Nick: “It was bigger when we started. It’s probably a product of our success in growing the business that, while as much as we stay very passionate about it…”
Matt Cullen: “The spirit is still there and we used to have a lot more time. So our early success was driven by our experimentation in different products and technology: it probably won us business. It’s still a deep part of us and we would like ramp it up more, but we’ve been building our network over the past three years.”
Nick: “It is the reality that we don’t have time anymore but whenever we get a brief, the entrepreneurialism is always at the forefront of how we find solutions to problems.”
Did the acquisition of a stake by Publicis have any impact on the outlook?
Nick: “No I don’t think so. It probably accelerated our growth and redirected our focus. The best agencies in the world build things. And from a Publicis point of view, they do recognise the value of it.”
Lesley John: “There wasn’t necessarily a change of approach; we just had less time to experiment by ourselves. Fortunately now, a lot of the experiments we do are paid work.
“We built robots for Heineken and that was a massive testing phase for something like that, but it became a genuine client project: they bought into it, paid for it and it became a huge success. A lesser client may have said ‘no we are not going to spend this time and money paying for you to mess around’. But they were 100 per cent collaborative with us. The first iteration didn’t go as well, but their willingness to invest allowed us to go for it a second time.”
Heineken robot
Speaking of Publicis, do you still think of yourselves as an independent agency despite the holding company having a minority stake?
Nick: “Yes. The nature of our business is as creative entrepreneurs and we do everything from managing our own business to our clients.”
Gary Tranter: “Publicis have certainly wanted for us to keep our independence and for as long as possible.”
Nick: “The new CEO Arthur Sadoun said to us: ‘We may be less than 1 per cent of their group turnover, but we’re 99 per cent of his inspiration to change the group’. It was a clear indication to us that they see us as a model for the future.
“We now have 175 people and five offices. But what often happens when you hit 50 people and something starts to change and you turn into a bigger organisation. We often find 50 is the sweet spot [per office]. One of the things we’ve always tried to do is never build legacy. And we do that by staying small: we can adapt and move, and if we win major projects we can scale through collaboration. Big companies come with structures and departments, and with us the business runs itself – even with five offices.”
Recently there has been a lot of talk about consultancy firms eying up independent creative agencies. In Australia both The Monkeys and Thinkerbell have been snapped up by Accenture and PwC respectively. What’s your take on this kind exit?
Nick: “We’re finding we’re bumping into Deloitte and they’re sucking in digital creative directors. They are clearly coming at the industry, and the industry is going at them. We have done our best work for very senior clients and have built strong relationships with them. When you have a lot of senior people sitting at a table, in a world that demands a lot of collaboration, that’s the best way to come up with solutions to complex problems.
“My advice to any young agency is to get entry right at the top level when it comes to working with your client; work with the most senior people, and you will be successful because you’re dealing with very smart people.”
Nick Marrett: “My advice is work with the most senior people”
Gary: “These opportunities with consultants, plus those opening up with public relations agencies and Facebook is wonderful for our industry. To have that playing field is great for a young – or old – creative person. I don’t know if the old agency model is dying, but it’s certainly cumbersome. I think creatives love that sense of solving a profound, tricky business brief.”
What did you think of MullenLowe APAC CEO Vincent Digonnet’s recent comments about consultancy-agency acquisitions not working because the two are like “oil and water” and do not mix well?
Mark: “No I don’t agree. It’s about the people at the end of the day. If you can see the value in someone sitting across the table from you then why not? That ‘us and them’ mindset is so insular when there is so much to gain from different points of view. The worst thing we can do is look inwards.”
Gary: “A bit of friction is good too. With bit of oil and water, you might find some exciting stuff happening.”
Nick: “The world is moving so quickly and is so complex that you need more than one approach. That friction can work, but it does come down to the maturity of the people and their seniority. With us being senior it helps: you leave the ego at the door and you have three or four people who know you have to crack a problem. It’s going to be a trend that sweeps the world. Those consultants are very high up in the [business] chain. It’s where advertising used to be; and where advertising needs to get back to.”
Speaking of egos, your agency tends to avoid the awards scene. Why is that? Is it anything to do with the seemingly ego-centric culture that surrounds it? Or because of the prevalence of scam in Asia?
Matt: “With awards you really need the investment: maybe S$200,000 to go for all the big awards. In the early days we decided to invest that in our R&D. And then we just got used to not doing awards and investing back into the agency. We’re not anti-awards; we just took a different path.”
But has the scam culture for you poisoned the awards here? Incidents such as last year’s I-Sea scandal haven’t reflected well on the industry.
Matt: “Awarding great work is a great thing, but doing work for awards is obviously wrong. I think a lot of [scam] was borne out of a frustration in the industry of how do you actually sell that great work and it can be like swimming upstream.”
What’s next in store for Arcade? How does the Publicis stake affect the business in the future?
Nick: “What’s definitely driving our growth is the offices in Singapore, Jakarta and Shanghai. What definitely will help our growth this year will be the development of regional relationships.
“A lot of clients try to start their global campaigns in Shanghai because if you can get it to drop successfully in China, you go a long way towards achieving your sales target. And the same applies to Indonesia; it’s huge as well. We are quite flexible though: we do global work in Singapore, but we have done it in Shanghai too. A typical network would be a lot more structured, whereas we stay fairly fluid.
“Given we’re now part of the Publicis Groupe, we probably cover most of our needs in the markets we’re in. The days of developing domestic campaigns in South East Asia are over: the budgets are just not there. There are some big domestic clients if you want to go after them, in Thailand for example, but we want to go after global campaigns.
“Publicis will soon own all of Arcade. I can’t tell you what the timeline is, but it’s imminent. We consider ourselves part of Publicis: although we like to remain independently spirited, we’re as much part of the family now.”
Eleanor Dickinson is the editor of Mumbrella Asia. Eleanor joined the Asia platform from Dubai, where she acted as senior reporter for Campaign Middle East.
Nick Marrett: “My advice is work with the most senior people”
What kind of remark is that? Was it supposed to be a gag with that shot they chose? I’ve read bad quotes but this is about as inane as they get.
ReplyIf publicis sees this as the model for the future then that’s very much in keeping with the quality of their current leadership. This is just another agency with a top heavy structure where kids do the grunt work while the heavies skim the cream off the top. Remember when they hired 4 creative directors at one go to boast about their capabilities…all of them were gone before the year was out. A tour of their website shows work that has no spunk in it. But I am thankful they don’t put out singlish crap like the rest of the independent outfits.
I loved the spin where the guy says they don’t enter awards because they took a different route….yeah, the route of doing work that won’t stand a chance in award shows….like the embarrassing Shigga Rap.
ReplyAs always, the work speaks louder than PR quotes.
And that work is Shigga
Silence may have been better
ReplySick and tired of reading bullshit like this. Every break-away hotshop turns into a sweatshop, just like the big agencies. You guys are not the future, [Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards]
ReplyMeaningless soundbites aside, they sound desperate to be bought out entirely. I wonder what Publicis’ strategy is with an agency that only does projects and has no clients of record…..and has not announced any new business wins either. Given the work I’ve seen I have to say they’re better at running their bar than their agency.
Reply[Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards] Sadoun, that tyke was actually expecting you. Good luck with your role models. Pic looks more like some jaded quartet performing Groban covers, to me.
Reply“Nick: “The new CEO Arthur Sadoun said to us: ‘We may be less than 1 per cent of their group turnover, but we’re 99 per cent of his inspiration to change the group’. It was a clear indication to us that they see us as a model for the future.”
Any amateur knows that you can never believe what a CEO says….especially an advertising CEO. Zuckerberg said Facebook would never have advertising…lol.
In the event of a complete buy-out, it would be interesting to see how these 4 musketeers get along with the newly appointed empress of publicis holdings in Singapore. There are some things that just don’t mix and this is one of those situations. My guess is, they will take the money, head off to run the bar, the empress will take over this already shaky enterprise and turn it into a low cost studio.
ReplyAt least she’ll ensure there are more Asians on that rooftop than Il Divo care to embrace. They all look so weary, and stiff in that particular profile juxtaposition. Since they aren’t known for their creativity, anyone know if they’re nice people?
ReplyPeculiar smile, hor?
ReplyYeah.
ReplyThat was a Gem.
Reply[Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards]
Besides missing Asians, the pic also lacks the requisite pseudohumility for an Asian PR piece. Not real humility, just pretentious stuff that makes the management look like they’re one with their team, but subtly places them in pivotal positions that can’t be missed.
Joji from Blk J offers an admirable example of such pseudohumility.
(http://www.marketing-interactive.com/blk-j-bags-five-new-client-wins-for-integrated-and-creative-duties/)
In this pic, he stands just outside the group (to the extreme left), albeit in an unmissable position that says, “Surely you know who’s the majority shareholder here, huh?” Arcade could learn a thing or two from him.
ReplyJoji is a guy that knows how to give credit to his team and not hog the limelight. He gives credit to his whole team, [Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards]
ReplyI don’t know why you’re getting all twisted up that there are no asians in the pic. y’all just got an asian president so bask in that warm glow. these guys have employed a number of asians in senior positions they just don’t give them ownership. The DNA of this company is modelled on Batey Ads….even batey was seen as a colonial outpost but they were lots of asians there who weren’t treated like chattel.
But that’s where the similarities to batey end….this agency is like the pulp left in the juicer after all the juice has been poured out. I cant imagine it would be worth more than a few hundred grand or else that would be daylight robbery.
And wtf r u bringing in this joji fellow for….thats not the topic…[Edited under Mumbrella’s community standards]
ReplyI get the Joji relevance to that profile pic, and the veneer of superficial pseudohumility. But there’s another learning here.
Arcade is expat management heavy. Contrasting that, DDB/Blk J/Joji’s teams are 100% local, since most expat imports tend to question the shoddy and lazy creative thinking that this agency cluster’s CCOs pursue on flagship brands like StarHub and McD. This leaves these CCOs feeling threatened and exposed in the eyes of their own (homegrown and lacklustre) creatives who practically adore such shops for giving them shelter, when no one else will have them.
Neither Arcade nor the latter cluster are likely to hit the jackpot, because both lack the global cultural bandwidth that makes agencies like TBWA and Saatchi shine. They’ll go the way of Mandate Ads, GOVT, Blower’s Black Labs, and Steve/Rob’s Mangled Granola.
ReplyBlk J’s local formula doesn’t appear to be working. They lost the Mandai pitch, and even the local BMW one before that. Let’s see whether the Changi pitch turns that tide around.
ReplyTBH, I don’t see how it can work. If you go back a few years and see where they came from, it’s from the land of print ads with big pictures and small logos.
ReplyLet us call a spade a spade.
Hearing from people working at Arcade, they work late nights without ever getting the credit. Only the owners do.
I know that in this industry all of us work late but at least we get recognised when we do good work!
Time to head to GEM for a drink. At least that is run well.
ReplyShigga “rap”.
ReplyEnough said.
I do not understand all the negativity here. These are just a bunch of boys talking about their failing agency that they have sold to Publicis. They are the smart ones! Publicis are the ones taking an L on this deal.
The Arcade boys will ride off into the sunset and focus on their bar. Kudos boys! Save me a drink.
ReplyHaters are always gonna hate. The people who do the grunt work – they exist in every single agency. Everyone has to put in the late nights and long hours to climb the ladder. Advertising is notorious for that. The difference is that in big agencies, they are mere hands and tools. They get to talk to ECDs for 5 minutes once a month. They can spend 2 years working on banners, social posts, brochures etc that no one will ever read. They work weekends and pull all-nighters on pitches that they never hear the results of. They make changes for clients they never meet, who will never know their names. They spend all their time brainstorming on scams and doing outside projects, desperately trying to keep their love for advertising alive because daily work is mind-numbing and soul-draining.
In Arcade you get to work on campaigns and pitches pretty much from the moment you start. You have creative reviews and brainstorming sessions direct with the founders – who are passionate, dynamic, brilliant and great human beings. Who also have decades of experience from big agency leadership behind them. You get to present your work to the clients. You, not the suits. You get to fight for your ideas and see them brought to life if you’re lucky. You’re on the frontline and that makes you a better creative in one year than you would working double the time in a big agency. And you do get credit for every single thing – from your ideas to your attitude to your contributions to wins. Certainly more than in a big agency where credit filters down slowly through a long hierarchy.
Yes it gets overwhelming, and no its not perfect. But that’s life innit? Every small agency faces its share of trials and tribulations. That doesn’t erase its merits.
Replysounds wonderful….then how do you account for the sheer absence of any decent work?
ReplyI think it’s important to define the word “decent”. Like what LJ said, every small agency faces trials and tribulations. But that should never erase its merits. I’m pretty sure that arcade has churned out “decent” work during the time they’ve been in business.
ReplySays an intern.
ReplyEveryone needs to take a chill pill.
ReplyEveryone needs to take a chill pill and let the Publicis sale go through and then the boys can retire! – Let Publicis realize their mistake. Nobody will feel bad for a giant agency anyway. We need to stick up for the little guys!
ReplyFirst of all, I don’t see a statement from publics saying they are definitely upping their stake to 100%….so it could just be wishful thinking. I can see why these guys want to retire though. The work they produce has that tired/disinterested feel to it….kind of like they’d rather be doing something else. like sitting on a beach with a martini….at Publicis’ expense.
Selling an agency is not easy if you want to get paid well. You have to grow the agency to a certain size…and you have to commit to certain growth targets, year on year…or the deal is worth a lot less. Publicis won’t be fooled easily.
ReplyGuys, they have just won a huge project without a pitch.
They will be hosting drinks for the SPIKES delegates at their bar soon.
Dedication and hard work at its finest.
ReplyHave your say