5 Minutes with… Annabel Mackie
As soon as Annabel Mackie saw what an advertising agency gets to do, she decided that’s the sort of company she wanted to work for.
Having started on a placement in the Marks & Spencer marketing department, she went on to begin a career in account management at RKCR/Y&R in the agency’s heyday, working on some of the most glamorous advertising ever made in the UK. From there she changed tack and moved to M&C Saatchi to school herself in social and digital, before exploring CRM and loyalty.
Almost two years ago, she took that breadth of expertise to Five by Five, where as managing director she’s overseen a successful 2023 of pitch winning. Now the work for those new clients is starting to come to life, LBB’s Alex Reeves caught up with Annabel to hear her story.
LBB> Where did you grow up? Any clues as to what you'd end up doing back then?
Annabel> No, I grew up on a farm in Somerset. I always knew I would end up in London. I just knew that being on a farm was not for me long term.
I remember really clearly when BBC One changed its idents from the world to the balloon. I must have been about 12. I remember having a really long conversation with my dad about it. That made me realise that it was marketing and it was really interesting.
I didn't know when I was 12 what I wanted to do, but I really liked shopping, enjoyed watching window displays and point of sale and how that got people to go into the store and shop; the way that the store wanted to be shopped. Because I lived so rural, going shopping to Bristol or London was a big deal. So I think I paid more attention to it.
That led to a business A-level, which led me to understand marketing, led me to doing a degree in marketing, which had a placement year. I was refusing to apply to the Marks & Spencer placement programme because I was a surly teenager and they're really corporate. My tutor said everyone had to apply to M&S. I don't know whether that was true or not, but she made me do it. I ticked the wrong box on the application form. I got an interview. I went down to London, pretty cocky and was like, "Oh, I've got to do a maths test before an interview? What the heck?"
I knew I'd failed the maths test because I didn't know that was coming. Maths was not my strong suit. I walked into the interview and said, "I've just failed that test. I think I might have ticked the wrong box on the application form. What I'm after is a job in your marketing department." They went "We don't have any of those for placements. But as you're here, we'll do the interview and we'll see."
I didn't hear anything. I was about to take this job somewhere else up north. Then I got a call from M&S saying, "We've got an opportunity in our advertising department. You need to come down and do a second interview." I got the job.
Little did I know in 2000 that I was gonna get to work with Rainey Kelly - James Murphy, Mark Roalfe, Dahlia Nahome, as a client. I was a baby – I didn't know my arse from my elbow.
LBB> What was that like as your first taste of working in marketing?
AnnabeL> I had the best year of my life. The best thing about being a placement student at M&S was there were bloody hundreds of us. We all lived in London, we suddenly had money in our pockets and we all went out all the time. It was great.
At the end of my year the marketing director said I should go and finish my degree, but wanted me to come back as a graduate. That was very flattering. I said, "I would love to consider that but, actually, I think I want to go and work for your agency because I think that's the bit that works for me." I was so bold because I had nothing to lose at that point in my career.
LBB> You did end up working at RKCR/Y&R. How did you get there?
Annabel> I applied to all the grad schemes in adland and didn't get into any of them. I don't think I necessarily met the judgement criteria that was set back then. That was fine because I know how to hustle. So I bought a copy of Campaign, found a secretarial role going at Rainey Kelly, applied, got it. And lo and behold, I'm the secretary on the Marks & Spencer account. Three months later, they promoted me to account handling and I never looked back, essentially.
Because I was so naïve and didn't have any connections to the industry, I had no idea what I was landing into at Rainey Kelly, in what I would say is their absolute prime. We won Campaign Agency of the Year two years in a row when I was there. I got to work on some of the biggest brands: Marks & Spencer, Virgin Trains, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile, the BBC – massive heart-of-the-nation brands. But not only did I get to work on them, I got to work with these amazing people who were at the very top of their game, and were extremely generous with their time, teaching me the absolute fundamentals of our industry.
I had such an amazing seven and a half years at Rainey Kelly. Some of my lifelong friends are from that period and even people who I still call up for career advice now. And I'm very blessed that they answer the phone.
As my mum says, this girl from a farm in Somerset went to a pretty ropey state school, went and did a marketing degree at an 'old polytechnic', and properly landed on my feet. Like a classic account handler, I think it's in you if you've got the hustle, to look for a great opportunity and push your way through that door, even if that door isn't your shape.
LBB> What are the big projects from back then that helped shape you in your career?
Annabel> Virgin Trains 'Return to the Train', which is when the Pendolino launched on the West Coast main line. I was a baby account manager, but I knew that timetable inside out, back to front.
That TV ad was just so beautifully crafted. It ties together footage of amazing, romanticised moments on trains – everything from 'Some Like It Hot' to 'North by Northwest' – and it was all cut together to make a new narrative inter-spliced with new footage of these trains that banked round corners and suddenly meant you could get from London to Manchester in two hours five minutes.
A beautiful, big brand TV ad, back in the day when linear TV was king, but underpinned by really hard-working rational messages… The copy rotation was bonkers, 32 pages long, because every city had to have its own timetable line on it. Hence why I needed to know the timetable.
It taught me the craft of a beautifully integrated all-channel campaign. We worked with all the agencies really closely. We had a big launch at one of the cinemas in Leicester Square. That was huge. It also taught me the craft of attention to detail. Absolutely every detail mattered.
Also being so lucky to be invited to come to the recording with a full orchestra playing to the video. I thought this sort of stuff happened every day. Even now, that is one of my core memories. It was such an honour and privilege to be around musicians who are playing a score that's been written to our brief that brought a whole other piece of emotion to that film. The level of detail in that craft is amazing. That was my first big campaign out the gate and it set the bar pretty high.
I got to work on Virgin Atlantic – the one with the Muse track 'Feeling Good'. Muse had previously never licensed their music to an advertising campaign. I remember watching my amazing business director Vicky Jacobs negotiate the hell out of that. And I was like, “Wow, this lady is something else.”
Equally, working on the BBC account. I got to work on Terry Wogan's last campaign for his radio show. Working on one of the anniversaries for the BBC, which was just really smart editing of existing clips from the BBC. Really small production budget, but real storytelling and narrative.
My grounding at Rainey Kelly was absolutely in the craft of brand storytelling, brand love, but also those reasons to believe in other channels. It was an extraordinary time to be there.
LBB> So why did you go to M&C Saatchi after that?
Annabel> A lot of people, even my parents, were like “You're gonna leave Rainey Kelly? Are you mad?” And I was like, “No, I think it's time.” M&C was on the face of it a very different brand at the time. 'Brutal simplicity of thought' was the thing that drew me to it. Tonally the word 'brutal' doesn't sit comfortably with me now to be honest. But the reason I chose it was because it offered up the opportunity to learn digital, and that's why I went.
The world was changing. I didn't know that linear TV wasn't going to be a thing but I just thought I needed to diversify my channel and skill set. And I was really lucky. I worked with some amazing people, but particularly worked on the Boots digital and social pitch. And we won it against Mother. That was amazing. I got to learn, right at the very beginning of when brands were tiptoeing into Twitter and Facebook. I remember the Boots client was very anxious. It took us a while but we got there. We turned on every channel and gave them a really clear social strategy, a really clear paid digital strategy, which back in 2011 was a big deal.
The Boots experience was amazing. I had both my children when I was there. And then when I came back after my second daughter, the opportunity came up that I could run Boots, not just through M&C but across [sister agency] Lida. Again, it was a conscious decision. Go and learn about loyalty and CRM – another way to diversify and round out my channel experience. Lida were off the back of winning Campaign Agency of the Year a couple of times in a row. Where else would you go to learn this?
LBB> What was it like learning about that side of the business?
Annabel> It was so hard, really complicated, but also amazing. I must have been about nine months into doing it and Lida was asked to pitch for the Costa Coffee business to work on ripping up their loyalty programme and starting again. It took us a bit longer than the 18 months that they'd originally pitched to us. But we did. We turned on stamps, essentially, we called it 'beans'. It drove insane incremental profit per month, from month one. That's one of my career highlights.
These are huge business challenges for brands and I've been really fortunate to be trusted to partner with brands as they go through that.
LBB> So what appealed about Five by Five?
Annabel> I was there for a really long time. I felt like I'd learned everything I could learn from this agency. I am a voracious, curious, hungry person. I got the call about Five by Five. It's really different – small, independent. Then I met Nick, our owner. This is someone who speaks my language, gets me and trusts me. Here we are almost two years in.
LBB> How did you find it once you got in?
Annabel> Imagine being called up and asked: Do you want to join a really well-funded startup that's been going for 40 years, has got a really great client list but no one knows about them? And oh, by the way, we've got this amazing ECD who in my last interview (he's one that cinched it) said, "If you want an adventure Annabel, this is the one for you."
The best surprise has been Nick's unwavering faith and confidence in me. I don't underestimate or take for granted the trust he gives me to run the agency as I see fit. I feel really lucky that he gives me that freedom.
And I would be remiss of me not to talk about the talent. We've got motion graphics people who can deliver magic from nothing. The talent in the agency has just delighted me.
LBB> 2023 saw a lot of new business come your way. How does that affect the sort of 2024 that Five by Five is having?
Annabel> I have never known a pitch win rate like it. And it's been joyous. I love pitching. I think it's so much fun. But pitching when you're winning – there's no drug like it. We won nine out of our last 11 pitches. We're bedding in a lot of those new clients. A lot were brand strategy, so nothing that I can go "look at this" about. However, we did win the Sushi Daily loyalty and CRM business – the sushi counter in Waitrose and ASDA. You buy their sushi through the Waitrose or ASDA till. So imagine trying to create a loyalty programme where you've got nowhere to swipe and or collect data. We've cracked it. And I'm really proud of that work because it's strategic, but it's also creative.
The Sidemen and their beef jerky product that is just being listed in Tesco. That campaign is going live this month. It's gonna be on the Outernet and look beautiful up there. We thought this is gonna be a bit challenging, because there's seven of them who have a very clear creative direction. And also Tesco have to approve it because it's going to be co-branded. I thought this could be a bit spicy. Actually it's flown through all the approvals. I'm really pleased.
There's a real diversity of the types of clients we've won, from The Crown Estate all the way through to The GelBottle and the Sidemen in between. That's been brilliantly energising because if we go all the way back to why I didn't want to go back to M&S it's because I like the stimulation of working on different brands and I knew I'd get that from being agency-side.
LBB> What other work should we look out for?
Annabel> We've got two other campaigns launching this month. One is for Screwfix who've been a client for over 10 years. And that speaks to the talent in an agency before I joined. We are launching a big integrated campaign next month for them, which is just joyous. It's going to be on TV, out of home, a fully integrated piece. What I love about it is we've got a great little cameo in the TV from I think one of the hottest influencers for their audience and a great launch day thing happening that I can't talk about, but it's a brilliant cross-agency and client partnership to get that piece live.
On the flip of that we won a project for Amazon just before Christmas that goes live this month, which is a design project to essentially create a new way to shop Amazon. It's really well-crafted, beautiful design. And I think again, that shines a light on another area of talent in the agency. Those three things are very different but all beautifully crafted pieces of work.
LBB> What are you spending your time on outside of work?
Annabel> I'm running the London Marathon this weekend. It's my first ever marathon. And to say that I have been boring my colleagues with it is the biggest understatement going. I'm raising money for the Evelina Children's Hospital in London because they are absolutely incredible. My youngest was very poorly back in 2019. We needed them and my goodness, aren’t they amazing? She's well now and that's good, but it felt like a good time to draw a line under that period in our lives and also give back for other parents who find themselves in that situation. So at the moment I'm basically working, running and parenting. That's all I'm doing.
There was a period in February where on Thursdays I would get up early and basically run to the office and then work. One of the mornings that was lashing it down. I got to work and I was so wet. People were like, "You are absolutely tapped." But I really enjoyed the challenge of having to commit so fully to something that is so not work. I also know that I'm so motivated by having a goal. It means that I'm not constantly bombarding my team with stuff because I'm actually thinking about something else, which is healthy. You catch up on podcasts. And fix a lot of things that you haven't resolved either at work or at home or with my kids; it’s all sorted by the end of the run.
