5 Minutes with… Cam Blackley
With over 20 years experience in international creative agencies, Cam Blackley is one of the industry's finest. Cam has worked with the likes of Droga5 New York and Sydney, Publicis London, and BMF, and is currently chief creative officer at M&C Saatchi Australia, and has been for five years.
Cam has worked with clients such as Big W, Aldi Supermarkets, Carlton United Breweries, Mars, Tourism Australia, Snickers, Tiger Beer and many more.
As well as honing his skills within the industry, he also expands his knowledge to those just starting in his position as chair of The Australian Writers and Art Directors Organisation (AWARD). As chair, he mentors and educates as well as advocates for work and creativity throughout the international community
Over his time in the industry, Cam has been given recognition at numerous international awards, including D&AD Black and Cannes Titanium, as well as D&AD Yellow, Cannes Lions, Grand and Gold Clios.
LBB> What were you like growing up? Have you always been a creative?
Cam> Well, I was a highly sensitive, crafty, somewhat melancholy sort of child character you’d find in a Stephen King novel. Or maybe a Wes Anderson film. I was always making things, painting, pasting, burning ants with a magnifying glass and drawing stuff because I couldn't read, sucked at maths and wanted people to tell me I was clever.
LBB> What were the key steps in your journey to your current role at M&C Saatchi?
Cam> The gist of it goes like this.
Firstly, it was heading abroad after four years at Grey Melbourne to not just get tested by the best but to fend for myself.
Then, it was getting made redundant from AMV, which was such a terrible blow, but it forced me to take an “I’ll show you” approach and also realise advertising isn’t a game, it’s for grown-ups. Working for Droga5 for over eight years brought a start-up mentality, belief and opportunity.
BMF taught me the power of creative cultures and a focus on the people. And those steps landed me at M&C Saatchi, where I'm putting past lessons into practice with the wider team to create impact at scale.
It’s probably more complicated than that, but the ingredients feel like they were mixed in that order.
LBB> What top three things do you think foster creativity within your team?
Cam> Space to try and fail. An expectation of energy around uncommon thinking. Credit for anyone that helps build an idea, no matter how small the role.
LBB> What do you believe sets the agency apart from others? What's the point of difference?
Cam> We’re a collective of specialist, diverse and connected businesses. What we’ve focused on recently that’s unique is the ability to bring together original thinking in smaller dedicated teams from any section of the group. And we are starting to see the fruits of that in the work.
LBB> What's been one of your most memorable or most significant campaign projects you have worked on to date?
Cam> That’s tough.
There are many I'm proud of, but for significance it’s the body of work on Tourism Australia. From Matesong to Holiday Here This Year and most recently ‘G’day’ the short film we made for the global Come And Say G’day campaign, the scale and complexity of this work is unparalleled. The importance they have to Aussie small business and keeping the economy rolling is not lost on me. And it’s a client base of 25 million Aussies who need to feel proud of it as much as it needs to work to entice travellers to our shores. I’ll never work on anything with as much significance in my career unless tasked with promoting Earth to Intergalactic travellers.
Why they would want to come to and visit a planet of angry and destructive primates would be an incredibly challenging brief.
LBB> What are some of the tools or platforms that you and the team use to stay up to date with client demands and industry trends?
Cam> Like the entire world, everyone is ‘head down’ in AI at the moment, experimenting with prompts. I’m particularly seeing it manifest more from a design or visual standpoint. We’re building every deck in Midjourney currently. Writers are applying it to become more visual and in a strange way, the random outputs are inspiring better thinking. Other than that, it’s the usual podcasts and media outlets, blogs and thought pieces.
LBB> If you could go back and speak to the Cam Blackley that was just starting out in his career, what advice or guidance would you give him?
Cam> Focus on what you are doing right now, not what others are doing down the corridor or in the agency around the corner. And for fucks sake, go home, it’s late.
