5 Minutes with… Cressida Holmes-Smith
Cressida Holmes-Smith has been at UK agency Lucky Generals for five years and for the past two has served as managing director, taking charge of staff development, diversity initiatives, client work and pitching.
Although her career before Lucky Generals was largely in account management – at JWT in Paris, Ogilvy and BBH in London – she’s not a total business head by any means. Now managing an agency that encourages creativity in all disciplines, her Oxford University degree led on to art school in Paris and her passion for art has continued to burn.
LBB’s Alex Reeves catches up with Cressida to learn more about her and how she’s setting up the agency for the next decade.
LBB> You work in the creative industries but not in a creative department. But you went to art school, so have you always had a creative bent?
Cressida> I grew up in the middle of nowhere on the North York Moors mainly surrounded by animals and nature as opposed to where I am now in the middle of London. I had a lot of space to fill, both in terms of growing up in the middle of nowhere and needing to invent things to do. There weren't loads of places to go or people to hang out with.
I also had a bit of a Quaker influence, which has definitely had an effect on me. My grandparents were Quakers and I went to a Quaker junior school. We would have 20 minutes of ‘silent worship’ – meditation, essentially, looking back – every morning at school. You would just sit in a circle and think about things and then greet the people next to you each morning.
I think those two things probably led to me having quite a creative mind. I think I was quite a happy, calm, chilled child. That then combined with a real competitiveness. I was into every single sport under the sun and very competitive with it. Together, those definitely helped in my current role.
LBB> What led you to advertising?
Cressida> I never thought I would get into advertising. I mean, we didn't have a TV growing up so I hadn’t seen an advert.
I always really liked arts as well as maths. And so the fact that creativity could impact business was quite interesting to me. I was looking for something at the Alternative Careers Fair at Oxford when I was at uni. That was where I came across advertising. I met these people from DDB and got some work experience. I think I did one week of work experience over the summer. I was super shy, from Yorkshire, and had barely been to London. I actually got called Chesney for the entire week, somebody called me Chesney and then I was too shy to put them right. I just put up with it for a week because I'd just rather that than have the confrontation
Then I went to art school in Paris. I thought I had to stay in Paris at all costs when I finished art school. Art was not at that point being very forthcoming in terms of paying me some money to be able to stay in the city. So I found a six-month paid internship with JWT Paris in the new business department.
LBB> How was working in the French ad industry?
Cressida> It was great because they had this massive canteen underneath where you'd just have steak frites and a little verre de vin rouge at lunchtime. I thought, honestly, that this is the best thing in a job ever.
Then the recession hit and there was just less and less new business. The French were quite laissez faire with it. I remember my boss going swimming in the mornings and sitting on the windowsill smoking, just having a nice time. I enjoyed that to start with and then I wanted that pace and learning experience back.
So I came back to London. Got onto the Ogilvy grad scheme. And then I was living in the Big Smoke, which I never ever thought I would do. I'd always declared it to be too big, too scary, too smelly. But I absolutely loved it. The grad scheme was really good because it taught you a lot but also you moved company every year. So you got really good at leaving.
When that was up, I had this urge to keep learning and trying different things. So I left and went to BBH because I was looking for something a bit more creatively led. I did three years there.
LBB> Which takes you up to when you joined Lucky Generals. In those early days in France, or maybe when you first came to the UK, what were the good lessons that have seen you through to what you're doing now?
Cressida> I think learning that it's all about people, essentially, and getting people to deliver the best output. There are different ways in which you can do that with clients, creatives, strategists, producers: either through collaboration, inspiring people, empowering people, having empathy or just being very directive. There are different ways in which you can get different people to a brilliant outcome.
I'd realised that account management is attention to detail and being able to write a contact report and things. But essentially when you're doing it well, it's getting other people to do things. I think that has served me well now in a more leadership position – how do you get the very best out of people? Different people are obviously motivated very differently. So being able to adapt your style in order to get the best out of those different people, whether it's a tricky client or a tricky creative or someone who doesn't have enough confidence.
LBB> Is there anything that you learned later on that you wish you'd had in those early years?
Cressida> The confidence of knowing that you have as much right as anyone else. From being that little girl that grew up in Yorkshire and didn't really think she'd be in the Big Smoke, you have an impression that everyone else knows what they're doing and has the right to be there. And I wish I'd known that I had as much right as anyone else and knew as much as anyone else.
I did get a nice piece of advice when I took on the MD role, which was, "If in doubt, be more you". Which has really helped me with confidence. It's not that you need to know anything else, or that you need to change anything. If you have a moment of doubt, go deeper into who you already are, what you already know and crack on.
The other thing when I got given that role as well was "enjoy it," because if you're infusing joy and fun, that inevitably leads to confidence and leads to other people feeling the same, being motivated, and having infectious energy. So be more you and have a shit ton of fun doing it. And that, in turn, will lead to all the good stuff.
LBB> How does all of that shape the way you do your job and the working environment at Lucky Generals?
Cressida> It's probably a kind of entrepreneurialism and having that competitive, creative spirit. Lucky Generals is a very non-hierarchical place. So encouraging everyone to have that sense of entrepreneurialism but also creativity, no matter what their title or level. We're not very siloed and creativity is in no way just the creatives' issue at Lucky's. Whilst we obviously wouldn't encourage creative accounting in our finance department, even the finance department should be in service of the creativity and the output. Every single person at the agency is there to deliver the best output. And again having fun. The best creative reviews are when we're all just having a laugh. You know that the work's good, you're all sort of feeling quite fuzzy and having a joke. That's when we're at our best.
We like to say that we're in the manufacturing business, rather than the service business. So it's all about the creative output. That is definitely what I prioritise in my role. So anything that I'm doing internally is in order to lead to a better output for our clients and our creativity.
From the founders to me, down, there's definitely a culture of empowerment and trust. I find I get a lot of that from the founders, leading to a kind of trust in myself. I then try to pass that on to others, which I think is important if you want innovation, curiosity and for people to feel safe that they can go off and try things. It's empowerment to just get on with it. There are no set processes. Just deliver the best work. And if you can think of a better way to do that, just go off and do it.
LBB> What have you been proud of recently?
Cressida> We brought in a head of special ops, Paul Mallon. And a lot of our work touches on social impact. It doesn't have to be worthy. I think purpose led doesn't have to be in one particular vein. I'm quite proud of how we delivered on that with Virgin Atlantic, The Gym Group, really inclusive, but still so fun, Symprove, still having a lot of fun with that. A couple of the wins recently have been in that vein as well, the Guardian and GambleAware, so the work that we'll see coming from them it's like purpose led, but doesn't have to be worthy or boring. I'm enjoying that. Actually, some of the creatives that were at BBH working on the Guardian are working on it now as CDs at Lucky's. So that has been really fun.
Some of our policy work, looking into our miscarriage policy, menopause policy, a fertility policy and encouraging a lot more conversation in that area.
I'm quite proud to have been at Lucky's for about five years now as we start to shape the coming years as an agency and doing that very much in that entrepreneurial, non-hierarchical kind of vein. Who are the next generation of Generals and how we're going to shape what we all want from this agency for the next 10 years? That's a process I'm proud of, but hopefully it will lead to an outcome years down the line.
LBB> How does your passion for art show up in your life these days?
Cressida> Definitely in terms of now living in London and being able to go to tons of exhibitions and trying to instil that in my children without sort of being like, "You MUST spend hours looking at this painting in the National Gallery!" A lot of exhibitions. Life drawing is still something I do, but with friends and drinks rather than in a sort of serious way. And then trying to collect art as well, where it can.
LBB> What sort of thing excites you when you're looking for art, or is it more of a serendipity thing?
Cressida> Just stuff that I love. It started when I was in Paris and I'd walk past this gallery every single day. And then I got a little bit of money from my grandmother and one day I went running into the gallery. They knew me because I literally would go there all the time. I ran in and said, "I've got a bit of money. What can I do with it?" They were so amazing, because they said, "Why don't you just meet the artist that you're clearly obsessed with and talk to her about what you might want to do?" That ended up with me actually helping her translate her website into English and then she did my portrait for me. That was the first piece I got, but sort of by doing a bit of work for her, scrabbling together a bit of money and then sitting for it. That's what got me into it.
I love Jealous Gallery in London - a bit more accessible. And The Affordable Art Fair and stuff. For our wedding gift list, we just asked people to give us any amount of money towards a voucher for The Affordable Art Fair. So that was quite fun.
