5 Minutes With… Jessica White
Jessica White is the CEO of Cassette, an indie, Melbourne-based creative agency she took over in 2011 after spending her career to date as a marketer. Running an agency after having never worked in one was the first example of the ‘Remixed Thinking’ Cassette prides itself on, she says.
Here, Jess speaks with LBB’s Brittney Rigby about how having side projects helps her manage her ADHD, and why co-presenting work with a marketer to their board was a career highlight.
LBB> Where did you grow up, and what were you like as a kid?
Jess> I'm a Melbourne girl, born and bred. Growing up, I was a really, really curious kid. And funnily enough, I actually was really in love with the idea of science and the health space. I was going to be a doctor and study med. But then in year 12, I had this amazing English teacher who just unlocked this love of language in me.
As the stereotypical school captain, I worried everyone by doing the flip and saying no to medicine, and instead I did a commerce / law degree. Pretty quickly, I realised that law wasn't my thing. I loved commerce, and found my people in commerce, particularly in the marketing space.
LBB> Tell me about the Cassette story, and the biggest change you've experienced in your 13 years running the business.
Jess> Cassette is 24-years-old. My best friend, Charlie Goldsmith, started Cassette, and he was 19.
I'd done a decade of client side, so I've never known any agency other than Cassette. And I realised when I was working client side in marketing, CMO roles, that my happiest days were when I was working with the ad agencies. So I went, 'You know what, I want to make the jump'. So at 27, I was just sitting on Charlie's couch, and he wanted to start doing some other things. I joined as 'title TBA' but with the vision to create a creative and comms agency.
LBB> Talk to me a little bit about your proposition to marketers, 'Remixed Thinking'. Where did that come from, and how does it shape the strategic and creative process?
Jess> Being a founder who has no ad agency experience was the first remix. Our account service team, the majority of them have worked client side, so they bring this diverse perspective.
At the moment, we’re looking to recruit a CSD, client services director, who will actually be a CMO coming across who wants to make the jump.
Even bringing Sam [Enshaw, head of strategy, previously at media agency Match & Wood] over, that was remixing. That's not normal for an indie, especially to bring a media guy into a creative strat role. But it has already proven so valuable in terms of the perspective that he brings and the diversity of thought.
We are an agency who likes to be in it for the long term, and we're not the agency that comes in to throw the baby out with the bath water. We are the agency that likes to really look at what has worked historically, creatively, from a brand perspective, from a marcomms perspective, both for that brand, but also in the sector. And then we look forward and observe and interpret cultural change and what's happening, and then we mix that together.
It is about trying to respect history and what has been done and what's been successful in the past, look forward, and then work out the right place to hit play for a brand in this moment.
LBB> What makes the perfect Cassette client?
Jess> This is always controversial. I will ask the most senior person in the room in any meeting, ideally the CMO, what their three year vision is. If they can't articulate that, they're not the right client for Cassette.
If they come in and say, 'We want a wacky, crazy Christmas TVC in 12 weeks' time, and that's where our whole focus is at', they're not the right client for us. And again, there's other agencies that will do that way better than us.
Our average team tenure is eight years, and we've got a couple of clients with long tenures. Melbourne Airports is nine years, we've got L'Oreal Group, which has just hit eight years.
We are about being there for the long term. We'll be accountable, we'll re-pitch, we'll do all the things that we need to do, but we're looking for clients that do really want a long term team. We're not the one hit wonder TVC agency.
LBB> In that case, what's your three year vision for Cassette?
Jess> It's actually not sexy. It is stability. I've been doing this for 14 years in November, and the world is incredibly volatile. The country is volatile. The market is volatile.
If I could deliver a very, very stable business for my two key stakeholders: my team, so they know they have solid jobs in what's a really hard market, and also for clients, because we're an indie and that's a risk. I think more and more, clients are wanting indies, which has probably been my greatest joy to observe over the last 14 years. But with using an indie comes risk. So again, from a CMO mindset perspective, I need to be with an agency that I know isn't going to go through any troubles in what is a hard market.
The three year vision is actually around really strong and stable success. I wouldn't even say the word growth, just success.
LBB> Is there a piece of Cassette work that perfectly captures the kind of work, for the kind of client, you wish the agency was always doing?
Jess> I'd probably say VicRoads. We work for the privatised part, but it is still obviously linked very closely with government, which comes with its challenges.
They really went quite deep on what had worked very well for them creatively in the past, on Custom Plates, and then we remixed that to create a new interpretation that would meet where culture is at.
It was still about personalising a car, and the messaging was still quite similar in terms of proposition. We had this crazy bird boy character who literally is dressed as a bird and has a number plate with BRDBOY on it. That trended really well in social as well as still having some of the fundamentals for a tradie.
It was a good example of not just biting that bait of 'let's just make it all crazy and be all about Brat, or whatever the latest thing is'. Blend it so we still have what has always worked well, but bring in some of the new to futureproof.
They actually let us into their business. We were there presenting the creative to the board. Your greatest fear as a CMO isn't that an agency won't land an idea, it's that you, the CMO, won't be able to actually get internal stakeholder buy in, and not even buy in, but love for it.
So that was just amazing to be invited to that. I just felt really privileged to, as an agency partner, be in the room at a board level, sitting next to CMO, co-presenting. That was a real career moment for me.
LBB> What non-advertising thing makes you a better agency leader?
Jess> I was really privileged to join the advisory board at the Starlight Childrens' Foundation this year. That's amazing for me in terms of giving back, but also being around other people and brands and experiences. I'm also a co-founder of a networking group, We Mean Business Network.
Having little ventures outside of the business is really important. And I think a lot of people, other business owners, might be like, 'That's a distraction', but I actually see it as a real value add. It avoids me being too obsessively myopic on things. I have ADHD, so it really helps my brain to be able to have a few things happening at the same time.
