5 Things Five by Five Learned in 2023

With the year drawing to a close, it’s time to look back at the last 12 months and the challenges, successes, and learnings that the year has brought. For independent creative agency Five by Five, 2023 was an undeniably big year and it brought a few key industry areas into sharper focus. Today, Five by Five’s senior leadership team shares with LBB what worked, what the agency doubled down on, and which learnings will inform the team in the new year. 

With so much of advertising becoming tactical, promotional or simply short term, agencies are looking for ways to defend their position as key brand custodian, according to Five by Five. 

“Many agencies have identified brand design as an area which allows them to maintain their strategic relationships with clients, filled with creative work that is core to the brand. To achieve this, they’ve either launched new studios or simply invested more in their existing talent base, creating some stunning work in the process. At Five by Five, our response has been to double down on our design skills, with design director Ade Britteon leading on new brand design projects for Stora Enso, The Crown Estate, and First Bus. And we have more projects in the pipeline for 2024 with Amazon - and with someone else we can’t mention just yet - so watch this space,” shares David Prideaux, executive creative director. 

Collaboration is much easier to achieve when everyone is sharing the same space more often. “When we’re all sharing a space we remember that we’re all on the same team, with the same goals, and a huge amount of shared interest and passion - it’s far easier for that to come through in the flesh,” adds Annabel Mackie, managing director.

This is doubly important for anyone just starting their career. Watching colleagues handle difficult situations is much the fastest way of learning, as it happens naturally, almost by osmosis. 

Of the ten pitches the team presented this year, they won nine and David notes that, “Every one of the wins has been the result of the whole team being in the same place at the same time for the critical parts of the process. And this is something we’ll be leaning into more in 2024.”

As brands continue to struggle for relevance influencers will continue to play an important role by reaching audiences through their hard-earned rapport. 

How much will a robust influencer strategy matter in 2024? “It is the determining factor between audiences engaging or not (bluntly). Without trust, audiences aren’t interested. Influencers are becoming role models and where audiences literally determine whether or not they act upon and engage with a brand or service. If this trust is broken, it can last a long time from an audience perspective. They won’t forget. This trust doesn’t just happen overnight, it needs to be built through repeated work with influencers,” says Emmeline Kite, head of strategy.

Five by Five prides itself on being a part of independent network, Worldwide Partners (WPI). For the agency, this means having the scope and confidence to deliver for clients and their best interests with agility at the core. “Being part of WPI reinforces this because we can speak with like minded people who are entrepreneurial and happy to share past experiences in order for us to shape a solution and the best team possible,” says George Roberts, new business and marketing director. He adds, “Being independent for us means being in charge of our own destiny, like having the ability to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to things that will really make an impact. This allows us to truly understand where we win because we’re acutely aware of where our talents lie.”

Managing director Annabel Mackie sees independence as the ability to implement and test processes quickly, whether that’s to benefit clients or staff well-being, and not compromise on the big, creative ideas in the meantime. “There’s no wading through red tape. We can get a new process or way of doing things off the ground super fast; for example: life loans, work from anywhere, and moving offices were all initiated very quickly. We’re also able to move beyond process if it’s slowing us down and just get on with the job at hand. For Amazon, we focused on getting the pitch done and not on how we were working on the pitch which looked like gathering everyone in a room and thrashing out the details to deliver what was needed.”

Culturally, masculinity is in a state of flux and has been for some time. Brands are floundering when it comes to addressing ‘men’ as a consumer category with some leaning harder into outdated stereotypes and others creating ads that veer on the chastising. Head of strategy Emmeline Kite has seen how some brands floundered in 2023 while trying to say something - anything - to and about ‘men’. “According to research, only 54% of young men feel seen in advertising and a lot of it reinforces stereotypes. Bull Dog, while a brand targeting a more ‘modern’ man, has product names like 'Big Boy' and 'Bro Mask' which can perpetuate a certain type of traditional masculinity. It was great to see some brands challenging stereotypes, like Dove which directly questions stereotypical representation of men as well as Cadbury's. Both capture the humanity of the men portrayed.”

To connect more with men in 2024, Emmeline wants brands to move from seeing men monolithically and towards a more nuanced picture. “Connect through the human angle first. Our work with Charles Tyrwhitt used wit and charm to reach its target male audience. We need to remember that men are not one dimensional. Look at what Screwfix is doing - it’s showing that tradespeople work hard but also want to enjoy their job, take pride in their work, and have a bit of fun and banter. Our Sprint campaign challenged typical representations of tradespeople by showing them dancing tradespeople to an earworm tune.”