The Work That Made Lauren McCrindle and Erin Wendel

Lauren McCrindle and Erin Wendel are co-chief creative officers at ad agency The Hive in Toronto. Previously, they were EVP, executive creative directors at McCann Worldwide while based in New York.

Throughout their career, they’ve had the pleasure of working with some pretty cool people in some pretty cool places with stops at agencies in Prague, Minneapolis and New York.

Along the way, they’ve led (and contributed to) Canadian, US and global campaigns for brands such as Tide, Unilever, Electrolux, Xbox, General Mills, Mastercard, Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Microsoft and General Motors.

Their work has been translated into dozens of languages and recognised at the industry’s top award shows including top prizes at Cannes, the One Show, the Clios, Effies and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Speaking to LBB, they share…..

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Erin> Oh god, there are so many. I was obsessed with ‘Video Hits’ with Samantha Taylor as a kid and watched it every day after school. A few that I particularly loved were ‘Take On Me’ by A-Ha and‘Warrior’ by Scandal (which is still my go-to Karaoke song). I also loved a jingle as a kid and can still sing a LOT of ads from the ‘80s and ‘90s.​

Lauren> Oh man, ‘Video Hits’ weekdays at 5.30pm was such a thrill growing up in Canada. Thirty minutes of non-stop music videos was heaven. Beastie Boys - 'Sabotage', Fatboy Slim - 'Weapon of Choice', Weezer - 'Buddy Holly'. Basically, anything from Spike Jonze.

LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Erin> I honestly can’t really point to any one thing. I’ve always been a huge consumer of magazines, music videos, TV, movies, books, etc. Advertising offered me a way to sort of embrace everything I’m interested in one place.

Lauren> I didn’t know advertising was a job I could do until I was out of university. I just knew I wanted to write.

LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…

Erin> There are several ads that I find myself referencing over and over again in both my personal and professional life. The ‘Schweppes Burst’ spot from Y&R in Australia, ‘Cat Herders’ for EDS from Fallon, and all the classic, hysterically smart FedEx spots from the ‘90s. Super smart insights brought to life in a memorable way are the things that really stick with me.

Lauren> There are so many. A couple of favourites: Tide - ‘Talking Stain’, MTV - ‘Foosball’, Knorr - ‘Redial’, Volvo Trucks - ‘Epic Split’.

LBB> My first professional project…

Erin> You know, I don’t even remember but our first agency out of ad school was Grip and we worked on brands like Honda, Kokanee, Maynards, etc. I think the first shoot I ever went on was a stills shoot for some Bell print ads.

Lauren> I’m sure it was an Acura newspaper ad. I wrote about a million of those in my first year.

LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Erin> ‘Berries and Cream’. The directors cut with the high kick at the end. I’ve watched it literally hundreds of times and it makes me laugh every time. I desperately wish it was in my portfolio. And you know it’s good when it’s still on the director’s reel 20 years later.

Lauren> Skittles and Starburst commercials of the aughts still make me laugh. To have the freedom to be silly and weird and so entertaining makes me so jealous.

LBB> The creative project that changed my career…

Erin> Probably working on the Xbox ‘Believe’ campaign at McCann. We were in the Toronto office and T.A.G. put out a call for help on all the surrounding assets. Our contribution was relatively small but it got us to Cannes and literally every other show. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of what we could achieve.

Lauren> We worked on a big global campaign for Sunlight called ‘Dishes with Issues’. It didn’t win any awards nor was it super sexy. But it ran for many years in more countries than I’ll ever see IRL. I learned so much about making work that’s entertaining and insightful to dozens of disparate markets. It opened my eyes to what we could do. And gave me a lot of confidence going forward.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Erin> This is a hard one because there are many over the years and I’m proud of them for different reasons. Sometimes it’s because the creative itself is something I really love, and sometimes it’s because we solved a really difficult problem or client, and sometimes it’s because it feels like we really created something meaningful that people truly connected to. A couple that rise to the top are Lysol – ‘Protect Like a Mother’ and U.S. Bank – ‘Translators’.

Lauren> There are a few - all for different reasons. But I worked on a project for CoorDown and World Down Syndrome Day years ago that was really special to me.

LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Erin> You will literally never know unless someone else who was there tells you. I’ve blatantly lied to friends before who asked ‘hey you work on this brand, did you do this?’ You can’t win them all but nobody needs to know that!

Lauren> Oh, there’s been plenty. But those corpses are buried!

LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Erin> We’ve had the good fortune to work with some wonderful clients since joining The Hive who are really embracing the idea of pushing the work to a bigger, more interesting, more provocative place. We have a few projects in the works that I’m truly very excited about so watch this space!

Lauren> We have a couple in the works now. Until they’re fully baked, I’d say ‘Translators’ for U.S. Bank. It was one of those rare experiences where the client and agency were equally invested in making it great.