Creative Leadership Now Looks Like "Everything, Everywhere All At Once": Emma Robbins

Last Month, M+C Saatchi Group promoted national executive creative director, Emma Robbins, to the newly-created role of chief creative officer, Melbourne.

LBB asked her about her ambitions for the new role, its importance amidst uncertainty, and how she's thinking about the agency's positioning, 'Cultural Power', as new CEO Dani Bassil arrives.

She tells Tess Connery-Britten her goal is to make work that's a talking point nationally and globally, and notes, "We can all feel the pitch machine rumbling under us with some big new business opportunities coming."

LBB> This is a newly created position. Why has it been created now, and what do you think it signals about M+C’s ambitions for the Melbourne office?

Emma> Everyone in Melbourne sees the creative culture in this city as different and special. This new position and commitment from M+C says they see it too. We have some great minds in Melbourne, who love spreading the idea love by constantly collaborating across the national group, leading and making our fair share of great work, winning awards, and growing a close, ride-or-die culture. That’s something worth backing.

LBB> You were already leading as national ECD, how will your focus shift now as CCO?

Emma> My focus will still be the Melbourne and national clients I creatively lead and love. There’ll be more focus on new business, continuing to bring more of the awesome skillsets of the group together more often, and collaborating closely with Tanya [Vragalis, managing director] and Dani [Bassil, AUNZ CEO].

LBB> Perhaps it’s a bit early to ask, but where are you most excited to focus your energy? What are you looking forward to tackling in the new role?

Emma> I’m going to keep focusing on our existing clients and the momentum we’ve created together with big platforms and great work. We can all feel the pitch machine rumbling under us with some big new business opportunities coming. We also have incredible creative talent adorning every corner of the group that I’m loving working with more. Putting crack squads of megaminds together and watching what they cook up is always a privilege.

LBB> You mentioned the industry is undergoing significant change, with new pressures and expectations. What does creative leadership look like in this climate?

Emma> It looks like everything, everywhere all at once. Tech and time, budgets and bravery, relationships and revelations. You have to be aligning all the creative planets to make work that stands out and catapults brands forward. We’re loving the challenge that change is throwing at us -- how an agency can’t stay still for a second. It has to metamorphose continuously in line with a client’s business and challenges.

And now we’re more of an orchestration than an agency, without our disciplines housed in rigid silos, we create gangs of talent who swarm as one all over a client brief, instead of passing it to each other once their bit is done. Leading that process is awesome.

LBB> You’ve led campaigns including 'Doubt Never Did' and 'We Are The Warning'. Are there any through-lines that connect the work you’re proudest of?

Emma> One through-line is client bravery. Knowing they’re uncomfortable when they see a platform or ideas that are unique in the category, but embracing that instead of feeding back in a way that reworks them into work that’s easier to approve.

The other through-line is awesome planners who build rock-solid on-ramps for great ideas, and suits who never let those ideas go anywhere unsupervised or get into cars with dangerous people.

LBB> How does this role continue the group’s global 'Cultural Power' proposition?

Emma> We’re big on creating ideas for clients that see their brands burst into culture and be instantly adopted and embraced, instead of left hanging. Our global CCOs Rob and Lolly put it the best when they explained our aim is to create work that is a national or global talking point, not a nuisance. To have a role where that’s what I try to help happen every day is a brilliant challenge, and never not fun.