Kimberley Ragan Is An Introvert Making Extroverted Ideas

Kimberley Ragan's 20+ year career has been built upon work that pushes boundaries and is passionate about helping people experience brands in a way that makes them become a meaningful part of their lives. She has staged an aerial dogfight, blown things up in the Mojave Desert, invented a sport, created the dog version of Snapchat, and crafted a bespoke ad for every dog in New York City.

She has won major awards at every major awards show -- including Cannes Grand Prix, multiple Cannes Golds, One Show Best in Disciplines, AdFest Grand Lotus, Spikes Grand Prix, as well as having work appear on CNN, Forbes, and The New York Times.

LBB> Person: What kind of creative person are you?

Kimberley> The bio on my personal website says, “I hate talking about myself.” I’m aware that probably comes across as aloof or even lazy, but the idea that someone I know might be reading this paragraph intended to be about me makes me clench.

Creativity has been an essential part of who I am for as long as I can remember. But alongside being creative, I’m also a massive introvert (who fakes extroversion to survive). These two aspects combined mean that, for the most part, the things I create are made for myself and kept to myself for my fulfilment.

The exception, of course, is commercial creativity, where the goal is always to make work that’s as extroverted as possible.

LBB> Product: How do you judge the creativity of a piece of work?

Kimberley> Great work needs to have an idea. That idea then needs to be unavoidable. And then it needs to be executed flawlessly and uniquely, so people experience the idea, and therefore the brand, in a way they can’t ignore.

Every piece of work needs these three things. I can’t tell you how much it grinds me to see something beautiful, that has no apparent idea, an idea that is just meh, or to see a great idea that falls over at execution.

These three things will always transcend whatever scary new medium or AI revolution the industry throws at us. In fact, they will help you own them and use them to your advantage.

Anyway, moving on. The next question in this section asks, “What creative campaigns are you proudest of and why?” And so here I am awkwardly talking about myself again...

I have this habit of being the most proud of my last most awesome thing/s. At the time of writing, we’ve just put Pedigree 'Lie Detector' and Spark 'Killabyte' into the world. I’m proud of both of them for different reasons.

In the case of 'Lie Detector', I simply love how much dog owners love it -- because it’s just so true of dogs. You can say to any dog owner ‘when it comes to food, dogs are liars,’ and they immediately laugh and reply, ‘hell yeah, my dog is a massive liar.’ Having people feel your work in that way is truly special.

With 'Killabyte', I’m proud of how deep we went on that one, which feels very appropriate for the neglected NZ gaming audience we were trying to reach. The lore, the character development, the craft, and all the intricate details of the experience were super rewarding as a creative person.

LBB> Process: Tell us about how you like to make creative work?

Kimberley> That depends entirely on what I’m creating. If it’s a personal piece, then it’s a completely solitary endeavour. Sometimes I share it with my kid. Or my dog.

The flipside of this is that collaboration is always the answer when it’s for commercial purposes. Even though an idea might start in my head, I constantly operate on the assumption that someone else knows more, or can do it better, than I can. When I was younger, this showed up as impostor syndrome — but now I see it as the supercharger for creativity that it is.

So, seek out that strategist who knows more about gaming culture than you do. That junior art director, who can crack a fresher way to make something beautiful. That experiential producer, who knows the best way to make an experience unforgettable (shoutout to Wadeo). And that business manager, who’s deep into fashion will quickly tell you if your shoot wardrobe is shit, then how to make it better.

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by brilliant, creative people from every department, with some of the wildest skillsets imaginable. I lay every success I’ve ever had in this industry at their feet.

LBB> Press: What external factors have shaped you and what can make or break a creative project?

Kimberley> We’re all products of our environment, and I’m no different. It’s just that early on, my environment fought against creativity.

I grew up in a small town with a bit of a small-town mentality. You either played rugby or netball, or you became an accountant. Or the wife of an accountant. In an environment like this, creativity can be a pretty lonely place. So as soon as I realised that there was no way I could ever be happy with any of those things, my mission became to get out of there and find my people.

And find them I did. From there, my life was a creatively rich blur of design school, falling into advertising, finding Colenso the first time, and trying out different places to hone my version of creativity all around the world.

With all that behind me, I now recognise how privileged I am to have walked this path. My roots built within me a relentless determination to never settle, and my journey helped me find where I am creatively most happy — back in New Zealand, back at Colenso. Our remote location and smaller budgets down here breed a real need for creativity to make things stand out. Most agencies and marketers in New Zealand will tell you this. Then, throw Colenso into this mix. Unlike anywhere else I’ve ever worked in the world, everyone at Colenso moves with the same purpose: to make creatively distinctive work. This is a dream scenario for a creative in this industry. And throughout the highs and lows of working life, I still sometimes have moments where I can’t believe that this is what I get to do for a job.

There will always be things that break a creative project. The financial climate, politics, a volcanic eruption... you name it. But I think the biggest enemy to creativity is average. Average can sneak up on you without you even realising it. When you’re going through the motions of meetings, addressing feedback, and making slight adjustments to things along the way, suddenly everything you loved about the idea has evaporated. And it’s just average.

If you realise this in the edit suite, it’s way too late. So my greatest advice is to step back and look at what you’re creating frequently and just ask yourself ‘do I still love this and how can I make it better?’ But you need to make sure you do this with your clients and the team around you.

Because to all fellow introverts out there: creativity might start in solitude... but taking it somewhere excellent doesn’t happen alone.