My Biggest Lesson: Pete Gibbons
Pete Gibbons is co-founder of social-first creative agency, Formidable. Pete has spent over two decades creating content for the evolving digital landscape, from the early days of YouTube to the current growth of TikTok. Prior to founding Formidable, he was a producer at the BBC, head of content in the launch team of COPA90, and produced the UK’s first scripted content series for social media, BAFTA nominated internet drama, KateModern.
Since founding Formidable, Pete and co-founder Nik Selman have curated a supergroup of creative specialists who develop brand campaigns with the likes of Amazon, The LEGO Group, David Beckham’s Studio 99 and Team GB.
I definitely believe that one of the best ways to learn is to fail. In my experience, failures have offered my biggest opportunities to get creative. They’ve given me really valuable experience and confidence to think laterally and come up with solutions that deliver real value. I truly believe that without failure, any industry would remain stagnant - and my agency wouldn't exist today. If you don’t have failures, you’re not pushing hard enough!
Early on in my marketing career, I learned an incredibly valuable lesson about the importance of pushing back on clients when you simply know their idea won't work, keeping them accountable for what they've hired you for. This was as much a lesson for my clients at the time as it was for me.
I started working in the world of brand marketing back in 2005 with the advent of social media. I had started my career in entertainment and was part of the first team to blend the worlds of entertainment, social and advertising in the creation of KateModern for Bebo, the UK’s first ever brand-sponsored, social platform-led drama series.
It was during the development of KateModern that my friend and colleague (and funnily enough my business partner's brother), Jim Selman, coined the term ‘Snack TV’ or ‘Snackable Content’ - phrases that have since embedded themselves in the marketing industry lexicon.
Snack TV meant developing entertainment that was easily digestible, told an engaging story within a short space of time, and kept people coming back for more. Brands instantly saw value in getting involved to reach younger audiences.
The challenge: learning how to authentically incorporate brand messaging into this new non-traditional platform, with its own die-hard fanbase who weren't on social media to watch ads. Back then, the creative team had little say in how brands were integrated into the overall narrative of the content. The sales team at Bebo were charged with signing brand deals and taking briefs, then passing them over.
Not only were our creative team not involved in pitching ideas directly to the client in order to win the work, but Bebo's sales team were taking briefs from traditional brand stakeholders who didn't understand the new world of social and branded entertainment, leading to a top down messaging approach that simply didn't fit with the KateModern world we were creating.
One clunky integration stands out in particular. A popular women's sanitary product brand who was keen to tap into KateModern's large teenage audience. The messaging handed down from the client was straight out of a marketing handbook - stiff and corporate - the resulting integration felt like an out-of-place ad-read. It both interrupted the story and left the audience with a bad taste in their mouths with regards to the brand. The negative audience reception online was impossible to miss.
Despite this being technically an epic fail, it actually gave us an useful case study moving forward. It helped to make our case to clients that they needed to give us the leeway and creative flexibility to create something that would work for the audience, the show and the platform. This was an active example of the importance of authenticity - and it gave us the tools moving forward to take the lead with the brands that we integrated into the show.
This was such pivotal moment for me because the concept of blending the worlds of entertainment and advertising to create truly authentic and engaging content for brands is what our agency Formidable hinges on today. Nobody opens Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube to watch ads. So creating 'snackable content’ that entertains whilst seamlessly weaving in brand messaging seems like a no brainer to me when it comes to brand success on social.
Even though this is an insight I garnered 20 years ago, its relevance holds just as true today. In fact, authenticity and entertainment are more important than ever when it comes to brand marketing across social.
When working with any production team, brand or social media creator, it's our role to help them understand this ethos and how it leads to success.
In fact, we’ve been regularly thanked for holding our clients accountable and pushing back when needed to ensure they aren't just throwing money at the wall. In doing this, we have become trusted by the people we work with to steer them in the right direction and not only develop branded content but also guide them on their social strategy.
