Planning for the Best: Driving Positive Social Change with Fiona Nixon

Fiona Nixon is passionate about brand building, social and environmental sustainability, and strategy. As head of strategy and research at Think HQ, she will focus on creating insight-driven integrated campaigns that create impact. 

She brings with her close to 30 years of experience in leadership roles that spans the financial, consultancy, public and not-for-profit sectors. Her passion lies in brand building, social and environmental sustainability and strategy, with a proven track record in delivering business growth and innovation in purpose-driven brands. 

Fiona is also a strong advocate of human rights, and she has served on the Australia Committee of global advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch for the past five years. 

LBB> What do you think is the difference between a strategist and a planner? Is there one?

Fiona> I’ve always understood them to be interchangeable terms for people who learn with passionate curiosity and apply a set of thinking and decision-making tools to a challenge or opportunity. 

LBB> And which description do you think suits the way you work best?

Fiona> My work as a strategist ranges from corporate and sustainability strategy to marketing and integrated communications strategy, so I think of myself as a problem solver and a facilitator of choice making. After all, strategy is about getting informed to make choices.

LBB> We’re used to hearing about the best creative advertising campaigns, but what’s your favourite historic campaign from a strategic perspective? One that you feel demonstrates great strategy?

Fiona> Much has been said and written about it, but Dove’s Real Beauty campaign was a trailblazer for me when it launched in 2004. The strategy was to turn a very worrying insight (that only 2% of women globally thought they were beautiful) into a positive campaign that not just repositioned the brand but also helped influence public opinion and supported a decade-long effort to diversify the representation of women in fashion, media, and advertising across the board. Good strategy with real-world impact.

LBB> When you’re turning a business brief into something that can inform an inspiring creative campaign, what do you find is the most useful resource to draw on?

Fiona> The people who are going to use, hear, be moved by, or positively influenced by the campaign - their stories, needs and the context they’re living within. At Think HQ, our work is about positive social change and we’re focussed on communicating to all people, so we draw on insights from diverse communities including our network of multicultural community leaders as well as First Nations communities to make sure our perspective is as inclusive as possible.

LBB> What part of your job/the strategic process do you enjoy the most?

Fiona> Learning about things I’ve never thought about or been aware of before.

LBB> What strategic maxims, frameworks or principles do you find yourself going back to over and over again? Why are they so useful? 

Fiona> Human-centred design thinking is my touch point. It puts people at the centre of everything and it offers a flexible set of tools. It’s an approach that can be used to generate insights as well as to build campaigns with the people they are designed for. This is particularly powerful when it comes to behaviour change and lasting social impact.

LBB> What sort of creatives do you like to work with? As a strategist, what do you want them to do with the information you give them?

Fiona> Creatives who care about the impact their work will have on the people they’re creating for - and see creativity as a key to solving complex problems. I want them to absorb and interrogate the information we give them so the strategy and creative end up stronger.

LBB> There’s a negative stereotype about strategy being used to validate creative ideas, rather than as a resource to inform them and make sure they’re effective. How do you make sure the agency gets this the right way round?

Fiona> It’s about working in partnership and not seeing strategy and creative as different planets. Good strategy and good creative emerge in constructive communication and iteration. Because Think HQ works with a lot of sensitive and complex content that needs to be nuanced, the partnership is vital. This is not always easy but it’s worth a continued effort. 

LBB> What have you found to be the most important consideration in recruiting and nurturing strategic talent?

Fiona> Skills can be taught, but while curiosity and compassion can be ignited within someone, if it’s already there, you have a strategist in the making.

LBB> In recent years it seems like effectiveness awards have grown in prestige and agencies have paid more attention to them. How do you think this has impacted on how strategists work and the way they are perceived?

Fiona> I would say that strategists, like creative and other communications professionals, need to be accountable for the effectiveness of their work. For our clients, we have a responsibility to develop strategies that move their issues forward and have a positive impact. Otherwise, we’re not doing our job properly.

LBB> Do you have any frustrations with planning/strategy as a discipline?

Fiona> Only that sometimes you feel you don’t have enough time to work on a complex and important issue, to do the deep thinking and attention it really needs to move the dial. 

LBB> What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as a strategist/planner?

Fiona> Don’t be in too much of a hurry to become a strategist. Learn a range of communication disciplines first - how to write, create, service a client, run a social campaign, produce a video, generate media coverage, run an event - all of these skills and knowledge make a stronger strategist.