To Protect and Push Work, WA Marketers and Agencies Are Teaching The Art of Feedback

One of the trickiest parts of Smiljka Dimitrijevic’s job as head of marketing and brand at St John Western Australia is containing the number of people authorised to weigh in on the organisation’s advertising.

The state’s first aid and ambulance organisation has myriad stakeholders, or as Smiljka put it, “a million and one people behind the scenes”.

“That's the most difficult thing. [It] is really difficult at St John, may I add, because we're not a hierarchical structure, we're a very organic structure, which means that people feel really empowered to be heard, to be seen, to have a view.

“But that also has downsides – like when people outside of brand and
marketing feel they can art-direct an ad or write copy. So figuring out who gets a say, locking that down early, is really, really important, particularly with us, but I imagine it happens everywhere.”

Smiljka was speaking as part of an LBB panel discussion in Perth featuring marketing, agency, and production leaders, accompanying the first Immortal Awards showcase held in the state.

Asked how she builds the marketing function’s power and influence within the organisation, she said, “It's getting stronger. It definitely needs to be stronger. My boss comes from agency-side as well. So we tag team that education piece and improving the value of marketing and brand. It's a daily conversation.

“We're constantly trying to work out, how do you reduce the number of gates that you have to go through, but also, how do you educate the people who are within those gates.”

Smiljka joined St John last January after two decades spent in agency and marketing roles across London and Perth, including stints in senior strategy roles at 303 MullenLowe and Clemenger Group’s Marketforce.

She gave an example of the education process, referencing conversations this week about a gap between the higher revenue figures shown by the media agency versus those seen by the brand’s finance department.

“My goodness, the marketers have spent months just trying to connect those two dots. What is the discrepancy here? Why is this not connecting with this?”

She proposed a solution: switch off the marketing activity. “If the business unit isn't willing to give us the credit, to believe in the numbers we're giving them, I'm like, 'Okay, cool. We'll just switch it off for a month. We'll see how far we go down, and then we'll switch it back on' ... But no one was prepared to do that. So obviously everyone understands, in theory, that there is an effect.”

Sara Oteri, the executive creative director at 303 MullenLowe, expressed a desire for more intuition and less testing. “I'd love to see more people back themselves and just inherently know what's right and not need to test, ask a million people their opinion.”

Alongside Smiljka, Beautiful Pictures EP Kate Downie, and MD of indie Rare and chair of the Advertising Council’s WA chapter Callum Mackenzie, Sara advocated for fewer pitches and more fun. She also stressed the importance of a shared clarity on a campaign’s objectives, which allows the creative team to gauge and reflect the client’s level of ambition.

“I always say to my guys, 'You can have an ambition, but it needs to align with the client,'” Sara said.

“Having those really honest, open conversations upfront and going, 'What does success look like to you at the end of this? What do you want to feel? What do you want to be able to say happened?'”

Smiljka -- who noted “we are all presenting and defending our budgets this week” -- added agency partners have a key role to play in building CEOs’ and CFOs’ confidence in creativity. Instead of drafting post-campaign reports with the marketing client front-of-mind, she suggested agencies build the financial case for the work and help “marketers sell that creativity in”.

“I'd argue putting some revenue figures against those things, as opposed to saying, well, 'X number of impressions'. The finance team doesn't care. The business owners don't care. They just want to know how much money you make them.”

Agencies can influence the client-side creative conversation, Sara argued. At 303 MullenLowe, she and CSO Matt Oakley run workshops teaching clients how to give feedback on creative ideas and progress, because “feedback can change the course of an idea.”

“What is the actual thing you're buying? What is the thing that gave you chills in that room?” Sara prompted.

“Because every incremental piece of feedback you give from here to execution can change that. It can totally change the course of it. And so understanding what really good feedback looks like to make an idea better is really important. Because often we've been there, clients have been there, four weeks down the road, you look at the thing and you go, 'Gosh, that's not what I fell in love with. What happened?'”

The Western Australian industry has an opportunity to demonstrate the role creativity plays in driving an economy dominated by government, mining, and insurance brands. Perth is considered the most geographically isolated major city in the world, but the market’s determination not to get distracted by the likes of Sydney, Melbourne, or Auckland set it in good stead, Sara argued.

“The isolation is a wonderful breeding ground for creativity. I don't think we've often compared ourselves to the rest of the [country], which I always say is a good thing,” she said.

“I use the analogy of Olympic swimmers: just focus on your lane. Don't look at what everyone else is doing. Because if you are, you end up all swimming in the same direction, and that's no good for anyone. There is huge ambition and potential and just grit in WA and we don't really feel like we need to prove it to anyone.”

Creativity is more critical than ever, Smiljka added, which makes the process of selling and protecting work all the more precious. St John’s C-suite knows creativity is the ingredient that will grow the business, and is confident in its power, regardless of the “tightening of belts, inflation, what's happening globally in terms of politics.”

“Creativity has come a long way in terms of its recognition within businesses and the impact that it can have. Certainly within our business, it is something that our board, our exec, are demanding, and they absolutely believe in what creativity can do, and absolutely what building a brand will do for our business. [Creativity is] on top of the agenda.”