Why Lifelong Crush Hired Its First Ever CCOs
Having launched almost three years ago, Lifelong Crush recently announced its intention to take things to the next level with the arrival of its first-ever chief creative officers, Derek Blais and Christina Yu. Seeking to rebrand the agency and reflect a new approach, the two leaders will be working closely with managing director Caroline Kilgour to deliver creative problem solving bolstered by a depth of industry experience.
Despite the fact that Derek and Christina have never directly worked together prior to this hiring, their individual resumes speak for themselves. Armed with a legacy of creating award-winning campaigns - often to national and international success - both have worked with massive brands ranging from Pepsi Co., McDonald's and Heineken to Stella Artois, Audi, and Virgin. Moreover, each possesses a strong degree of high-energy creativity which, when combined with the agency’s new visual identity and ethos, ‘unconstrained ideas forever’, will help deliver a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems with a cultural beat, leaving lasting impressions, and, of course, gearing up for world domination.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Caroline, Derek and Christina to learn exactly what this looks like, and check in on how things are going thus far.
LBB> Congratulations on the hiring of your very first CCOs! What does this mean to the agency, and what made now the right time to bring CCOs on board?
Caroline> It means everything, because our mission is talent hoarding! Specifically, we gave ourselves a working brief of going after CCOs that make us jealous, so I'm absolutely thrilled to bring in the two people that in the whole world make us the most jealous.
Beyond that, it’s been amazing to connect and reunite with these amazing people. While Derek and Christina haven’t worked directly together before, I’ve had the pleasure of working with both of them in previous agency lives - as have other people in the organisation - and it has felt really great to have both a union and a reunion unfold and have our whole team take additional shape.
In terms of hiring timing, it was the right moment because we were finally ready to finish laying the foundation for Lifelong Crush. We’ve built it from the bottom up since day one, and it's really exciting to be in a position to bring in top talent like Christina and Derek, building out the team at this exceptional level.
LBB> Going into this process, were you explicitly looking for a CCO partnership? Or were Christina and Derek both so excellent that you had to have both of them?
Caroline> Christina and Derek have a body of work that proves their ability to really connect with culture, and on a human level. We had an interesting conversation about this notion of a consumer, and these two pushed the narrative further saying 'I don't like the term 'consumer', it's just ‘humanity’'.
If you look at their body of work, those are their signature styles. They're able to work through many mediums while remaining unfazed by budget levels. They are creative problem solvers, and ultimately, I think that's what being nimble and doing culturally relevant work requires. These two have substantive craftsman chops and effectively work end to end, from concept to execution - this is unique for CCOs. It makes the way that they work stand out, and really pairs well with the way I like to work. But more than that, it's a very future-facing style, which aligns perfectly with the way that marketers want to work, and helps produce the type of content that consumers want to engage with.
LBB> Derek, Christina, congratulations to you as well! What does this opportunity mean to you, as well as the agency?
Christina> Both Derek and I have wanted to be a part of this journey. Caroline is amazing, I know Denise Rossetto, Todd Mackie, Jay Chaney and Carlos Moreno from Broken Heart Love Affair, and this is our chance to be around great, inspiring people.
And with that said, this wasn't just a spontaneous wooing. Rather, we'd been coveting each other for quite a while, and it just so happened that it all came together. Even though Derek and I haven't worked together before, the fact that Caroline has worked with him and spoke so highly of him made me sure I was choosing the right place. It's the perfect fit!
Derek> Adding to that, I wouldn't even look at Christina and I as a traditional team! For a start, we actually both come from art direction backgrounds, but more than that, we're a team of three with Caroline. This ethos is reflected in the agency as well. We have teams here that consist of, for example, a planner and a creative, and it just comes back to having a bunch of awesome, nice, talented people working together and solving business problems in really, really deep ways.
LBB> Building on this, what were your first reactions to meeting each other?
Christina> When I met Derek, we just hit it off immediately. We started going through each other's bodies of work and we were just like, ‘Man, you do such great work!'. It genuinely was that lifelong crush that we were all feeling. Damn him! He's so good!
Derek> To echo what Christina said, from the moment we met, it was just like 'Oh wow, you worked on this and this and this!’. It was so cool to just meet her and talk about what this potential future was going to look like!
Caroline> I take notes through almost every conversation I have, and when I first chatted with Christina about meeting Derek, she described all aspects of the meeting (exceptionally positively). The first thing I remember her saying is, 'I love Derek', and then she went on about his other attributes and qualities that she admired. Well, when I chatted with Derek later that day, he had - almost word for word - the same breakdown and debrief, admiring the same long list of attributes and qualities. It was almost like they had planned it - genuinely uncanny! It was just so unbelievable to have that immediate proof point of being on the same page.
LBB> And how are you finding the new partnership thus far?
Christina> It's been good! While it's very new right now, because we've crossed paths before, we've skipped the stage of asking 'How do you like doing this?' and just jumped right in. There's been no apologies - just a great respect for each other.
Beyond that, I think we're all very open to critique, and when you have the same goal of wanting to do amazing things and build a company, the result is just magical.
Caroline> It's effortlessly comfortable. In a cheesy way, at Lifelong Crush we liken everything to the love language we surround ourselves with, and this new creative partnership embodies the feeling of going on a great first date and connecting immediately, where it feels like you've been together forever (even though you just met).
Derek> It's very organic! It's like a pickup band with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones on bass - you have people that respect each other and who come together to jam, and you're just so stoked by each other's creative energy. Some days I'm Dave Grohl, and some days Christina is Dave Grohl. Some days we need more drums, and other days we need more bass. It just works!
LBB> What does your early collaborative process look like? And how will you be working together to further the agency ethos?
Caroline> We are quite fluid, not only because it's our collective style, but because we all have backgrounds where we've faced rigid structures. However, when you're working to develop a creative commodity, rigidity often works against that.
I love to welcome the world of nuance. If you're being really empathetic with your clients, you recognise that different marketers require different approaches and ways of working and by extension different structures. We have yet to formally discuss it, but aren’t likely to lock in any rigid ways of working. We just keep things fluid.
Derek> Organised chaos! In seriousness, to add to Caroline’s point, I think a good measure of this is the fact that on my phone, if you look at my text messages, our group chat is always in the top 10. That's how much we talk! We're always chatting and sending screenshots. It's this constant stream of consciousness and creativity and curiosity happening. I don't think there's anything super formal about it, it's just about staying in constant communication and being like, 'Hey have you seen this? It's super cool!'.
Christina> Communication really is key. This trust we have for each other means that instead of waiting for the three of us to align and provide approval, we'll just roll with it. If someone feels like they need to suggest something - or disagrees - we have that line of communication to react accordingly!
Beyond that, working really closely and just being tight reminds each one of us why we like working with each other. And, it also allows us to have a shorthand for how we solve problems and whatnot, making us more efficient.
Also, Derek, you have more than 10 people that you text?
LBB> How would you describe your individual leadership styles, and why do you think they complement each other?
Christina> I've always been an advocate for working situationally, and adapting to people’s ways of working. If someone wants to take the lead, I'll take the backseat, and vice versa.
I also like to look at things very observantly, listen, and absorb information like a sponge! This helps me be a better mentor, and I can find the best way to approach each and every person - something that I think we, as leaders at Lifelong Crush, have in common. We want to lift people up and help make them successful!
Derek> I'm always thinking about how the teams under us receive information, and then do my best to offer the kind of direction I would have wanted as a junior. Having gone through all the trenches and having seen so much craziness over the years, bringing that level of perspective to the process is super important to me. When the team is getting whipped up into a creative frenzy, I can give it a little tweak where needed. For me, that’s what leading is about. We listen, we’re just as passionate about their ideas as they are, and we're ready to go out there with the machetes and clear the path for the teams!
Beyond that, I believe in leading from my heart and coming from an equally passionate and curious place as any new creative. Creativity and curiosity are just so infectious, and when you have that energy within teams, it can lead to great work. I hope I don't seem like a boss - I just want to be another creative that's getting excited about the work!
Caroline> Like Derek and Christina, I believe in leading with a lot of empathy, whether that’s for our internal teams, our clients in the marketplace, or our end consumers.
Internally, one of the things I love about this organisation is that it's rooted in this notion of passion. When you can really understand what people are passionate about and connect it to the workflows, you're going to get the best out of them. But, you can only do that if you have a sense of empathy and connect with them on a human level about what excites them. For example, I always talk to my teams about going beyond what they can do, and focusing on what they're excited to do. That's the type of assignment I want to put in front of somebody!
For the clients we've attracted, I love working with the ones who are really passionate and have a strong shared ambition. You can feel their palpable hunger to accomplish the vision they've set out, and our organisation is there to make it happen.
(Also, I think I'm a pretty solid millennial mindset manager. Anyway, we'll see if gen z hates us for it, haha!)
LBB> Are there any projects you’re particularly excited to get started on together? And if so, why?
Derek> We love our children all the same, and having such a nice range of clients allows us to do a wide range of really interesting work. For me, it's less about specific clients and more about the kind of work we're going to do in the coming months. We want to be aligned on business problems and expectations throughout the client-creative process.
Christina> My big thing is making sure we have a good relationship with our clients. That's something we're excited to have - and we have to meet all those clients - but I can't wait! The people are the ones who build the brand, and we have to make sure we connect with them first.
Caroline> I mentioned talent hoarding as our business model, and that extends to our clients. We look at our marketers as talented marketers that we're excited to be able to connect with!
LBB> What is your vision for the future of Lifelong Crush? And how will you work together to achieve it?
Christina> Something we’re also aware of is that people outside of advertising talk about stuff that gets into the newsfeed. We want to make work that not only does that, but makes other people feel envious and really pushes the limits of what advertising can do. We want everyone to be able to see it. We want to make your uncle go, 'Heyyy, I saw this!'.
Derek> We're a bunch of scrappers, and I feel like our creativity knows no bounds. So, as a CCO, and as an art director/sometimes copywriter/sometimes person who is picking up a camera, who works with people who operate the same way, I can say that we all want to make awesome work, no matter what! The most creative work drives the biggest constituents. So, we see creativity as this giant economic multiplier - which is something I think everyone who works in this business believes in - but we believe in it the strongest! I'm so excited to put our heads together and create work that is going to get our clients noticed and drive business.
Beyond that, I don't think we have any specific goals… other than world domination!
