I’m just over 100 days into my role as chief creative officer at Accenture Song SA, part of the world’s largest tech-powered creative group. Every so often, someone pops their head into my office to see if I’m still around. Even more often, industry friends check my pulse through a WhatsApp text.
That’s because I’m in uncharted territory for creative agencies and talent alike. I’ve crossed over into the necessary but high-friction, and always dynamic, union between creativity and tech-led consultancy. The allure of taking creative problem-solving back into the CEO’s office is too strong. We lost that privilege decades ago, and now there’s a way to win it back. That’s why I’ll be sticking around.
It’s no doubt my most challenging and exciting role yet — and in between trying to figure out what a WBS number is, and why exactly I need a Technology Quotient (TQ) score*, I’ve also been thinking about how to help create a Lego joint between the two worlds. These are my observations so far:
The team makes the magic. One can’t survive as a one-person band in this industry. We need other people to challenge our ideas and get them better made. Fortunately, I learnt this early on in my career. I also believe in the power of mentorship and coaching. Every single successful person, from elite athletes to presidents, has one.
We need to feel small while staying big. Being part of Accenture, which has over 790,000 employees globally and access to a deep well of data-led insights, global case studies, and cutting-edge tools like Agentic AI, is an incredible opportunity for local creatives to scale their ideas. The trick is to make it feel less overwhelming by nurturing an environment that feels small and connected on the inside, while doing big, meaningful work for our clients and the world.
Creativity and technology have always played together. One needs the other to have real impact in the world. Almost everything we love and use is a combination of the two. Your favourite pair of sneakers, your mobile device and all the apps on it. The cars we drive and the shows we stream. They are either the result of a technological innovation expressed creatively, or a creative idea amplified through tech. Yet sometimes there’s mistrust and misunderstanding between the two worlds. I hope to facilitate the creation of safe spaces for our tech and creative teams to collaborate and understand each other more.
The speed of innovation is constantly ramping up and artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing wave. Ironically the creative industries have not lived up to their early adopter reputation in this case. Being a tech-powered creative agency gives us early sighting of what’s new in this space, along with the ability to use this knowledge to create interesting and useful work for our clients.
Staying relevant is the ad industry’s biggest challenge. We can’t help our clients become something we aren’t able to ourselves become. Agencies are no longer at the forefront of culture. Technology has made it open-source which means anyone can now contribute towards shaping it. Unfortunately, there are too many professional creatives who still see technology as the enemy, and they’re getting left behind as a result. Building a strong learning and experimentation culture at Song SA is one of my priorities to help counter this.
Ideas that come from a negative place can be destructive. That’s why it’s crucial to try to stay positive. Less philosophically, the lesson here is to be a generalist when it comes to learning new approaches and technologies, but to remain a master of your craft. Always have a point of view on the work. It may not always be right or prevail, so remain open to other viewpoints. It’s also important to be resourceful and resilient. Great ideas are scary and create resistance. You must get them off that slide presentation and into the world.
It’s important to learn from and get inspired by all sorts of people. For instance, I read anything American marketing expert Seth Godin or Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell put out, but I also draw a lot of inspiration from young people who are debunking everything we thought was cast in stone about advertising and marketing. Podcasts are also great for learning new things. I love the Fearless Creative Leadership podcast for inspiration, I listen to audiobooks on a wide range of topics, and I’ve become a voracious consumer of YouTube content. It’s a great learning platform for keeping up with the crazy speed of developments in AI and how to train your pet rock for competitive racing.
What we do as creative communicators hasn’t changed since people began exchanging ideas. It’s the how that is constantly changing. Since volatility is just constant change, the greatest opportunity we have is to embrace the change.
This article was sponsored by Accenture Song.
* A TQ score is a measure of one's ability to effectively use and adapt to technology.
