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5 minutes with... in association withAdobe Firefly
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5 Minutes with… Joe Hill

07/09/2022
Advertising Agency
Sydney, Australia
378
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LBB’s Esther Faith Lew finds out how whiteGREY’s ECD taps into divergent thinking and ambiguity to create thoughtful campaigns with social impact


“I’m inspired by divergent thinking made useful”, and there is no better playground than the one that advertising offers. For Joe Hill, ECD at whiteGREY, joining the agency has meant pushing the boundaries of “tension to create the extraordinary”. “Re-setting the frame on a problem is everything. Science has always done this. Art taught advertising how to do it. We should probably look to both of these fields more than we do,” says Joe.

Joe started in the industry as a graphic designer, drawn by the “passion and intelligence that live within the advertising industry”. “I love its increasingly blurry disciplinary and business boundaries. I love its mainline into the popular imagination and conscience. I love its restlessness and ambition,” professes Joe, indicating a personality that thrives in the flux of ambiguity and unpredictability. 

If the existence of conundrums could be seen as a catalyst for creativity, it would apply to Joe. He has tapped into the intensity of opposing thoughts and energies to bring out depth in his creative discoveries. When asked what was his motto in life and work, he says, “I have loops of thought and feeling that, if I’m honest, are equal parts dancing mind Muppet and doubting critic. If I were to turn that into a motto, maybe it would be ‘it's ok to be both’. Both as in smart and dumb; happy and sad; enthusiastic and world weary; Elmo and Waldorf.”

His statement reflects a very meaningful and frank acknowledgement of the need to experience the ‘negatives’ in life in order to build up a reservoir of wisdom that can be tapped into for doing good. A prime example of that lies in Joe’s approach to whiteGREY’s campaign for the Missing Persons Advocacy Network. It led to the creation of The Hope Narratives, a world-first therapeutic language tool designed to help affected family and friends navigate ambiguous loss. 

It is a campaign that rings true to Joe’s belief about how creativity should be applied. “Creativity is about abandoning the belief (or vain hope) that you’re an individual genius, and learning how to contribute meaningfully to the social structures and cultures you inhabit,” he says. In fact, he finds it annoying that creative work is often perceived as something that is “mysterious and separate from other kinds of work”, making it seem superficial.

Treading a path of intent and purpose, Joe distils it further into a purer form of life goals to achieve. “If I were to distil my professional goals into one thing, it would be to politely and occasionally hijacking this implement of late capitalism we sit inside (advertising) to do a little lasting good beyond the profit motive,” he says.

LBB> What attracted you to whiteGREY and how does it align with your own work values and approach? 

Joe> I liked that it was ambitious in ways that were fresh to me, a little blurry at the disciplinary edges, and in a state of positive flux. Plus, the agency positioning, Tension creates extraordinary, defines an interesting way of seeing the world and making the work… and the people are super lovely!

LBB> With your background in both design and writing, how have you deepened your skills to meet evolving demands especially in the digital and technology space?  

Joe> The excellent thing about writing and design is that they’re both intrinsically open to new methodologies. There isn’t one way to do either, and the history of both is one of formal innovation in response to a changing world. So I think my answer is: I try to stay blobby. Or spongy. Blobby spongy. Valent, open, absorbent.

LBB> What kind of trends/developments should a creative take note of in order to meet the demands of clients and the expected deliverables? 

Joe> The ongoing one: nothing is fixed (in both senses). The problem you’re asked to help solve today will have a new shape five years from now. The typeface that seems like an answer to everything will weary you in less than a year. The industry buzzword you over-use in a meeting this afternoon will be embarrassing by your next birthday.

LBB> Culture, community and the herd mentality. How can advertising attract both followers and outliers creatively and strategically? 

Joe> I don’t think it boils down to followers and outliers (one person can be both). The problem advertising faces is one of having created an industry culture that includes some people and excludes others. Advertising, like so many other professions and industries, has in many ways behaved according to a cultural herd mentality. 

The embarrassing irony is that advertising has also imagined itself to be a brave band of outliers. The work of creating inclusive spaces and attracting a genuinely diverse range of brilliant people into the Hermann Miller chairs is urgent and ongoing.

LBB> How do you ensure that branding, advertising and marketing cut through the noise of the marketplace and capture the attention of consumers? What’s your creative and strategic process and methodology? 

Joe> Defining a problem in a fresh way, then trying really hard to honour this with… freshness. Much easier said than done on both counts. I believe in methodology but also in the multivalent surprise mush of actual thought process, which sometimes has no respect for process and arrives at answers a well-defined problem couldn’t have anticipated.

LBB> How did you come up with the idea for the Missing Persons Advocacy Network campaign and develop it with the value system of whiteGREY’s proposition of creating value across brand, media and technology platforms? 

Joe> We listened (and read) as closely as we could. We paid attention, before skipping ahead to creative answers. Ambiguous loss, the form of grief experienced by the loved ones of missing persons, is uniquely (and inherently) difficult to communicate about. It doesn’t lend itself to advertising’s conceptual short-hand or appetite for good news solves. 

We had a hard look at the way creative advertising usually sets out to help, which so often boils down to making work about people. Creating value for the loved ones of the missing was our goal. 

LBB> What was significant about the campaign in terms of creativity and strategy? What was pivotal to its success and your takeaways from it? 

Joe> The idea of turning lived experience into a system of modular language hinges on seeing language itself as an amazing form of technology. Language houses and shapes emotional experience in ways other tech can still only dream of. In this sense The Hope Narratives constitutes a reframe of something we take for granted. 

We also set out to create value in an unusual form: emotional utility. We often talk about ‘impact’ when referring to the emotional value of what we create, but emotional usefulness is perhaps the more lasting thing we can aspire to help create, every so often. We feel incredibly lucky to have worked on this project. 

The experiences shared by the loved ones of the missing are the true source of its value, combined with the enabling brilliance and courage of Loren O’Keeffe (MPAN founder) and Dr Sarah Wayland (expert in ambiguous loss) who are unquestionably the how and why of it happening at all.

LBB> What are the achieved metrics for the campaign? 

Joe> Utility is the main lens we’re putting on the metrics. The Hope Narratives are currently being translated into multiple languages and look set to be used across the world. The Australian Federal Police are interested in making them part of how they equip officers to help the loved ones of missing persons, and a growing list of mental health organisations are looking at using them. In a more traditional marketing metrics sense, MPAN’s profile has been significantly amplified, and the experience of ambiguous loss has become more widely understood.

LBB> How meaningful was the MPAN campaign to you and what were your personal takeaways from it? 

Joe> For me, it has been a heart and mind-altering experience. It taught me about suffering and emotional survival, and the courage it takes to make difficult, lived truths legible to others.

LBB> Moving forward, what are the significant industry sectors and markets that will be important for whiteGREY in future client work? 

Joe> I hope that we can find ways to contribute, culturally and socially, to what feels like a genuinely positive moment in Australian culture. Brands and businesses are powerful tools for change-making… let’s see what we can do.


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