Amy Ratcliffe on Leaving Your Ego at the Front Door
Amy Ratcliffe joined CHS, an independent creative agency based in Christchurch, UK, in 2013 and has had over nine years of experience with them. Despite initially planning to stay there for just a year as an account executive, she quickly moved up in the agency and realised she’d struck gold with her team. Fast-forward to today, she holds the position of planning director for the agency.
At only 28, Amy was one of the six individuals that CHS chose to form the agency’s new senior leadership team, which boosted her to her current position and showed her younger self that there was a way to be creative without being extremely hands on. Later, she founded the agency’s award-winning planning department which now pioneers the creative strategy for household brands, including HSBC UK, LV= and Mitchells & Butlers.
In her role as planning director, Amy oversees recruitment, alongside the department heads, and has not only shaped a team of incredible talent, but one that challenges the industry’s status quo and gender underrepresentation in advertising. Today, CHS stands as one of the few agencies with a larger portion of women in senior positions than men.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov caught up with Amy to find out how she started in her discipline, what riles her up about the industry and what’s next for CHS.
LBB> What was your childhood like and did you have an inclination that you would join the creative industry?
Amy> Like most kids growing up in the ‘90s, one of the highlights of my week was Saturday morning TV. And it wasn’t just the episodes of Pokémon or Wonky Donkey skits that I loved - it was also the adverts. If I had the choice back then, I still don’t think I would have fast forwarded through them. I’d always be singing the jingles or reciting straplines. My sister and I even put our first ever camera phones to use by re-enacting our favourite ads (how we would have loved TikTok back then).
Outside of my early love for advertising, I was a pretty classic frustrated creative. Hopping from one dream to the next of being a fashion designer, graphic designer, artist… But each dream got squashed as soon as I remembered I’m not very good at actually making stuff. All ideas, and not much executional skill - if only I could reassure my younger self that I had, what turned out to be, a winning combination for strategy.
LBB> Tell us about the first steps you took in your career and the learnings from that time?
Amy> Despite an early love for ads, my teenage self didn’t put two and two together. In fact, a robot did it for me. I took one of those career quizzes when trying to decide what to study at university, and advertising came out on top (I know, not the most inspiring origin story).
After some research into highly regarded advertising courses in the UK, I managed to get into my first choice at Bournemouth University. And from the very first lecture, it felt right - it felt like my calling.
LBB> What made you go into planning specifically?
Amy> It was my university course that introduced me to the discipline - and it just felt like a natural fit. And, to be honest, a relief. You mean I could still help come up with big ideas, without being able to design or write headlines? Phew! I loved the logical process, the mining for insights and the exciting build up to a big idea. And I still get the rush today when everything falls into place.
LBB> How did you collide with CHS and how has your role progressed since your start till today?
Amy> CHS took a chance on me during my final year of university. After the winter break, the dread of being jobless had well and truly settled in - and I started applying for ad jobs left, right and centre (although mostly in London).
I got called in for an interview at CHS (which just happens to be down the road from Bournemouth University) for an account executive role. Was it my dream job? No. But it was at an ad agency and, as I told myself at the time, it would only be for the next year or so… (sorry CHS!).
I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had managed to stumble across one of Adland’s best kept secrets - an agency right down by the beaches of Bournemouth, filled with brilliant, wonderful, ego-less creatives who work together on some of the biggest brands in the UK.
Back then, CHS didn’t have an in-house strategy team. It wasn’t really needed, as the majority of work they did was more at the production end - taking big ideas from other agencies and rolling it out across campaign assets. But, after making my aspirations of becoming a planner known, I worked with the leadership team to build a department from scratch. And I’m so proud to say we implemented it, successfully sold the service to existing and new clients, and completely pivoted our services as an agency. Today, we’re the agency coming up with the big ideas, rooted in sound strategy.
LBB> What are your day to day tasks now?
Amy> I really do think I have the best job. As planning director, I oversee all strategy in the agency - that includes building the strategy team, raising up junior planners, and also working with some incredibly talented freelancers. I’ll also work closely with the creative team - not only in providing the creative strategy, but supporting the ideation stage and ensuring every big idea is ‘on brief’ and strategically sound. That’s got to be one of the best parts of the job (probably because I am the frustrated creative who will forever be in awe of what they can do).
LBB> Tell me about the favourite project you've worked on and why? What unique challenges did it pose?
Amy> It would be really hard to single out one project - especially where I’m lucky enough to work across different sectors and clients. So every project I work on is completely different, in so many ways.
My favourite type of work has to be a pitch though. When you’re pitching for a new client, that’s exactly what the biggest challenge is - they’re new. And in next to no time, you need to get under the skin of the brand, product or service, the audience and the competitor set.
The timelines are condensed, and you’re under pressure to come up with amazing ideas (not your run-of-the-mill ideas, but pitch-winning ideas). But in this weird week of intense pressure, late nights and take away pizzas we always come together in the best possible way.
Pitches are always the best showcases of team work at CHS, and they often push us to create our very best work. And I don’t think you can beat the rush - especially when you win…
LBB> What about your very first project - how did you do then and what did you learn from it?
Amy> My first job with CHS was in the client services team - so the work I was doing back then is very different to what I’m doing now - although, I think working in that team has made me a better planner.
Casting my mind back almost 10 years, the first job I remember managing was Lakeland’s Christmas campaign - specifically its retail point of sale campaign. Visual merchandising was a crash course in print, logistics and meticulous time-keeping. And I was so excited to visit a store when it was all live.
But as I mentioned before, I’ve definitely carried forward those lessons I learnt as an account handler. For example, understanding the needs of the clients, and the pressures they are under, or understanding the bigger picture of a campaign, and how everything needs to slot together within a specific time frame. I think it’s made me a better team player - both in the agency, and with clients.
LBB> If there is one thing you could change in the discipline you work within, what is that and why?
Amy> It’s not a tangible thing… but if I could, I would change the low levels of confidence felt in the discipline. It’s taken me years to not come to work and feel like an absolute fraud - and the imposter syndrome still hasn’t gone away. And I see it now in the juniors we’re training up (who are absolute superstars, and shouldn’t feel any less).
It’s not surprising. It’s not a discipline you tend to study for three years. You have to learn on the job, trust your gut and, in my case, read whatever resource or case study you can get your hands on. But I think a lot of us are just waiting to get caught out - and I’d love for that to change.
LBB> And what is one that you would want everybody to abide by?
Amy> Leave any egos outside of the building.
It’s certainly something we’ve been able to build at CHS. Everyone gets a voice, no matter how junior. And there’s no behaviour of tearing up creative briefs, or refusing to budge on an idea… We communicate, we support each other, and we work towards the best ideas together.
It’s sad how often we get told how ‘refreshing’ that is. Because that’s how it should be. And I think as soon as that culture stops at CHS, then that’s when the work will stop being fun.
