Strategy? Planning? “I Mostly Just See It as Creative Problem-Solving”
In her role as chief strategy officer of BBH USA, Samantha Deevy’s primary focus is making work…work.
Samantha joined BBH USA in September of 2023 as the agency’s chief strategy officer after a two-and-a-half year stint at FIG leading clients such as Zillow, Ketel One, CNN and Benjamin Moore. Prior to that, she spent six years at Droga5, helping to establish and grow the communications planning department, before moving into the more integrated strategy role she now holds. At Droga5, Samantha was involved in award-winning work for the likes of The New York Times, HBO (Game of Thrones) and Google Pixel.
LBB's Addison Capper caught up with her for a deep dive on all things strategy.
LBB's Addison Capper caught up with her for a deep dive on all things strategy.
LBB> What do you think is the difference between a strategist and a planner? Is there one? And which description do you think suits the way you work best?
Samantha> There was a point where there was probably a more meaningful difference, but today they feel pretty interchangeable in how they’re used. There are so many different entry points into strategy now – business, brand, comms, social, digital, experience, media, and beyond – that now more than ever it is just finding strategic thinkers with a penchant for problem-solving. I myself started in media, moved into comms, then into brand before taking on integrated strategy leadership roles. More and more I think what we do requires fluency across strategic disciplines, leveraging different skills at different times to tackle the different types of client challenges that come our way. Call it strategy, call it planning, I mostly just see it as creative problem-solving.
LBB> We’re used to hearing about the best creative advertising campaigns, but what’s your favourite historic campaign from a strategic perspective? One that you feel demonstrates great strategy?
Samantha> How bad is it to use an example of something I worked on? Some of my favourite years of my career were spent at Droga5 where I was lucky enough to work on The New York Times. When I joined the account, the ‘Truth’ platform was already in place, but the business was at a critical turning point with journalism under threat. How people were consuming news was fundamentally changing – reading headlines in feeds, clicking through on articles without even realising where they were coming from – and it left people with an expectation that news should be free. News sources felt ubiquitous and interchangeable and, therefore, not worth paying for. We uncovered that when these same people understood what it takes to actually pursue and report the truth, they then understood why it’s worth paying for. This led to the hugely successful ‘The Truth Is Worth It’, which managed to both shift the perception of the Times as worth paying for and drive critical business action with a five times increase in subscriptions.
LBB> When you’re turning a business brief into something that can inform an inspiring creative campaign, what do you find the most useful resource to draw on?
Samantha> Real people. I find there are two traps it’s easy to fall into:
- Getting lost in ‘audiences’ and ‘consumers’ and forgetting that we’re trying to bring real, live, interesting, nuanced, humans into the brand.
- Thinking we are the target audience. It’s natural to default to our own perspectives, but it’s important to remember that more often than not, you are not who you are actually trying to impact.
So, no matter the timeline, no matter how down and dirty it is, I always encourage my team to talk to real people when we kick off a project.
LBB> What part of your job/the strategic process do you enjoy the most?
Samantha> This is easy – the best part of my job is collaborating with creatives. Translating strategic thinking and slides into ideas that we will see in the real world. There’s no better feeling.
LBB> What strategic maxims, frameworks or principles do you find yourself going back to over and over again? Why are they so useful?
Samantha> As a former comms planner, sometimes I feel like my brain thinks in frameworks.
So, I like to go back to a quote from our co-founder and friend John Hegarty who said, “Do interesting things and interesting things will happen to you.” It’s easy to get bogged down in data, decks, and processes, and to forget to look up. If you want to truly impact culture, you have to stay immersed in culture. Get out there. Talk to real people, follow the inconvenient rabbit hole, and do weird things. Your work will be better for it.
LBB> What sort of creatives do you like to work with? As a strategist, what do you want them to do with the information you give them?
Samantha> I like to call myself a failed creative who never tried. Which is a way of saying, I like to be let into the creative process, and I like when creatives are ingrained in the strategic process. I don’t want to get to a ‘right’ strategy, I want to get to a fruitful one. And the only way that happens is with a creative by your side challenging, pushing, and getting to something that excites us both.
LBB> There’s a negative stereotype about strategy being used to validate creative ideas, rather than as a resource to inform them and make sure they’re effective. How do you make sure the agency gets this the right way round?
Samantha> Similar to the above, you bring creatives into the strategic process so you have both a sound and inspiring starting place. You ensure you have a clearly framed problem that the work must solve that everyone – including clients – is aligned to. This becomes the thing everyone can come back to and hold the work to. If you have that, well, there are a million ‘right’ ways to solve a problem.
LBB> What have you found to be the most important consideration in recruiting and nurturing strategic talent?
Samantha> I want to work with people who are interested in the world—people with many opinions, lightly held, who are fascinated by people, culture, and the internet. I want people who are different from me and from each other, each with a unique superpower. A lot of strategy can be taught, but you can’t nurture the spark—the curiosity, the interest in the interesting. I think that makes for the most special talent.
LBB> In recent years it seems like effectiveness awards have grown in prestige and agencies have paid more attention to them. How do you think this has impacted on how strategists work and the way they are perceived?
Samantha> Strategists have always been obsessed with effectiveness. When I was a comms strategist, I used to say my job was to make work…work. In different ways, I think this is true across all strategic disciplines. We aren’t in the business of creativity for creativity’s sake, it’s always been about using creativity to solve business problems.
LBB> Do you have any frustrations with strategy as a discipline?
Samantha> I feel so lucky that I get to trade in the ideas business. Similar to everyone else in the business, I just wish we were given a bit (ahem, LOT) more time, more often. We’ve cut out so much of the exploration time. The research time. The part of the process where you get to the bad thoughts so you reject them, or build them into the good ones. I think as an industry we are so much worse off by so often being forced to rush to an answer versus being given the time to find the best one.
LBB> What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as a strategist?
Samantha> Well, for starters, call BBH first, obviously. Beyond that, don’t be afraid to enter strategy through a side door. I have a non-traditional background. It’s OK if you didn’t study it or go to VCU. Follow people – the ones you admire, that scare you, that you know you will learn from. More than an agency name or a client, it’s these people who will define your experience.
