“This is a Listening Agency”: How BETC’s Humility is Driving Immortal Work

“It's not a strategy; it's our culture,” says Bertille Toledano. “Fundamentally, BETC is a creative culture agency.” As president of the Paris-based agency for almost 12 years, she’s always loved to think of the company as ‘also an ad agency’. 

“Because we do so many more things than only advertising,” she says, “This creative culture brings lots of creative people inside the agency who all have some other commitments. Some are singers, some musicians, some publishing books, some writers for magazines or critics, some art directors. We have a lot of people with different skills that like to make creative things that, sometimes, are advertising.” 

There’s something in the national character that Bertille believes is behind this, despite the undeniably international nature of BETC’s creative output. “This is a very French culture. It's about being creative, a little bit artistic and having a role on the cultural scene, trying to be unexpected and inventing new languages.”

As a result of that culture, the advertising that comes out is world-leading – as illustrated by the agency’s unprecedented performance in this year’s Immortal Awards. BETC was the first French company to win an Immortal Award for its CANAL+ film ‘Papa’ this week, as well as a Commendation for its ‘Unexpected Encounters’ outdoor campaign for Lacoste.

“It's very important for BETC because we are a French agency,” observes Bertille. “It's always a bit more difficult for agencies which are not Anglo-Saxon to make their place in this advertising market. For me, it's very important to be part of this club of agencies that can deliver world-class work, even if they're not English, American or Australian.”

There’s no denying that BETC is part of that club. But it does its international creative brilliance without letting go of its Frenchness. And that’s to the benefit of its clients, like those that saw success in the Immortal Awards. CANAL+ and Lacoste are decidedly French – a television channel that’s part of the fabric of the national culture and a fashion brand that’s impossible to pronounce without putting on a French accent.

Bertille’s proud that it was ‘Papa’, a darkly comic short film made for the broadcaster, that was named Immortal, because it’s a part of that creative output that’s not quite advertising. BETC did a big, integrated ad campaign with a TVC at the centre – ‘The Secret of Wakany’ - which was a lush, fantastical film riffing on the nuance of binge-watching culture. But it wasn’t that piece of work that impressed the judges most. ‘Papa’, written by BETC creative Chrystel Jung and directed by Partizan’s Dario Fau, wouldn’t feel out of place at Sundance. “We love the fact that this small piece [of the broader campaign] became the one that has been most awarded,” says Bertille. “It is fresh because it is about authenticity and it's fun. And it's good to be fun.”

Working on that account looks like a fun job. “We have always told CANAL+ that we are not making advertising for them,” says Bertille. “We are making short films for its programmes. We call it échantillonage in French, when we give a short scene of what people can expect if they buy CANAL+. That makes creative people here very excited. Because suddenly, it's like they are directors for CANAL+. They're making shows. It's the same job in fact, just very short.”

  

Moreover, that’s the sort of work that attracts talent to advertising. When Bertille talks about careers in her capacity as president of French agency association the AACC, she often takes this approach. “When I'm discussing what advertising is to young people who don't care about advertising, who don't want to work in advertising, I'm very sad about that,” she says. “So I always say we are like a bridge between the marketing business and the industry of culture. Every day we go from one side to the other. I go from [meetings with] huge brands and I go to see directors, top models, songwriters - whoever is part of the culture industry. We create value by speaking the same language as business people as well as people from the industry of culture. It's a very privileged place to be able to play.” 

Bertille has been speaking fluently in both business and culture to her clients at Lacoste since she joined BETC, and the trust between brand and agency is obvious. You need only glance at the Commendation-winning ‘Unexpected Encounters’ work to see. “Lacoste is a brand which is really blooming in the world. That’s important because for what we call ‘accessible luxury goods,’ the market was not so optimistic.” In that climate, BETC were briefed to create an outdoor campaign.

  

“Outdoor is an old exercise, but it's a very difficult exercise,” she says. “Most of the time when you look at outdoor, it's a piece of shit – big products with big prices and maybe even worse.” But, avoiding those pitfalls is a challenge BETC relishes. “Outdoor is a place where you can see if people are really creative or not, because it's very short, and very static. It’s complicated to communicate one idea in one image or one word. How many creatives are still capable of doing this work?” 

Certainly, one of them is the woman behind the commended Lacoste work, Agnès Cavard, who Bertille notes was also involved with the famous Evian babies. Both that work and ‘Unexpected Encounters’ simplify a truth about the brands. For Lacoste, photography and a brand mark combine to remind us of something we all know to be true about the brand: “The fact that some people who wear a Lacoste polo shirt are taxi drivers, some are edgy teenagers, some are rock-and-roll singers, but some people are housekeepers who have one Lacoste polo. All these people from all over the world wear the crocodile the same way.”

In a world where we are constantly reminded of the divisions between people, we are all looking for things that unite us. “The choice that Lacoste made to cultivate what we've got in common is a very courageous choice,” says Bertille. “In our luxury industry, most of the time you want to cultivate the ‘hyper’ part of your target audience - the people that are cool, the people that are rich, the people that are beautiful - and the fact that this brand decided to cultivate what we've got in common? This is cool.”

Anywhere in the world, you can look at the photographs of the pairs in ‘Unexpected Encounters’ and understand that truth. And this is what BETC demonstrates so well as an agency. Bertille notes the way that Evian did the same: “A huge global brand, even if it started in France. I like to say that we are based in Paris, but we've got ears and eyes everywhere. When you are French in an industry which is massively Anglo-Saxon, you have a lot of humility because even the way you speak, it's different, it's not comfortable for you, for people who you're talking to. It makes you humble. And I like the fact that because we listen more. I think that this is a listening agency.”

  

Again, it’s about the agency being a bridge between people with different experiences, who (in this case literally) speak different languages. “This is the true heart of our job,” says Bertille. “To find ways to speak with people that are not from your culture, not from your country, not from your past. And this capability to talk to strangers is the purpose of creativity – to express something that shouldn't need explanation.”

  

Those are the people that BETC is finding and nurturing, immersing them in its culture and giving them access to the best craftspeople to make their ideas sing. For Bertille, success like these Immortal Award wins are affirming what is working at the agency. ”It gives me faith that we’ve got the creative culture. If you respect the creative culture and if you invest in human talent, then you've got a long path ahead.”