CHE Proximity’s “Sweet Spot” Between Consultancies & Agencies

CHE Proximity’s “Sweet Spot” Between Consultancies & Agencies
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine
SHARE
THIS



We’re at the three-quarter mark of our podcast mini-series in collaboration with Seventh Street Media (SSM), and what better way to keep the ball rolling than with CHE Proximity chief executive Chris Howatson.

CHE Proximity was the big winner at last year’s B&T Awards, taking home the Data-Driven Marketing, Direct Response/Performance Agency of the Year, Advertising Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year gongs.

Speaking to SSM boss Luke Girgis on Fear At The Top, Howatson (pictured above) talks about his sheer love for his job and advertising, as well as how he’s helped evolve CHEP’s model over the last five years to become a leading agency.

Howatson says that with data and technology fundamentally changing the industry, it’s creating a “massive chasim” emerging between the agencies that have adopted change and those that are still talking about the pure power of creativity.

“Creativity is empty if it’s not focused, and so I think what our responsibility is as a modern advertising agency is to better understand the customer and apply the power of creativity in such a precise and deliberate way that we can justify to our clients that marketing gets them up into that c-suite area of influence,” he says.

According to Howatson, CHEP has found the “sweet spot” between consulting firms and other agencies.

“[Consultancies’] limitation is in terms of creative execution. Conversely to that, agencies are really good at creative execution, but potentially bad at the upstream thinking stuff,” he says.

“I think the sweet spot is in between both of them, and that’s what I really think we’ve achieved over at CHEP over the last five years: balancing consultancy capability orientated around customer experience.

“We’re not going to consult to Telstra about whether they should create a second brand in Australia and how much they should invest in building a 5G network – that’s Bain and McKinsey stuff.

“Very much our sweet spot is how do we create customer experiences that make people more valuable to brands, and then what’s the unmissable content that motivates people to behave.”

Howatson also addresses what he thinks is the fundamental problem with advertising today: that it’s all broad to appeal to individual wants.

“The way to solve the problem of terrible advertising is to treat the world as an audience one, and how do we continue to solve an individual’s problem, and then figure out how we to that at scale to many individuals. That’s how we try to do things,” he explains.

Listen to everything Howatson had to say in the podcast embedded above, or via iTunes.

And if you missed the first two episodes of our podcast mini-series, you can catch them here and here.

Stay tuned for our final podcast of the series tomorrow, featuring PHD Media chief Mark Coad!

Please login with linkedin to comment

CHE Proximity CHEP chris howatson creativity Fear At The Top Luke Girgis Seventh Street Media SSM

Latest News

Vision6 Launches First-Ever National Brand Campaign “Simply Reliable”
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns

Vision6 Launches First-Ever National Brand Campaign “Simply Reliable”

Australian owned and operated email and SMS marketing software company, Vision6, announced the launch of its first-ever national brand campaign and new brand platform “Simply Reliable”. Founded in 2001, Vision6 was one of the first email marketing software providers in Australia and has since been relied upon by thousands of Aussie businesses and organisations for […]

JCDecaux New Zealand Grows Its Team To Lead Street Furniture Tender
  • Media

JCDecaux New Zealand Grows Its Team To Lead Street Furniture Tender

Out-of-Home media company JCDecaux New Zealand has appointed business growth specialist Adam McGregor in preparation for its bid to win upcoming local government street furniture tenders across the country. With contracts for the provision of street furniture including bus shelters across New Zealand up for renewal from late 2022, they collectively represent the biggest advertising […]

ABC iview Goes Virtual With Fetch TV
  • Media

ABC iview Goes Virtual With Fetch TV

Fetch TV has announced that ABC iview will soon be available as a dedicated Virtual Playlist Channel on the Fetch platform. Virtual Playlist Channels (VPCs) were developed by Fetch to promote content discovery, and to provide a clear bridge between the traditional world of linear TV and the growing availability of on demand content via […]

Jackie Gillies Joins The Acast Creator Network
  • Media

Jackie Gillies Joins The Acast Creator Network

Jackie Gillies, businesswoman, psychic medium and cast member of The Real Housewives of Melbourne is bringing her sassy, inspirational and adventurous spirit to her new podcast Shine It Up, With Jackie Gillies, which launches today via Acast. Hosted and distributed by the creator-first podcast company Acast, the show will offer listeners inspiration and motivation to […]

Hungry Vax, Jabstar, JAB Hi-Fi: Aussie Designers Give Iconic Logos A Pro-Vax Revamp
  • Media
  • Technology

Hungry Vax, Jabstar, JAB Hi-Fi: Aussie Designers Give Iconic Logos A Pro-Vax Revamp

Crowdsourcing platforms DesignCrowd and BrandCrowd are promoting vaccination efforts in a unique way, launching a logo redesign contest among their networks of designers. The initiative saw iconic Australian brands such as Hungry Jack’s, Jetstar, JB Hi-Fi, and Bunnings undergo a redesign.  “We thought it would be fun to see some other iconic Australian brands back […]

Harper’s Bazaar Australia Appoints Jillian Davison As Editor In Chief
  • Media

Harper’s Bazaar Australia Appoints Jillian Davison As Editor In Chief

Jillian Davison has been named editor-in-chief of the recently relaunched Harper’s BAZAAR Australia. She will oversee all content, development and creative direction across the iconic magazine’s digital and brand platforms. Davison (pictured) succeeds Eugenie Kelly, who recently stepped down to pursue other opportunities. The announcement was made by Maureen Jordan, publisher of Harper’s BAZAAR Australia […]

72andSunny Unveils First Campaign For Plant-Based Drink Brand Australia’s Own
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns

72andSunny Unveils First Campaign For Plant-Based Drink Brand Australia’s Own

Freedom Foods and 72andSunny Sydney have launched the first advertising campaign for Australia’s Own range of plant-based beverages. The campaign introduces a new visual world and identity for the brand and captures the healthy, positive feeling you get when spending time in nature and when consuming Australia’s Own certified-organic, plant-based beverages. As well as featuring […]