Lindsey Evans is perhaps the greatest driving force behind one of the finest creative agencies in the world — Special.
As CEO of Special Australia, she has led the team to produce some of the most iconic work in adland. It’s showing no sign of slowing down, either. Back in June, it won the creative and brand account for IGA. A month prior, Cricket Australia named it as the creative agency for the Men and Women’s International Series. Its work for Virgin Australia won a Silver and Bronze in the Retail Campaign and Creative Commerce categories at the inaugural Cairns Crocodiles Awards last year.
Then, in November, Special won four Campaign Awards and two Agency of the Year gongs at last year’s B&T Awards — as well as taking home the Grand Prix.
With space fast running out in the trophy cabinet and time a precious commodity for Evans, B&T‘s editorial consultant, strategist, connector and bon vivant Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham managed to catch her for 10 very fast questions.
1. Special Australia just celebrated your 10th birthday, how did the agency celebrate such an outstanding milestone?
We brought everyone from Sydney, Melbourne, and Tokyo together for a day of inspiring talks, conversations, and community. The highlight for me was the Pecha Kucha talks given by ten random ‘volunteers’ from across the agency — I am blessed to spend my days with courageous, brilliant and generous people who continually blow my mind, warm my heart and fill my soul.
This was followed by a ‘night of a thousand thank you’s’ written large and small throughout the National Art School in appreciation to all the special humans — employees, partners, collaborators, advisors — who’ve helped us on our incredible journey thus far.
2. The agency’s trophy cabinet must be overflowing, are the local and regional Effies the ones clients value most?
We are extremely proud of all the trophies in the ‘cabinet’. There is value in them all (even though there are increasingly too many shows to enter). The Agency of the Year awards because they celebrate standards as a whole business — creativity and effectiveness, people and culture and commercial performance. The LIONS as they are on the global stage. But yes, the Effies (and effectiveness awards in general) are top of the pops because they prove the inextricable link between big, bold creativity to work that works.
3. Alongside your incredible Uber work what other work are you most proud of?
There can be no favourite children! Work that creates genuine impact. Work that is generous; that doesn’t barge its way into people’s lives. Work that requires diverse minds from different places to work together as one team to make it possible.
4. Does awards success help with new business wins?
It certainly helps garner attention amidst the clutter of agencies, but more to the point, it helps provide confidence in our ability to deliver. But you can’t trade off the past and we are never one to rest on our laurels. We’re the kind of people who are always thinking in the future tense so if you ask any of us, we’ll always believe that our best work is the work to come!
5. As an industry what’s one thing you would change to make us better?
We need to constantly strive to be more human — in everything we do and how we do it. The more human-centric our culture, the more creative our people… and, ultimately, the more creative our output. It’s a virtuous circle.
6. Your agency name is very special, how did it come about?
Special is obviously a bit of an audacious name which tends to set a bit of a high bar of expectations. That was quite deliberate when the NZ partners founded and named the company in Auckland in 2009. But not out of hubris. The reality is that the world didn’t need another agency… there were so many, and many of them very good. So by naming the agency Special our intention was not to be another good as, or even better than, player. It was our ambition to be different than — setting a standard for everyone to try and live up to every day.
7. When you started the agency what were your expectations for scaling up in the future? Did you ever dream of local & global success?
We definitely wanted to work with the best talent in the world and with the most ambitious brands in the world. And we wanted to live in Australia but work in the world.
All the partners — Cade [Heyde], Dave [Hartmann], Tom [Martin], Jules [Schrieber], Bec [Stambanis] and myself — and most of the leadership team have worked in diverse markets around the world — London, New York, Amsterdam, Portland, Los Angeles — at some of the best agencies in the world. As our partnership with Uber went from strength to strength and COVID made talent matter over geography, suddenly anything was possible.
Importantly we haven’t created a traditional corporate structure; rather we look to replicate the success of a partnership model to attract the best of the best to build it as their own in those markets whilst working as a global gang embracing a common, cohesive culture.
8. With the current economic headwinds, are your clients still investing in big, bold and brave creative campaigns?
In a word, yes. This may well be because we tend to attract clients who recognise the value of creativity to help future-proof their brands and sustain meaningful engagement with their audiences. Those that think about ‘return on creativity’ rather than just ‘return on investment’. The companies first to pull back on big ideas are those that tend to view marketing as a cost rather than an investment in future growth and earnings. So while it can sometimes be assumed that big bold creative entails too much cost and risk, the reality is that in today’s hyperdrive world with all its headwinds, no brand, or none with great expectations, has the luxury of not behaving creatively.
9. What’s one thing that’s not on your LinkedIn profile?
I took a job reverse-commuting out of Manhattan to the NYC suburbs working for a global hotel company. I lasted five days before quitting to join a downtown creative indie!
10. Important last question, do your parents know what you do?
They do. That’s not to say they understand how I actually spend my days (or that they are not spent hanging out with celebs on film sets).
