Indie creative agency Hopeful Monsters has just turned two. Over that time, it has scored clients including Converse, Red Bull and Adobe, and has worked across 22 countries. While anthropology and evolutionary theory might not seem inherent to marketing, Katie Barclay, the agency’s CEO and founder, has taken a distinctly academic approach to culture that has set the agency apart from others, tapping into audiences to create lasting impact.
“Hopeful Monsters was born out of the belief that the most effective brands have an innate understanding of the culture that drives their brand and the role they play in shaping that, rather than just broadcasting a message. That’s when they see real commercial upside,” Barclay said.
“The word is thrown around a lot, but very few brands or agencies take it seriously. I’m not talking about a trend or a TikTok meme. We take quite an academic view of culture; it’s the values, attitudes and behaviours of a group of people. There are so many different subcultures; there might be a group of people that are really into skateboarding, for example, and that is a whole culture in itself. Since culture is specific to a group of individuals who share the same values and attitudes, you can essentially target them in a way that speaks to them as opposed to broadcasting a one-size-fits-all message”.
Barclay founded Hopeful Monsters—one of the only solely female-owned creative agencies in Australia—in Sydney in 2023. A Brit, she started out working at a WPP-owned agency in the UK and ended up in Australia as an account manager for a comms agency. In 2021, she acquired Magnum & Co and relaunched the agency as Hopeful Monsters in 2023, signalling a new chapter. Barclay emphasised that it wasn’t “the usual agency nip-and-tuck rebrand. We wanted to create a brand that’s genuinely different.”
“I didn’t come from a big creative agency network, so I didn’t have a ready-made book of contacts to bring with me. It’s been about building the business through doing great work and staying true to my values,” Barclay said.
In the last two years, the agency rolled out two global campaigns for ResMed, a sleep apnoea company, in eight different languages; it also launched the Converse All Stars program to put the sneakers back on the feet of young people; and won the account for NFL and Club Med and projects for Spotify.
These projects are certainly impressive for a two-year-old indie agency. But how did they do it?
Marketing Meets Anthropology
“We believe that there are two types of brands in the world. Some brands evolve slowly, following the same rules as the rest of the category, and then there are hopeful monsters. Hopeful monsters essentially shape and lead the culture,” said Barclay.
In evolutionary theory, a ‘hopeful monster’ is a species that has the potential to establish a new evolutionary lineage. As opposed to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which holds that species evolve slowly over time, hopeful monsters take a big leap to form something better. It happens when something in an environment causes a species to react.
“Hopeful monster brands are often challenger brands. That mindset comes through our entire business, from creative to strategy to execution,” Barclay said.
Barclay believes that brands are particularly well-placed to solve issues that are going on in the world.
“Brands are in this great position where, if they understand the role they can play in shaping the culture of a category, they can make a real difference to people’s lives,” she said.
“It’s not about solving big, global problems. For instance, Heaps Normal has recognised that some people want a good non-alcoholic option when they go out to drink at a bar with their friends. Helping people with all sorts of issues and recognising how to do so effectively and in a way that connects with people is so exciting”.
To achieve this aim, the agency launched a cultural intelligence and research unit, Change Things Lab. The unit combines ethnographic techniques, interviews with ‘cultural informants’ and technology to identify and predict trends happening in real-time.
“The team goes deep into the culture of a particular category to understand what the values of that group of people are to inform strategy and then creative work”.
It goes beyond understanding culture externally from the agency, though. Barclay wanted to build an agency culture that people love working for.
“Often, agencies talk about the importance of building brands with their clients, but not many agencies have a strong brand themselves. From the outset, I wanted our brand to speak for itself. A really strong identity and positioning that would make our creative team proud to work for.
“We launched our own cereal called ‘do good shit’, ensuring that you start the day right and that creativity isn’t constipated. It was born out of a series of breakfast panels we host where we invite CMOs and marketers to speak. One of the first ones we did was with ALDI, Tourism NZ and NFL,” she said.
The agency also launched an online store, the Hopeful Monster Mart that aims to “take the mickey out of the industry” with weird and wonderful items designed to spark curiosity.
Converse Brief: How To Win Back The Streets
Hopeful Monster’s work with Converse put these values into practice. Tapping into Australian youth culture, Barclay’s team set out to uncover why the sneaker brand had lost touch with young people and its once-strong position in the category. Rather than tapping big-name celebrities and “bidding for attention,” the agency earned the trust of youth by building a community of emerging creatives with its All Stars program.
“The brand had senior people in Australia, who noticed that many young people were wearing Vans. They wondered, ‘How do we win back the streets?’ and this became the brief.
“Rather than designing a campaign that the agency thought would work, the team went out and spoke to people at art schools, skate parks and design studios to find out the things that were shaping their purchasing behaviour and what brands they liked.
“This research was the basis of the global platform we developed for Converse, the All Stars program, which is now one of the biggest and most important pillars within the business globally. The platform gives young people a step up in their careers and connects with people across the world”.
For instance, the agency flew emerging creatives from across the world to collaborate with local Brazilian All Stars and experience the magic of Carnaval in São Paulo. Bringing together their cultures, sounds and creativity through a series of workshops, All Stars produced music tracks using Brazil and Carnaval as a backdrop of inspiration.
View this post on Instagram
Learning Lessons & Looking Ahead
One of the biggest lessons Barclay learned throughout her journey is that clients want to work with seniors. “Having a founder-led leadership model means that clients get ongoing senior support. Perhaps in the traditional agency model, that’s not possible or isn’t a priority.
“The other one is about building an agency brand. Ensuring that the agency stands for something and that clients understand your purpose. Traditional agencies have a legacy name that they can’t change and they don’t have so much freedom when it comes to playing with their brand,” Barclay said.
Barclay’s focus is on bigger, more transformative briefs “that help solve interesting problems. It’s a bit of a crazy world out there right now, and brands are perfectly placed to help solve some big issues. I want our agency to help more brands understand how much sense it makes commercially to understand the culture of your particular category and use it to their advantage.
“Our next chapter is not about growth for growth’s sake. It’s about continuing to work with great clients to deliver bold, integrated work that delivers on their brand mission. I’m confident that our momentum will continue”.
As brands are faced with an increasingly fragmented world and shortened attention spans, tapping into the culture of audiences to connect with them on a deeper level sounds like a superpower that many have forgotten the importance of.
