In this series, we’re taking a look at some of the most creative faces in Melbourne with some help from our friend Kathleen Gunther, who partners with independent agencies across Australia and New Zealand to scale their brand presence and drive sustainable growth. This week, we spoke with Laura Agricola, the strategy director of the SICKDOGWOLFMAN.
1. How long have you been in Melbourne and if you weren’t born here, did you choose it or did it choose you?
I was born in Melbourne and grew up in the inner west. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents migrated here from Italy, so I had that cliché Italo-Australian upbringing. Weekly (and very loud) family dinners, a cellar full of homemade wine, passata days, billiard table, and backyard figs (which we still have and take seriously).
But I grew up negotiating two worlds.
One was grounded in traditional, stoic values, like hard work, buying a home, and laying down roots. Very much a family focused on building something from nothing and not wasting time in the process. The other world was more…liberal. Not feeling the need to have a five-year plan. Revolver at 8am, Dockland raves, Summadayze, backpacking through Southeast Asia. My family called me a gyspy!
That tension between the two made me adaptable and really good at code-switching. I’m fluent at adjusting how I speak, behave, and make decisions depending on who I’m with or what context I’m in. Which, funnily enough, is exactly what I rely on in my job day to day.
2. What’s the most Melbourne thing about the way you or your team works?
We’re called SICKDOGWOLFMAN, and we’re based in Collingwood, so that probably tells you a lot already. We’re a bit obsessive, a bit nerdy. We care deeply about craft, but not about fitting into someone else’s idea of what a “proper” agency should look and sound like. And I think that’s very Melbourne. Compared to somewhere like Sydney or the Gold Coast, there’s less interest here in showing an over-polished fake version of things, and way more comfort in contradiction, individuality, and subculture.
3. Who in the local industry has shaped the way you think about leadership or doing business? Tell us about them.
I have to say, it was my very first agency boss, Paula Marreiros. She led a huge account service team on a mammoth retail client, and I was and incredibly green, pretty clueless suit thrown into the deep end.
Paula was steely-spined. She backed herself and always backed me, despite how useless I was (and I was pretty useless). There wasn’t a lot of hand-holding, but there was a dogged expectation on how I needed to show up.
She told me two things that I still carry with me: “I don’t care when or how you get the work done, just get it done” and “Don’t come to me with problems, come with at least two solutions.” The short version of that is “figure it out”.
At the time, it felt direct, but looking back, it was incredibly empowering. It taught me accountability and independent thinking. That you don’t need to be an a***ole to be respected, and championing someone can unlock so much more in them.
4. What’s your favourite Melbourne or Victorian campaign or project and why?
It was a while back, but “See the Person, Not the Disability” by Scope Victoria. I remember watching it and feeling caught out, realising I had all these quiet assumptions about disability that I’d never really questioned. It features a young man with cerebral palsy, headphones on, apparently showing the signs of cerebral palsy.
Then the message comes on, “Relax, he’s just another Radiohead fan”.
It didn’t show him as “other” or inspirational, just as a person with the same inner world as anyone else.
5. If you were a Melbourne landmark, what would you be?
Revs (Revolver). Say why you want, but Melbourne’s entire creative underbelly passed through there at some point, and it was just beautiful chaos. Spacey Space was one of its cult figures, especially for his marathon Sunday sets, and I was there for it. If you grew up here in the early 2000s, you are part of that Melbourne folklore, and that’s pretty cool.
Kathleen Gunther is the founder of Gunther Consulting, partnering with independent agencies across Australia and New Zealand to scale their brand presence and drive sustainable growth. With expertise spanning digital marketing, brand strategy, PR and communications, she brings the pragmatism, specialist connections and industry know-how to help agencies market their most important client — themselves. Kathleen also serves as a Board Member of AWIA, actively shaping Australia’s digital landscape and championing inclusivity in the industry.
