Sir John Hegarty believes that agencies no longer value ideas and brands as much they once did.
Following a talk in Sydney arranged by News Australia’s The Growth Distillery and The Marketing Academy, the BBH co-founder told B&T that while he believes we’re entering “the creativity age”, agencies have lost sight of what had previously made great advertising great. In part, this is due to the growing influence of the large tech players on advertising.
“Their [the platforms] business models are based on getting you to do more stuff, more people scrolling. It’s like any business in a way, but is it giving us value back? A supermarket might say, ‘We’re going to stock more product’ that’s seen by the shopper as a value, more choice. But just creating more stuff that gets us scrolling through more shit is actually not benefitting me. It’s not benefitting the planet and it’s not really benefitting the brand,” he said.
“There’s going to come a moment where we say, ‘we can’t go on doing this, the planet can’t go on supporting it’. I talk a lot about creativity as a green industry because a great idea needs less energy put behind it for it to be remembered. In the UK, we still remember Apple’s ‘1984’. It ran once, what about that for value? We remember Hovis and what it did with the Ridley Scott film made in 1973. That’s value.”
When asked whether the world’s ad agencies still value a good idea as much as in years gone by, Hegarty was direct.
“I don’t think they do. The evidence is they don’t. The evidence is they don’t necessarily value brands. If we’re entering the creative age, which I genuinely think we are because AI is going to do so much of the stuff, then surely we should be investing in creativity. If that’s the future, then you invest in creativity, understanding it, knowing how to promote it, knowing how to put it at the forefront, being a champion of it,” he said.
“I’m not isolating anyone in particular. Do I see large organisations doing that? Not really. We’re about creativity. A great idea is the difference between success and failure.”
That said, agencies these days are not shy of updating and remaking work. In 2019, Hovis remastered its ‘Boy on the Bike’ ad and re-released it to a rare five-star score from System1.
In 2024, Levi’s started to remake some of its classic ads, produced by Hegarty’s BBH, but starring Beyoncé.
The ads caught global attention with the first instalment notching 18 million views on YouTube. But they perhaps missed the point of the originals.
“Well, I was flattered. But I was disappointed because I didn’t think they were particularly well produced. I thought God, if you were looking at ‘Laundrette’ wouldn’t you think, ‘How can I make that even better?’ Surely that’s what progress is,” Hegarty said.
“As I said, I was very flattered. Did I think they were great? No, I thought they were good. Not great. I’m sure Levi’s would say it sold a lot of jeans. But I’m not sure it did wonders for the brand. But that comes down to opinion… I think you end up selling Beyoncé more than you sell Levi’s.”
Reclaim the power
One of the central themes from Hegarty’s talk was the idea that everyone is hunting for power in their professional and personal lives. Not in a malevolent way, to be clear, but more in the sense that we are looking for influence and control.
His advice for incoming and upcoming creative talents—whether working in agencies or elsewhere—was to build a following as much as possible.
“If I was coming in as a creative today, I’d be a creator. I’m trying to develop a following, I’d go online. The gatekeepers have come down. I had to deal with gatekeepers everywhere: ‘No you can’t do that, no you can’t do that’. I think it’s a great liberation,” he explained.
“It gives you a sense of power. You’re able to say ‘My creativity has got this number of people following me’. That gives me a power. And in life, everybody wants power.”
