Human Relationships Are Integral to What We Do: Beverley Hammond, Broken Heart Love Affair

por India Fizer , AdForum

Broken Heart Love Affair
Publicidade/serviço completo/integração
Toronto, Canadá
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Beverley Hammond
Partner & Chief Business Officer Broken Heart Love Affair
 

We spoke with Broken Heart Love Affair's Chief Business Officer, Beverley Hammond, about BHLA's unique positioning of launching during the pandemic, creating consumer-centric philosophy campaigns for brands at a time when there was a disconnect with brands and consumers, and the importance of pushing back to ensure that employees' time and deserved breaks are respected.


Over the past year, work environments have had to change drastically. How has your agency taken employee feedback, coupled with what’s appropriate for the company to create a work plan going forward?

Our story is unique because we launched into the pandemic and all our growth and hiring has happened in that context. In spite of that (or maybe because of it) our growing team has always been very keen to be together. So, any time the rules allowed over the past 18 months (there were phases here in Canada where things opened and then closed again) we jumped at the chance to be with each other. Our biggest consideration hasn’t been if we would have an office and an office policy that would allow everyone to be together, but more so what the experience would be like in the office. We have been very open to employee feedback regarding creating a safe space for everybody. We are only as comfortable as the least comfortable person in the space which necessitates rigorous protocols for getting into the office, but more lax rules for those who are in the space.  We’ve just completed a renovation on our new office and took a bet on the idea that our team would want to continue to enjoy some of those comforts that we had all become accustomed to in the WFH state, so we created our new space to be “a little bit office and a little bit comfy couch”. Ironically so far, our team members have been finding a desk and settling in ‘old school’ for the day, rather than curling up with their laptop in a window seat, sofa or hammock.

 

How has the changing work landscape affected the way pitches and campaign briefs are approached and conceptualized?

There are a few ways to answer this question. At a macro level, for a number of brands, I think the exercise of trying to communicate in a pandemic environment was a wake-up call.  It’s impossible to authentically engage and show care in a crisis situation when you have no connection with your consumer, and many brands found themselves without the social license to say anything meaningful in this moment in time, even when they really wanted to. Candidly this has been good for us, given our focus on bringing the love back to brands and our consumer-centric philosophy.

As a creative shop, Broken Heart Love Affair came out of the gate in a fully remote landscape.  Our first campaign was created entirely on text between the creative and strategy partners. Our Cannes Lion winning campaign in our first year was pitched and conceptualized entirely remotely and the production took place under strict covid protocols. What we know and have proven is that ultimately the idea is what matters, notwithstanding the landscape. But the human energy that can impact a pitch outcome, the relationship dynamics and the ability to engage with enthusiasm (and without technical glitches) has certainly been missing in the video environment. Notably, since we have been in our new office every single client has asked to move meetings, previously scheduled to be remote, to in-person meetings.   Human relationships are integral to what we do, and it seems more and more clients want to get back to collaborating in real life with their agency partners. 

 

In what ways has this impacted the work-life balance of your employees and what steps have been taken to mitigate that? 

The blurring of the lines between personal and professional time in the WFH environment has been a key challenge for all businesses and one that we did our best to mitigate during the lockdown. The agency business can be all-consuming at the best of times, so without micromanaging we did take some action to ensure people took the time they needed away from their screens, took time off (even when they couldn’t travel) and shut down at the end of the workday. Anecdotally, on our agency anniversary we gave the entire team the day off. I personally reached out to all our clients explaining that it was important for every single person on our team to have the break they deserved and asking that clients respect this and not think “just one email will be okay”. Surprisingly, I didn’t get any pushback. In fact, quite the opposite. I got thank you emails back from clients who not only understood and were happy to comply but were really pleased to see that we were looking after our people.

 

Given that each work environment can look a bit differently, what has helped in creating a cohesive working relationship with clients?

We are a very senior team and an Indie shop, so the process of picking a partner has been a two-way street for us.  We aren’t for everyone and not every brand is right for us. Because we do transformative brand work, we are best for clients who aspire to be #1 or have everything to gain by playing big. We make that abundantly clear up-front and from there we establish honest relationships with our clients – we aren’t going to just tell a client what we think they want to hear. This honest collaboration is integral to doing great work together and an important aspect of our brand that will continue to be our approach to client relationships regardless of whether those conversations are going down on a screen or in real life. It’s really that simple for us.

 

What changes that have been made over the past year do you see sticking around for years to come? 

I think after 18 months of CEOs and coordinators alike all working in their slippers, meeting each other’s children and virtually being in living rooms and kitchens, a democratization has occurred on the corporate ladder.  No matter who we are, we all put our pajama bottoms on one leg at a time, right?!  I believe this will usher in a new normal in the business world that will be a little more relaxed and less hierarchical than the corporate formality of old.  

Of course, people now realize they can work from anywhere so flexible workplaces in a lot of industries especially in the creative economy is a trend that will stick around. There is another change that I believe has worked to our benefit and will remain – that’s the realization amongst clients that just as an individual can work from anywhere, so too an agency can be located anywhere. The increase in US work for us as a Canadian agency has been a proof point for that.

Personally, I’m hoping that pants without waistbands is a change that sticks around for years to come too.