By Robert Goldrich

Niklas Lilja was recently appointed innovation lead at Santa Monica, Calif.-based enso, a creative agency which helps brands like Google align business success with social impact. In his new role, Lilja leads the development of solution-agnostic innovation across all of enso’s clients, including Google Fiber and Google Get Your Business Online, to create maximum impact, engagement and utility. He works closely with the agency’s creative, activation, digital and account teams to lead and identify growth opportunities for prospective and existing clients.

Prior to joining enso, Lilja served as the director of innovation and creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners San Francisco (GS&P), where his work included the launch of the Chevy Sonic, Chevy Game Time, GE’s “Plug into the Smart Grid,” Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby, “Summit on the Summit” for HP, and “Birding the Net” for the National Audubon Society. Previously, he worked at 180Amsterdam on global integrated campaigns for adidas, adidas originals, Amstel, Glenfiddich, BMW and Sony. Lilja started his advertising career in 1998 at SEK in Helsinki, the global lead agency of Nokia. His work has been recognized in major award shows, including garnering eight Cannes Lions and two Gold Effies.

At enso, Lilja works closely with Kirk Souder, co-founder and creative lead.

“Driven by a vision to use creativity to do good, Niklas lives and breathes enso’s shared value philosophy that the future of brands lies in aligning business success with positive social impact for people and the planet. His vision and innovation expertise will be a huge asset in helping our clients generate meaning, purpose and growth around their brands,” said Souder.

SHOOT: What was (were) the biggest lessons you learned from your tenure at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners–and what does that experience enable you to now bring to enso?

Lilja: When I joined GS&P in 2008, it was leading the industry in integrating interactive and traditional creative, becoming One Show’s first Interactive Agency of the Year in 2009.

Over my five-plus years, I was leading projects that pushed the limits of technology in storytelling and blurred the lines between advertising, content and experience. That made me convinced the most extraordinary things happen at the intersection of defining the outcome but being truly open about the output that gets you there.

At GS&P, we were adamant about achieving real human connection, combing digital feats with emotionally resonant storytelling. At enso, I can push that further and ask how that connection turns into action, people acting together to achieve positive impact at scale.

SHOOT: What drew you to enso and what are the biggest challenges you face at your new roost? What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at large in terms of helping brands align business success with social impact?

Lilja: This is where I feel the industry–agencies and clients–are going.

These past couple of years have seen a rapid shift in both what’s expected of “advertising” and the erosion of the value traditional “ad agencies” can bring clients. To me, the talk about the ad industry crisis is really a crisis in purpose–or rather, the lack of it.

We’re in the midst of a major cultural shift where people expect brands to have a positive impact on both their lives and the world. As we’re moving from an information economy to a purpose economy, brands need to focus on the impact their company can have rather than creating ads, on the outcome rather than the output–otherwise they will become irrelevant.

My move is part of this cultural shift–both industry-changing and personal-life changing–which enso has been quietly spearheading for the past couple of years.

We’ve proven that this business model is wildly successful and has potentially huge implications for how businesses operate, but we’re just getting started. The biggest challenge is to get the industry at large to realize that profit and purpose aren’t incompatible, but, in fact, inseparable. That’s the reason I’m working at enso, pushing for that change.

SHOOT: Also wondering how your time at 180Amsterdam influenced your thinking and approach today? Was there a different mindset outside the U.S. which provided a perspective that helped you once you entered the American ad market?

Lilja: I joined 180 just in time for “Impossible Is Nothing,” adidas’ global relaunch. But it wasn’t just adidas’ tagline, it was the spirit that guided us as an agency. At a time when global ad-networks typically handled big clients, we, a 50-person agency, were the global lead for the likes of adidas, Amstel and Sony.  That mentality of “it isn’t size that matters but how you use it” has stuck with me.

180 was also a cultural melting pot, a collection of people from over 30 nationalities in one place. It quickly taught me to forget about day-to-day cultural references and to focus on emotional commonalities, universal truths and true stories. That attitude is the opposite of #trending. It is #human. And it’s been at the core of all my work stateside, as well. 

SHOOT: What are your priorities in your new role at enso?

Lilja: Jeff Weiner [LinkedIn’s CEO] has a wonderful bit about how your title isn’t your job. In football, a defender’s job isn’t to stop the offense; it’s to win the game. At enso, everyone’s job is to create positive impact at scale. That’s what I’m working on every day, and that’s what brings us all here.

The way we go about it is flipping the traditional agency workflow: we start with the potential impact, the outcome the project can have. My focus right now is making sure the output, the way we get there, is as forward-thinking, magical and useful as possible. And then push it some more.

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