What’s the most relevant business and/or creative lesson you learned in 2020 and how will you apply it to 2021?
Really, you can’t run a business or be creative without a good dose of empathy. And 2020 certainly brought that into crystal clear focus. The past 10 months have poignantly illustrated that we don’t necessarily know what’s going on in a person’s life. The struggles they face. The burdens they are carrying. The experiences they live. This applies to the people on your team, to your clients, to the audiences you create for. At Fancy, we’re looking at 2021 as an opportunity to be better. Better at listening. Better at understanding. Better at connecting. Better at pushing ourselves to be better.
How will the events of 2020–from the pandemic to the call for social and racial justice–impact the content you create and/or the way you work?
As tumultuous as 2020 was, and as much as none of us want to relive it (literally, or even in memory), it wasn’t a bubble. It didn’t pop at the stroke of midnight on Jan 1, 2021. I’m writing this on January 7, 2021, less than a day after the insurrection at the Capitol building in Washington DC and across state capitols, a day when 255,728 more Americans were diagnosed with COVID-19 and another 3,964 died. A day when the decision not to file charges against a white officer who shot and severely wounded a black man in Wisconsin was announced. As marketers and creators we have the talent and the tenacity to push the cultural needle forward. We can do it with the stories we tell, with the people we cast, with the crews we hire. What we do has the power to shape our world and people’s responses to it. It’s a privilege none of us can afford to waste.
Gazing into your crystal ball, what do you envision for the industry–creatively speaking or from a business standpoint–in 2021?
Over the next 12 months, I think we’ll be seeing more innovative ways of production, and more comfort with being remote, both from the agency and the client side. I also think we’ll be seeing fewer spots that are ABOUT being remote, fewer with that zoom/facetime/I-haven’t-left-this-room-or-these-sweatpants-in-months look. What WILL stay though is a deeper focus on understanding the real lives our audiences are living—it’s just that that means a lot more than their lives on their screens.
What are your goals, creatively speaking and/or from a business standpoint, for your company, division, studio or network in 2021?
Fancy has had a distributed workforce from our very beginning almost 10 years ago so the shift away from our office to FULLY remote for everyone all the time was easy in a lot of ways. BUT the absence of occasional get together in person for work, but especially for fun, has been acute. We’re going to be more focused on offering more ways to connect with each other throughout the year that aren’t on a screen.
Tell us about one current project you are working on for early 2021.
Right now, we can’t mention any specifics, but we’re working on a project that will continue to push the boundaries of how women’s bodies and their natural bodily functions are portrayed in media.
How did your company, agency, network, service or studio adjust/adapt to the marketplace in 2020 (new strategies, resources, technology, health/safety expertise) and what of all that bodes well for 2021?
We are a 100% woman-owned, operated, and focused ad agency. Consequently, nearly all of our team and clients are women, too. And it’s no secret that women, in particular, are carrying a tremendous load these days. We have not only scrapped the idea of a “workday” and allow our teams to block off the time they need to manage new daytime child responsibilities but as a leadership team with 9 kids between us from the ages of 3-25 (all of whom need us in different ways than they did a year ago), we are doing it ourselves. We’ve moved certain activities to “happy hour,” and eliminated others altogether. We are building an environment that recognizes the real juggle working moms have today. We are walking the talk, setting the example so our teams and clients feel comfortable doing the same.
What’s your New Year’s resolution, creatively speaking or from a business standpoint, for your agency, department or company?
We’re going to lean into the power of the positive this year. We’ve had it with the negative swirl all around us and if we can use our talents to help people move in a more positive direction—to think, to laugh, to grow, to learn, to feel—we’ll be helping to create the cultural shift that will make the world a better, kinder place
