What’s the most relevant business and/or creative lesson you learned in 2023 and how will you apply it to 2024?
In 2023 I began to really connect with people on LinkedIn. Sure I have been on the platform practically since its inception, but my experiences were very transactional. Posting my perspective on the industry, consuming others’ content about whatever it was they were posting about. This year however, I really began to interact with people, I began to develop relationships and connect on a human level. It’s opened my eyes and it’s expanded my network. We’re all busy and we don’t often take the time to truly engage with people. And that’s where the inspiration really is.
For next year, I’m building on that connection by committing to engaging in more dialogue, deepening my connections, and being more helpful to more people. And I’m planning to do it offline as well as on. For me, 2024 will be the year of the breakfast meeting, the lunch date, the industry happy hour, and the client dinner. People. Faces. Handshakes. Hugs.
While gazing into the crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to content creation and/or the creative and/or business climate for 2024?
I think we will see brands that had previously had tunnel vision for transaction-based advertising embrace brand-building. They’re starting to realize that in a world where everything can be copied and commodified, building deep and meaningful relationships with consumers is the only way toward long-term brand loyalty and growth. And I hope that extends to brands building authentic connections with a certain affluent, outspoken, and powerful (over 25% of the country) group: Women over 40.
Gender pay disparity, sexual misconduct and the need for diversity & inclusion are issues that have started to be dealt with meaningfully. While the industry has made strides to address these issues, there’s still a long way to go. What policies do you have in place or plan to implement or step up in order to make progress on any or all of these fronts?
Fancy is 100% women-owned, operated, and driven. And we’ve been that way since day one in 2011. As important to us as the work we create on behalf of our clients is creating an environment that works for the way women want to work. We’ve had a distributed workforce for over ten years, we create bespoke solutions for family leave, and we assemble teams on a case-by-case basis to maximize opportunities for passions and skillsets to align with client objectives. We know that when women can fit the job into their life (as opposed to their life into whatever’s left after their job), the work is more inspiring, and the experience is more fulfilling for everyone. We’re not doing this because we have to, because the industry is shifting, because the world is watching. We work this way because it’s the only way we can. It’s who we are.
