Strategy & Creative Director, A Little Bird
Career to date:
2016, Strategy & Creative Director, A Little Bird
2015, Creative Strategy Director, Smart Design
2010, Founder, Undercurrent Brands
2006, Head of Brand, Meteorite
2005, Co-founder & Creative Strategy Director, Vallis Tammaro
2000, Design Director, KSDP / BrownKSDP
Rob Tammaro: My main focus is to help accelerate the transformation of A Little Bird from experiential specialists to an agency that takes a more strategic approach to creativity in a multi-platform world. I ensure that our strategic thinking is as robust and as pioneering as our clients expect, and my aim is to elevate the standards of our creative output to become the very best. The past 12 months have seen us develop a new agency positioning based on a unique enthusiasm for brands with a challenger mindset. We have already gained client wins in this area we want to specialise in.
Rob Tammaro: I started working life as a packaging designer at the likes of Springetts, Dragon, Ziggurat, BrownKSDP, as well as spending a couple of years in New York with Wallace Church. I then had the opportunity to build the brand and design division at Meteorite, which was the platform for my transition into strategy and having a more entrepreneurial outlook. It helped me truly understand the value of creativity and the impact it has in the business world. I then founded the award-winning brand development agency, Undercurrent. A big highlight for me is that I’m proud to say that all of the Undercurrent team are now working for some of the best agencies around the world. That says to me that they had good grounding and the portfolio of work to prove it.
Rob Tammaro: I joined because I wanted a big new challenge. For many years A Little Bird was known as an experiential agency with a brand background. I saw the opportunity to help take the agency in a new direction. You could say we’ve been going through a start-up mode. The process of transitioning to an agency, which is far more about the bigger picture, as opposed to being purely tactical, has brought many challenges culturally and through delivery, but we’ve overcome them and are stronger for it.
Rob Tammaro: We’re lucky to have many rising stars at A Little Bird. They’re the ones that have impressed me the most. It’s always tough when businesses go through change – some survive, some don’t. The ones that have, have had to embrace a new way of working and have done that with willingness and infectiousness. We’ve also had some great new people join A Little Bird in the past year and they have added to the dynamic of the team brilliantly.
“If you have built a great client relationship and are producing great work for them, there is no reason for the agency review process not to end positively. If the relationship isn’t good, then it’s more likely that the work isn’t great. For me the review process is quite black and white.”
Rob Tammaro: We’ve been working on some truly exciting projects since we launched our new positioning with the likes of Gruppo Campari, St Austell Brewery and Weber. But it’s the work that hasn’t launched yet which I believe has been our best, so watch this space.
Rob Tammaro: Advertising rarely excites me. Brands do! And the ones that really excite me are the ones that are looking to change the game by setting their own rules. Brands that change the way we eat, drive, book our holidays, absorb and share content. Deliveroo, Zipcar, Airbnb and Instagram are all great examples of how brands have authentic stories and purpose at their foundation. That’s what excites me rather than the executional tactics.
Rob Tammaro: People. Always people. Whether at a coffee shop, White Hart Lane, the airport, or out shopping. Seeing how people relax or stress, concur or argue, soak up or give, there’s always a story or a piece of insight that can inform a brief. Holidays are also very important to me. When travelling, I’m always snapping away at interesting signage, graphics and graffiti. My Instagram posts are full of that sort of stuff.
Rob Tammaro: Reading the industry media and obviously, regularly logging onto Creativebrief is a given. But talking to people keeps me in touch with what I need to be in touch with. Clients, colleagues, friends, family or inspiring young talent always offer something to watch, pick up and learn. Culturally, I have my favourite publications as we all do, but you can’t beat taking in a great exhibition to let the mind go free.
“The humanisation of data and behavioural science is going to start to become a major phase of the project ecosystem.”
Rob Tammaro: I’ve always found the work of Paula Scher at Pentagram in New York hugely influential. Her obvious passion for illustrative typography has inspired her visual identity systems. As a young designer, it was her work that got me excited about street art, signage and graphics.
Rob Tammaro: I think the biggest challenge for agencies, particularly the smaller ones like ours, is staying relevant. That’s why I believe in the importance of a strong agency positioning. The competitive set is getting broader and agencies now offer a whole shopping list of creative deliverables. Even PR agencies are now offering moving image, social campaigns, visual identities and brand communications. For me, staying relevant is about sticking to what you know, doing it well, ensuring everyone within the agency embraces what you stand for and always delivering work against it.
Rob Tammaro: Digital will continue to dominate, so agencies must be fit for the modern world. The humanisation of data and behavioural science is going to start to become a major phase of the project ecosystem.
Rob Tammaro: If you have built a great client relationship and are producing great work for them, there is no reason for the agency review process not to end positively. If the relationship isn’t good, then it’s more likely that the work isn’t great. For me the review process is quite black and white. When it comes to pitching, I think we should be finding a way to eradicate free pitching. The debate has gone on for years and we’re all bored of it, but the reality is that no other industry offers their most valuable product for free. Creative pitches only happen if the client is not confident enough to appoint an agency, or just gets excited by the idea of seeing lots of agency ideas. It goes back to my previous point about agencies staying relevant and true to their positioning as they’re more likely to come across as experts in a particular area and easier for clients to appoint without a pitch. If free pitching is never going to go away, then perhaps the industry should look at some form of co-risk model with the client? Just a thought.
Rob Tammaro: The ones where great relationships have continued.
Rob Tammaro: ‘The Apprentice Effect’ has devalued the power of creativity, ideas and design. Showing the world that you can come up with a name, package design and ad campaign in two days is pretty moronic. We need to be doing more to demonstrate what the power of creativity can actually deliver for business, and eradicate all of the sub-standard style over substance trite that is far too often being produced. Brands are a client’s most valuable asset. They deserve and need the best strategic thinking and the most exceptional creative work possible. That needs their investment financially, but also the confidence that the agency world can deliver.
Rob Tammaro: There’s lots going on. All will be revealed in due course. But what I can tell you is that there’s exciting times ahead for us.
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