Newsmaker: Ali Shabaz on his first four months at The Brand Agency and his mission to elevate creativity in Western Australia

After leading creative teams across Singapore and the Middle East, The Brand Agency Perth’s new Executive Creative Director Ali Shabaz is bringing a world of experience and a global creative mindset to Western Australia. In this new Campaign Brief WA Newsmaker regular series, Shabaz shares his thoughts on adapting global thinking for local audiences, nurturing Western Australian talent, and why he believes great ideas can come from anywhere.

You’ve led creative teams across Singapore and the Middle East. What unique perspectives are you bringing to the Perth market? And what was the appeal of taking up the offer to move countries with your family and join The Brand Agency in Perth.
I’ve always enjoyed the experience of working in different markets and the challenge of understanding the nuances of different cultures. When I was offered this role at The Brand Agency in Australia, I was excited at the idea of working in a different market once again – but also one that has a history of producing some of the best ideas in the world.

Even though every region has its own culture, I’ve seen that challenging beliefs and bringing in different ways of thinking can spark new ideas. I’m excited by the opportunity of not only putting The Brand Agency more on the world map from a creativity perspective, but also Western Australia as well.

How do you adapt regional and global creative thinking to resonate with Western Australian audiences?
The wonderful thing about good ideas is that they have universal appeal. I’m finding that people here appreciate good work, same as anywhere else in the world. There’s definitely a WA way of life and culture here and I’m embracing it fully. But people are people and great work connects across national boundaries and ways of life.

Four months into the role at The Brand Agency, what’s your assessment of the agency’s creative strengths and what have been your priorities since joining?
I’ve been settling into WA, the role and getting to know our clients, so it’s still a learning experience for me. The Brand Agency has a strong focus on creativity – this is clear from the talent I see across the different parts of the agency. We also partner with many of the most prominent brands in the state. So my immediate task has been to understand these businesses and their ambitions so I can help deliver work that makes a difference.

I’m excited by the work we have in the pipeline and how the agency and our clients are embracing the opportunities.

I assume your mandate is to lift the agency’s creative product. What does that look like in practice, and how do you plan to achieve it?
As far as Western Australia goes, our work is in a good place. But I think we can do even better given the talent we have and the brands we work with. This means challenging some of our beliefs and integrating new thinking and technology into the ways we work. The goal is to push for ideas that people talk about and share on their own social channels. That’s not easy to do but is the ultimate test of how good our work is.

Do you see talent in your current creative department and is there creative potential in the agency’s client list?
Yes, to both these questions. We have an amazing mix of clients at The Brand Agency. Great work happens when we have talent, not just in the creative department, but across the various disciplines in the agency, and we definitely have that.

What’s your approach to developing bold ideas in the Perth market that historically doesn’t often reach the same heights as the Melbourne and Sydney market?
I don’t think the quality of work has much to do with geography. Great work can come from anywhere. It all comes down to putting creativity at the centre of everything we do for our clients.

How do you balance creative risk with client expectations? It’s only been four months but do you think Perth clients in general actually want great creative work and what is the key to achieving it?
Doing work that is formulaic, dull and expected is the biggest risk for any client and a waste of their money. In my experience, over the last four months our clients really understand this. Our job is to help them achieve their business goals using creativity. If we can demonstrate how creative ideas have real impact on their business, every client will want that for sure.

The Brand Agency is part of the WPP network. How does being part of the network help the local Perth agency?
Being part of the WPP network means that I am connected and talk regularly with the creative leaders across the region. It also means that when workloads on local clients allow, our creative team have opportunities to work on international brands, which is a great learing experience for them.

It’s also worth adding that whilst we are part of a global network, all work for WA clients is created by Western Australians working in our Perth office. We are a WA agency and it’s important that work for our clients comes from Western Australians.

Over your time in Asia and UAE what were 3 creative highlights that stand out?
The three favourite pieces of work, that I think are highlights would be the print campaign for Lego which did well at Cannes and other award shows, Oreo Cookie Takeover for Mondelez , a good example of using digital in a fresh way and the “Waitrose Moon” where we were allowed the rare opportunity to alter the logo of a famous brand.

Waitrose Moon

Oreo Cookie Takeover 

Lego Never Gets Old

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