Paul Yole in Cannes: Something in the water with Aussies taking it to the world

Whilst in Cannes regular Campaign Brief contributor Paul Yole caught up with fellow Western Australian expats, Tim Seddon and Gene Brutty, about the career path and experiences that lead them to Tokyo where they are associate creative directors at Google.

At my first Cannes Lions in 2007 all the talk was about a new campaign from Ogilvy Toronto for Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Behind this great work was an expat Aussie called Tim who hails from Adelaide.

Since then we’ve seen Australians continue to perform at the highest level. There has been The Best Job in the World for Tourism Queensland, McCann Melbourne’s Dumb Ways to Die and of course a huge number of Grands Prix for David Droga’s once small agency. The list goes on.

Last year I spoke to Perth’s Matt Eastwood about his journey to the Worldwide CCO gig at J.Walter Thompson. Matt explained how his grounding in Australia, and in particular in the regional market of Perth, had been central to his personal growth.

Only two years after taking on one of advertising’s biggest jobs, Matt has more than trebled J.Walter Thompson’s Lions’ performance, with 79 this year.

So I thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with Google’s Tim Seddon (right) and Gene Brutty (left) to talk about their path from Perth to Sydney and on to Tokyo.

Not surprisingly, some similar themes emerged. So I’m writing this in the hope it may encourage young advertising people from smaller markets across the region to follow their dreams.

CB: You’re now Associate Creative Directors at Google Tokyo. What exactly does that mean –  what do you do day-to- day?

T&G: We’re part of a team within Google called the Zoo. We collaborate with agencies and brands to create innovative new ways to use Google’s products, platforms and technologies. We’re obsessed with developing ideas the world has never seen and only Google can deliver.

A typical day sees us working on briefs from around Asia-Pacific and chatting with engineers, technologists and production partners to try and do things that haven’t been done before.

CB: How easy was it to adapt to both a very different work environment as well as a new culture?

T&G: Well, it’d probably feel pretty similar to being thrown into a washing machine and put on rinse & spin for five months straight. Tokyo is an amazing sensory overload and Google is remarkable for both the breadth of its endeavours and the speed with which things happen.

What helped us was our desire to experience something completely new, to feel scared and insecure. We’ve avoided comfort and complacency our entire careers (we’re always running from it) and it’s certainly something you don’t find easily in Tokyo!

CB: What was Sydney like for you? How does it differ to your origins in Perth?

T&G: To be honest Sydney wasn’t much different from Perth. It’s bigger for sure, with more agencies, production houses and clients, but the challenges and frustrations remain the same.

Our time in Sydney was great. For a young creative team from Perth, it felt like we’d made it to Madison Avenue. The scale of the projects increased, the brands were bigger and more prestigious.

Coming from a smaller city we benefited from being the underdog. We needed to prove ourselves. We had nothing to lose other than being put on a flight back to Perth.

CB: How important was your grounding in Perth? Any thoughts for young Perth creatives?

T&G: We didn’t know it at the time, but the five or so years we spent studying and working as junior creatives in Perth was the most influential of our careers.

The limitations of the advertising industry in Perth forces creatives to be scrappy, to hustle and fight for ideas they believe in, even if it means bringing them to life themselves. This is a brilliant trait to have and one that Perth fosters well.

We set our sights on the world early on in our careers and did everything we could to get noticed locally, nationally and internationally. Don’t try to be the best in Perth, be the best in the world.

CB: What are your ambitions for the future?

T&G: We’re so lucky to be surrounded by some of the smartest, most passionate people in the world. If we can’t do something great here, I don’t think we can do it anywhere else. It’s been a long journey getting to Tokyo and getting acclimatised so for the next few years we just want to put our heads down and focus on the work. After that? Who knows.

Matt Eastwood presented a talk at Cannes this year around the theme of ‘Passion Trumps Talent’. Talent, according to Matt, is nothing without determination. Above all else, passion is the invisible catalyst that can inspire an ordinary person to do extraordinary things.

So if you’re under 30 and work in a smaller market be assured that nothing is impossible for you. But I would like to challenge you to also consider whether you can be part of a drive to build a global creative hotbed from within your own location.

You’ll never know until you try.