Independent advertising agency The Hallway turns 15 this year.
So what's its secret to longevity?
CEO Jules Hall and chief creative officer Simon Lee told AdNews it's all about the partnerships.
“Running this agency was never a safe bet and anyone starting an agency will learn nothing is ever safe," Hall said.
After running the agency alone for two years, Hall - looking for more support - approached 'frenemy' Simon Lee to be his creative director. Lee agreed after a few rounds at Sydney nightclub The Ivy in 2010.
“We liked working together as frenemies [at different agencies on the Westpac account] so we thought let's work together as friends," Lee said.
Within six months they formalised the partnership which cemented the projection of what the agency is today.
Lee: “When you start an agency there’s a lot of optimistic adrenaline rushes but inevitably at some point that bubbling enthusiasm stops.
“The trick is then figuring out how to ride onto the next stage.”
Jules Hall and team accepting AdNews' Social Responsibility/Pro Bono Award for 2023 for their BOYS DO CRY campaign.
The bosses relationship
Now in its 15th year the duo agreeded this is the best time in The Hallway’s history - although the agency isn't the biggest it's ever been, it is growing the fastest.
Similarly, the duo's partnership is the best it has ever been.
Self-described as the yin and yang of The Hallway - Hall is the commercial head and Lee is the ideas machine.
"There's a healthy tension in those two things," Hall said.
"I've got to make sure that we can pay the bills at the end of the month and Simon’s got to make sure that the products are good enough that the clients will come back next month.
“What's interesting is how we've learned to work together - the ease of which we spar safely and debate without taking anything personally.
“We've had really hard conversations and really easy conversations - it's the hard conversations that define you."
Lee: “When I think about the things that I'm most grateful for over the journey we’ve had, it's that personal growth that comes from those conversations.”
Jules Hall and Simon Lee, 5 years ago.
The CMO relationship
“The day you win an account is the day you start losing it - which is the brutal reality of this game," Hall said.
The darkest day for The Hallway was when the agency lost a huge insurance client.
Even though they had survived four CMOs in two and a half years, the fifth CMO took the account away.
Hall: “That’s when we realised, this isn't just champagne and excitement, this is business and there are really dark moments.
“After losing that account we had to let people go because we had to reduce our overhead which made us grow up quite a lot.”
Lee: “Having to let people go is the hardest bit because you're a tight-knit team - kind of like a family, but there are commercial realities.”
However, this tough experience taught the duo that strong client relationships is the key to running a successful agency.
Hall: “This is a people business and it's actually the CMO who is the most important person, not the brand they work for.
“It really doesn't matter what the brand is - provided you've got the right leader on the client side who respects the value of the partnership.
“If an agency is treated as a commodity supplier, well, they've got very little security.
“If there's a partnership with mutual respect, there's security.
“There are contracts, pricing models and all those things - but the reality is if someone wants to terminate a relationship they can. So you want them to see value in continuing working together.”
Jules and Simon 'having a bit of fun' at an agency off-site.
Would Hall and Lee do things differently if they started The Hallway today?
When asked if you were to start The Hallway today would you do everything the same? Hall bluntly said no way.
Hall: “The world of communications is so fragmented and constantly evolving, there's a lot more breadth of capability required.
“You've got two choices if starting an agency today - be very niche and specialist or scale relatively quickly and get a breadth of capability.
“Both are good, but if you get caught in the middle - where you’re not a deep specialist and you haven't got adequate scale - you're in no man's land.
Lee: “In the early days we felt like we had to have all the answers, becuase when you're young, dumb and just super confident - I certainly lacked the humility to ask for help.”
"But what we’ve realised is that people who have successfully built businesses are often very generous with their time and their wisdom.
"If I was starting an agency today, I would rapidly reach out for advice."
How many more years will The Hallway stay around?
2020 was the best year for The Hallway despite being the early pandemic, amongst other things, with the launch of Binge into Australia.
Hall: “Our clients were charging, but we could see a change on the horizon of moving creative work in-house because budgets were shrinking and targets were going up."
We’re for the Bingers platform, developed with The Hallway.
“Although all our clients told us the same thing - that they could never bring ideas in-house," Hall said.
“So we decided to double down on the strategy of our agency investing even more into ideas and creativity, aligning the whole agency behind the commercial imperative of creating great, affective work.
“Some people opted out of the business when we made that change and we were doubting ourselves massively.
“But since then the agency’s momentum has built up and the quality of our work has stepped up - we released Boys Do Cry and the Suncorp Bank work was excellent.”
The Hallway reimagines Cure hit to create BOYS DO CRY campaign.
Suncorp Bank launches 'Banking you can feel good about' via The Hallway.
“I can tell the story now because - touch wood - the strategy is working," Hall said.
“The quality of work is going up and we've got a great group of people who are united on our creative mission.
“And while I found it quite threatening when all these agencies started popping up, I'm massively confident as we have 15 years of heritage and a great reputation in the market.”
Lee: “Our vision is to be Australia's most valued communications company.
“So where will The Hallway be in the next 15 years? We will have fulfilled that vision.”
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