Thinkerbell CEO Margie Reid on building an agency

Ashley Regan
By Ashley Regan | 30 November 2022
 
Thinkerbell CEO Margie Reid via LinkedIn.

AdNews sat down with Margie Reid to talk about how she started in advertising and life at the colourful wonderland of full-service independent marketing agency Thinkerbell.

Reid began her advertising career at OMD, moved to Carat then Universal McCann, and returned to OMD for 11 years.  

Having worked her way up to OMD general manager Reid was yearning to build something of her own.

At the same time Adam Ferrier, Jim Ingram and Ben Couzens had just started Thinkerbell and were looking for an equity partner, somebody who could run the business. 

thinkerbell cofounders

So Reid met with them - quite a few times - and each time Reid was intrigued by the opportunity to co-create this establishing entity.

Reid started three months after the official start of Thinkerbell in 2017.

“When Thinkerbell first started it was just foundational, but had solid proposition,” Margie Reid told AdNews.

“We were practically sitting on top of each other on trestle tables in a tiny office in Hardware Lane - it was chaotic.

“And I definitely brought order to the boy’s chaos.

“We absolutely had to hustle - get things wrong, try again and eventually get it right, building every bit of infrastructure, IT and processes from scratch.”

thinkerbell old office

Pictures of Thinkerbell's first office.

Although Reid had an epic career in advertising so far, she had never worked in a creative agency.

While stepping into a creative agency for the first time may not scare all, add the pressure of a C-level title and most would shake in their boots.

However, this unmarked territory excited Reid for the massive learning curve of working closely with creatives and understand the dynamic of creating ideas. 

“I'd been around creativity all my life and I've always worked really closely with creative agency partners - so I did have the knowledge and appreciation for it all,” Reid said.

“I truly believe everybody at Thinkerbell is creative and we encourage everyone to think that.

“I’m not a creative ideas generator, but I’m a creative thinker and have a pretty broad spectrum of creativity  - I love everything from theatre to painting and all types of art through to Japanese flower arranging Ikebana. 

“I think media people can come into this environment and go - ‘oh I'm not creative’ - but once they realise they have the opportunity to see their ideas flourish in society, they really start to see their creative selves come out and it's really beautiful.”

Today, Thinkerbell is Australia's 12th top startups, has won a dozen industry awards and holds a hefty list of impressive creative work - most notably its XXXX Postcodes Of Origin campaign which has been shortlisted for AdNews’ Brand Partnership Award 2022.

Currently, with 140 employees, its Melbourne office is located in the heart of Richmond, three floors up in the heritage Australian Knitting Mill building and plans to add a second floor next year to accommodate the agency’s growing team. Plus, Thinkerbell Sydney recently moved to an impressive Redfern office.

thinkerbell new office

thinkerbell new office

Thinkerbell's Melbourne office - pictures sourced from Office Snapshots.

Walking around the agency’s playful office Reid introduced me to some of Thinkerbell’s first juniors, she explained how some came straight from University and are now several years into their careers having achieved promotion after promotion.

“There’s certainly something about the respect and appreciation for everyone who's shaped Thinkerbell and I often talk about the fabric of it,” Reid said.

“The fact that everybody has woven our brand into what it is today, not for a second do I think it's just because of the founders and I.” 

Seeing Thinkerbell staff grow is the most enjoyable aspect of Reid’s role.

“It’s just amazing watching them do it on their own,” she said, “of course, we guide and support them, but it's their own ability, tenacity and courage that got them there.

“We like to call our offices a community because I think calling your coworkers a family can overstep things,  families can have fights but a community comes together.

“I definitely think of Thinkerbell as a community of different people, because we don't expect everyone to be the same and we celebrate our uniqueness.

“We don't have a cookie-cutter approach to people, you could be a little bit of this and a little bit of that you don't have to fit into one job description. If staff want to lean into a little bit of earned media or creative there's the ability to stretch themselves at Thinkerbell. 

“In that sense, that's where that community comes together, we don't like seeing anyone stuck. We're in here together, doing it together, we’re one team.

“One person’s success is the whole business’ success.”

What does looking after talent look like today?

Reid admitted even Thinkerbell has felt the pressures of the Talent War as agencies are battling over attracting and retaining the same people.

As a result, Reid has focussed on building the agency’s workplace culture initiatives to ensure the agency can remain competitive in this harsh market. 

“We've enhanced our initiatives to suit the modern workforce,” she said.

For example, Thinkerbell has actively leaned into the beauties of COVID and offers very flexible remote working.

“Thinkerbell has lots of people working interstate and in regional areas. So we have a good laugh with it and put a Thinkerbell logo on a map in each part of the world where a staff member is working remotely at that time.

thinkerbell staff map

“We've had somebody in South America for two months so that he could be with his family there.

“Another one was just in Germany with his Mum and working for three weeks, we have somebody in London and Bali right now.

“Before staff leave we speak with them and ask how will they stay connected when working remotely? What will it look like when you do your job? What will your setup look like?

“Especially when there’s multiple timezones to consider we have to ask them what's a reasonable time for you to log on to and stay connected with the team?”

Mind expansion is another culture initiative Thinkerbell which offers staff an extra five paid leave days per year to do something to expand their minds outside of work.

“You have to do something you wouldn't normally do,” Reid said, “so I'm about to do an acrobat course, where I'm gonna fly through the sky and try to ride a tricycle. 

“I'm a bit terrified, but I'm going to do it because I think it would expand my mind into this freedom that my body wouldn't normally do. 

“We also have The Pot of Gold, which is basically a $5,000 pool from Thinkerbell to give to a staff member if they have got a business idea. 

“For this they present a business idea to the leadership team, we then give feedback, they finesse it and then we give them $5,000 to make the idea come to life. 

“We’ve got a few ideas in the works now, one is a coffee table book which will be launched in the next couple of weeks.”

Doyenne Discussions is another highlight of Thinkerbell’s initiatives, which was created by Izzy Daniels (and a group of other younger women) who started with the agency with only 19 employees.

Doyenne Discussions is a series where women guest speakers come into the office and talk about their experience being a woman in the corporate industry.

Reid: “It's a nice way to get everyone involved, we have all the men and women in the office join because we want to educate everyone, and not make it feel like it's a women's club.

“I shared my story with the agency and I put up a slide of all the things that people have said to me over the years that hurt.

“Even just sharing that people were like - ‘what the fuck’ - that's happened to you too?”

thinkerbell's Izzy Daniels

Izzy Daniels, lead thinker at Thinkerbell, told AdNews: “The vibe in the office after we leave the sessions is crazy, both men and women say it’s inspiring but are also in disbelief that stuff like that even happens. 

“Lucky for us at Thinkerbell we aren't really exposed to it here. So it’s important to keep gender equality in check and continue to push with initiatives like this.”

Reid: “We also have a dart board which is for when employees have an anniversary. Every Friday I throw a dart for whoever’s been with us for another year.

“Whether that be their first, second, third year and so on. We've now got some people moving into their fifth year at Thinkerbell. 

“The things they can win could be a pub lunch, a limo that takes you to work, a night at a hotel or lunch with me at a fancy restaurant which is just a beautiful way for me to get to know people better.”

Thinkerbell has offered free mental health support for staff for a while but increased that support as a result of COVID lockdowns.

“We used to have three free therapy sessions but bumped it up to six during COVID. Post COVID some people have come out with pretty strong mental health issues so we've trained a lot of our team as mental health first aid officers now to support us.

“For me, it's really about respecting that everybody has something happening in their life and it doesn't matter if it's physical or mental - it's still an illness."

Looking forward…

“I'm excited seeing our brilliant people continue to create magic, seeing people grow and continue to expand and lean into our model," Reid said.

“Our model is not for everyone, there's no doubt about it but we want to keep celebrating it. 

“Obviously, if we open up Thinkerbell in New Zealand, that'll be big and there's lots of other things happening but when I look around at the people we have here it’s amazing seeing us back together.”

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