How Funday and Its Leaders Challenge Traditional Advertising Delivery
It’s not always easy making a splash as an up-and-coming, challenger type agency. You’ve got to find strong employees in a scene where headhunting is consistent. You’ve got to establish an effective clientele list, and prove that what you offer is better than that in the landscape around you. And, if you’re an independent shop, you’re usually doing all of this without the major financial backing, connections and resources that a holding company can offer, which sometimes makes life a smidge easier.
However, that isn’t to say it can’t be done. There’s a reason some of Canada’s independent shops are world-renowned, gaining notability as time has gone on and proving that the decision to shoot for the stars was indeed tactically sound.
Such is the case for Funday, which is at a pivotal stage in its existence. Coming up on nearly four years in the business, the agency and its team are proving that a fully remote, independently-owned, non high-volume-performance agency has its place in modern advertising. With a recent series of client wins, the name is only growing more recognisable, as the leadership team continues to internally break down silos and ensure the ethos of not taking themselves too seriously blends seamlessly with excellent work product.
To learn more about the factors driving this, what this looks like, and why this works so well, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with CEO and partner, Jeff Dack, for a chat.
LBB> From the top, let’s talk about leadership. You’ve previously mentioned everyone follows the same ethos, and contributes to successful culture, work product, and growth. What does this look like, and why is it so important to you?
Jeff> Funday is a branding and marketing agency that believes there is always fun to be had. We have amazing clients who trust us to not only help them strategically and creatively, but to execute and produce for them. So, of course, while we have an ethos built around work-life integration and not taking ourselves too seriously, we simultaneously have a standard of excellence we hold everyone up to when it comes to the work we produce.
This takes everyone on our team – and by team I mean the collective between the agency and the client’s team – to be on the same page working together. It’s why we encourage our clients to be in our Slack. It’s why we are in constant communication through huddles, video, etc. And because ours is a completely remote environment, we are just that much more deliberate and intentional about the ongoing conversations centred around the culture and our work… since that’s really what it’s all about for us.
LBB> Building on this, how do you ensure everything is resourced fairly and properly? What kind of structures do you have in place from the top down to ensure this sense of well-roundedness?
Jeff> We aren’t a high-volume-performance-type agency. Those agencies are awesome at what they do and have their place, but they operate on tonnage. They are constantly in execution mode, always pitching (filling orders if you will) – more of a templated approach. The reason I mention this is because it’s the opposite of what we do at Funday. Our agency trades in quality. We create bespoke outcomes for our clients. We make ‘ad-like objects’ (because qualifying what an ‘ad’ is today is a whole other interview) and as such, the work needs to be resourced responsibly but with an eye towards creating the best conditions to produce the best answers for our clients.
Like any good agency, we have tools to help, but recently we did away with time sheets. Our time sheet programme, called ‘Fun Sheets’, was awesome. It took 60 seconds and you were done for the week… but so be it, we are not interested in selling increments of time. Rather, we want to sell a quality work product that helps our clients. Needless to say, we’re all better off for it.
LBB> Having multiple perspectives and areas of expertise at the top is very important. So what does each of you bring to the table that’s unique?
Jeff> From a leadership perspective, seeing as we’re a small but growing boutique (now 50 of us ‘Funatics’), each of us on the team is accretive to the mission.
January Kohli (vice president of client services) and Kelsey Chudiak (strategy director) lead the account service and strategy functions. They’re awesome at what they do and keep our clients’ expectations managed, but are also here to challenge the status quo and push the inputs that eventually lead to better outputs and outcomes.
Kathryn Whiteside (executive creative director) and Jared Folkmann (partner and chief creative) lead the creative teams and do an amazing job at keeping the crew motivated and busy enough, but with room to think, breathe and execute. Because Kathryn and Jared have worked together for so long, they also have a knack for finishing each other’s sentences and anticipating the needs around them. Their unspoken language reverberates throughout our virtual halls.
Finally, Alex Baghdjian (co-founder and chief strategy officer) and I share business development and management responsibilities. Alex’s world is more geared toward technology, web3, and crypto clients – he’s an expert in those spaces and is well connected within that community. I, on the other hand, am more attuned with the traditional categories like CPG, retail, auto, etc. So, as we look to scale, we see both sides of the house as beneficial. We learn from each other and use those learnings to benefit our clients and our teams.
LBB> And how does this blend together to create something stronger?
Jeff> When we all come together, it’s a Voltron of skills and experience. Most important though is the commonality around work style and approach. Funday is all about ‘big agency talent with boutique vibes’, and the vibes are key.
We collectively have more than a hundred years of agency experience as a leadership team, but none of us want to be working in large, siloed agencies anymore. As such, we are all multi-hyphenates, most of us type a’s, but all of us have aligned to the notion that we are seeking a better work life integration for ourselves, our teams, and our clients.
We also all have robust lives outside of work and want to be the best we can at both. For me, that means being the best agency leader I can be while also being the best husband, dad, and friend I can be. This is our version of having it all. It just means adjusting your mindset to the possibilities or working differently. Not better, not worse, just different if you want to achieve different things.
LBB> Breaking down silos isn’t the only special thing Funday is doing. Can you tell us more about the ‘secret sauce’ that makes the agency different?
Jeff> The key is to not pretend to be something we aren’t. We don’t need to rationalise a head count number as a proxy for ability. Whether we are 50 people today, 80 people tomorrow, or who knows how many people the next day, it’s not about scale – it’s about skills.
We know how to manage clients, we know how to dig in the corners for poignant strategic insights borne of research and data, and we know how to create (as mentioned) ad-like objects with outcomes that help move our client’s needles. There’s an idea for every budget, and whether it’s a $100K video that looks like $400K, or a multi-media campaign running in major markets across North America, we know how to get things done and done well.
As such, we organise ourselves in pods. Each pod is set up based on the client’s needs and the team members we feel are best for the remit. We try not to complicate things when it comes to the ‘how’ work gets done. For us, the energy is best spent in the ‘what’ we are going to do to help our clients succeed.
LBB> Notably, you’re also proudly independent, and focus on what makes the most sense for people and clients. On a practical level, what does this look like? And what are the biggest benefits you’ve experienced?
Jeff> I once had a conversation with a country manager about how the holding company agencies were competing with the independent agencies. And while technically there is truth to that, it really doesn’t feel like we are. We’re both playing sports, but the ‘Big Six’ are playing baseball and we’re playing basketball. Here’s why: having been with the large groups responsible for the P&L, I can tell you that in the large agencies you simply don’t have the freedom to reinvest the way you ought to. When you exceed targets, that wire transfer gets sent to the UK, New York, or wherever, and yes, you are thanked and yes, some folks might get a bonus, but very few do.
When it comes to being independent, we are able to make what we consider to be the RIGHT decision – not necessarily the profitable one. If we want to reinvest in our people, tools, an event, whatever, that’s our prerogative. But more importantly, it also gives us the freedom and responsibility to do right by our people.
A quick example: We recently had to let a client go. It hurt our bottom line, but improved morale and gave the group a confidence boost that no matter what, there is always a right way to treat people. If for some reason a client, a partner, a staff member, or anyone affiliated with Funday treats people with disrespect, we aren’t going to just suck it up, like many of us have in our pasts working at other larger shops. The beauty of being ‘the bosses of us’ is we’re actually going to do something about it. That’s the real difference. There are inherent risks, and inherent benefits. For me, it’s about working at cause versus effect, and I love it. I love being part of an independent. I started my career in one more than 24 years ago, so it’s been a bit of a full circle moment – one that I am really grateful for.
LBB> Of course, as you mentioned, Funday is also an entirely remote agency. In your opinion, what are the strengths of this model? And just how much more are you able to offer clients due to the lack of fixed overhead costs?
Jeff> First, it’s obvious, but we don’t have real estate to fill or pay for. Our overhead realities are healthier than I’ve ever experienced leading public hold company agencies. Second, we produce 80-90% of our work in-house with our amazing production team, so we don’t need to bring in other partners. And third, while we are a North American agency working with clients in both the US and Canada, we are technically a Canadian entity working in Canadian dollars and find plenty of efficiencies with FX.
The reason any of this inside baseball matters is because when you add it up, our list of deliverables for the budget is simply longer than most other agencies. It’s not about doing more for less. It’s about doing more for what the marketer has already allocated, because in many cases (having been a marketer myself in my career), most organisations actually want to spend their budget, because if they don’t, they may lose it or see it cut in the future. Because of this, many marketers look at the value proposition from their agency partners as ‘who can deliver me the most high quality ‘things’ for my budget?’. Well, at Funday, we are happy to oblige and have that conversation because we believe that we can all win here.
LBB> With that in mind, how do you evolve with the times to keep morale high? What social activities are available to the employees, and are you always on the hunt to find the next fun thing given this model?
Jeff> Lots of virtual huddles, standups, our weekly ‘Fun Truck’ of social media trends, our unofficial mascot ‘Rami B’ who pops up every now and then… Quizzes, trivia games, good ol’ fashioned pop culture references (many of which elude me), it’s a culture based on working hard, having fun, sharing, and having constant life experiences (real and online) to draw upon.
LBB> Obviously, the proof is in the pudding - Funday is doing well and has landed a series of big client wins. Can you tell us about these? What can we look forward to seeing creatively?
Jeff> We’ve got some great work in the hopper right now, and much of it will come out during the summer. The reason we wanted to get the word out about our agency this spring is because we figured we’d tell our story while we can, because soon enough the story will be all about the work and the clients we made it for (as it should be).
Funday has been fortunate to win some great new business over the last couple months. We started working with Ethos Pet Brands, the parent company of Natural Balance Pet Foods and Canidae Pet Food Company. We also started working with Newton, a trading platform. And we have two other exciting new clients I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but one is in the VR space, and the other is a unique web browser. Overall, we’ve got about 15-20 active clients who we are servicing at various levels throughout the year.
LBB> Tell us a bit more about your approach to winning new business! What drives a successful pitch, and do you believe this is well-facilitated based on all the aforementioned factors?
Jeff> Anyone who works in business development in the marketing world understands many of the tried and true tenets of pitching and winning, regardless of where and how we work. Where it gets interesting is in the tie-breakers. At the end of the day, any marketer is able to bring multiple agencies to their table for a pitch. Considering there are upwards of (low estimate) 90,000 to (high estimate) 150,000 agencies in North America, you can’t help but find one.
However, what separates good from great and great from awesome is around the margins. Blur your eyes and many agencies look the same – great people, great work, great track record, etc. So what’s the tie-breaker? It’s different every time, but generally, people choose to work with people they like and trust.
Building that trust in a short period of time with heightened expectations and (at times) a contrived environment is a challenge. So, our approach is built around empathy borne of experience. We are a team of entrepreneurs, and for us, our growth mindset and desire to be great, leads to having practical (as in no wasted time with politics) and honest conversations about a potential client’s REAL needs. We can have conversations like this because we’ve ‘been there done that’ in the sense that we are building and marketing our own business, so there are common realities. Many of us have been on both agency and client side, so we can relate what it’s like to be on either side of the table. We have an experienced team with enough moxy to ask the hard (and right) questions… and we always do it with a smile. This approach seems to get us to a good place quickly with new prospective clients who are taking a risk on us as we are on them.
LBB> Finally, with the future looking bright for Funday, where are you collectively hoping to take the agency this year and beyond?
Jeff> I hope the next time Funday is talking to LBB, it’s because you saw our latest campaign for client XYZ and want to chat about it. If the work is breaking through and getting the attention it deserves, then we are well on our way to achieving the mission in Canada and the US. We want to be a beacon of creativity, of fun, of work that gets noticed… and we want to keep doing it for as long as we can. So, if you’re still interested in us, weeks, months, and hopefully years from now, it’s because we are doing great work with and for great people, and we’re doing it the rightest way we know how.
