How ‘treating culture as a serious business’ netted Hopeful Monsters a Drum Award

In 2022 and 2023, the Australian advertising industry was changing rapidly. Creative agencies were building out credible earned offerings. Networks were collaborating more effectively. Budgets were pouring into performance media and away from PR. Smaller, independent PR agencies needed to adapt quickly.

Rather than being killed by the change, we chose to lead it, creating Hopeful Monsters: an independent, modern creative agency with bigger ambitions, a stronger brand, and a distinct vision to help mission-driven brands grow in unexpected ways. Our vision? To be famous for shaping culture through the brands we partner with.

Specializing in earned and non-traditional advertising, our strategy was driven by the understanding that challenger brands must treat ‘culture as a serious business’ to grow.

Our objectives? To build an agency that changes behavior through a scientific approach to culture. To work with clients that shared that vision. And to work with people that did too.

Transformation from the start

To kickstart planning, we took the whole agency to Fiji, uniting them around a shared vision and involving them in the strategy and planning of the agency’s future. The question: if we wanted to help brands understand the role that culture plays in driving growth and commercial success, what did we need to do to get there?

Transformation truly began with analyzing our client portfolio. We knew our new positioning wouldn’t be for everyone, so it was crucial to align with clients who shared our vision. This involved parting ways with 20% of our client base and turning down lucrative opportunities with clients that didn’t’ align (like a multi-million dollar retainer with L’Oreal).

These strategic decisions were pivotal in maintaining the integrity of our vision and positioning, ensuring we stayed true to our values at launch.

Executing at the speed of culture

Hopeful Monsters was born out of the belief that the most effective brands in a category have an innate understanding of the culture that drives it – the values, attitudes, and behaviors of a group of people. Our aim was to work with brands that leverage culture to build long-term mental availability, market share, and fame, without having the biggest budgets.

We established a cultural intelligence unit, the Change Things Lab to study real-world behaviors and predict cultural shifts using advanced AI tools. And we developed a methodology that integrates marketing, cultural sciences, and creativity to guide clients.

Training and development were also key. All our strategists completed a Master of Advertising Effectiveness to enhance their strategic insights, and we incorporated AI into the creative process for efficient concept development and market adaptation.

Well-being programs supported these efforts. We Introduced Head of Happy, Healthy, and Hungry roles, and invested in volunteering, mental health workshops, and sports. We tripled investment in training through the Hopeful Monsters Institute, offering a training budget and cross-discipline opportunities, and launched an internship program with the organization ID. Know Yourself, for young Aboriginal creatives. Bi-monthly 'Ask the CEO Anything' sessions have helped to foster trust and openness.

By positioning ourselves as cultural experts and investing in both our team and community, we've established Hopeful Monsters as a leader in innovative, culture-driven marketing. Our commitment to groundbreaking work, well-being, and continuous growth has solidified our reputation as frontier-leaders in the industry.

An agency with culture at its heart

Since the transformation, all key engagement indicators have improved dramatically. Staff retention rate increased from 48% to 86%; 90% would recommend Hopeful Monsters as a great place to work, 100% feel encouraged to be innovative even if some initiatives may not succeed, and 89% acknowledged a genuine concern for their wellbeing. This earned a great place to work certification in the first year of operation.

We've kept our gender pay gap minimal, at just 2% in favor of women, expanded a parental leave policy that supports male and female employees equally with 10 weeks of paid leave and childcare, and instituted an equal opportunity for working mums policy (all roles are part-time negotiable), amid other flexible working policies that allow extended time off for personal reasons and remote work.

The effectiveness of our approach was further validated by their first client NPS survey, which revealed an impressive score of 9.8.

We're also committed to working with brands that are themselves on a mission. Under this strategy, 70% of new business has come from non-competitive work, with a 60% pitch conversion rate.

Our first PARK SSC campaign launched at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and championed the first-ever football kit specifically designed for women. It won 3 awards in The Drum Marketing APAC Awards 2024 including the coveted Chair’s Award.

Our most recent work with ResMed included building a global strategy and creative platform adapted for 12 markets, demonstrating the agency’s ability to handle large-scale, complex projects with multiple stakeholders. As a result, global brand revenue increased by 7% to $1.2bn; up 7% on a constant currency basis following the campaign launch.

Significant projects with Adobe across the APAC region highlighted our expanding international presence and capability to deliver impactful campaigns worldwide.

Ready to get your work recognized on a global stage? Enter The Drum Awards today. Need more inspiration? Read our Award Winning Case Studies.