Welcome to The Strategy Journal, a resource for aspiring creatives to get real advice from the most unique and experienced voices in the industry.
This week I'm speaking to Tarek Sioufi who’s career path wasn’t the most orthodox nor the most conventional. A second-gen immigrant born and raised in London, Tarek considers himself Lebanese first and a proud Londoner second, despite being technically British. In his own words “I’m acutely aware of the fact that I’m the son of immigrants, but to the Lebanese, I’m too Western. To the British I’m too ‘foreign’, and while my appearance doesn’t give that away, my name certainly does.”
After gaining a degree in photography from the University of Miami, he worked as a photographer’s assistant for a fashion and lifestyle magazine and later delivered food on a bike in New York before Deliveroo existed. Soon after, he worked as a graphic designer for a small retail design company before getting his ‘big break’ as an Account Executive in a media company.
After this brief stint as an Account Exec, Tarek was given a chance to prove himself in Strategy via Comms Planning - just as the discipline was beginning to become a crucial part of the modern agency offering. Years went by as Tarek learnt the trade when he was asked by Sid Lee (Amsterdam) to help them re-launch the Adidas brand back in 2011.
Since then, Tarek’s worked in brand planning at Fallon London, The Brooklyn Brothers where he went on to become Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) before most recently moving to Wieden + Kennedy as a Creative Consultant.
Over the years he’s helped: Cadbury inspire the nation at the London 2012 Olympics, Adidas reconnect with the global youth, The Financial Times set a new agenda in global business, First Direct reposition themselves as the world’s first ‘wellness’ focussed bank and Formula 1 fight racism.
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In terms of thinking, learning, and doing, what has lockdown allowed you to do?
Back in January 2020, before COVID-19 was ‘a thing’, I decided to leave The Brooklyn Brothers - an agency that I spent 7 years at building my role as CSO - a position I had spent my entire career striving towards.
The change in perspective has shown me that we’re all in the same boat, new or not. Even more importantly, I’ve learnt that the best time to create change is when no one has the answer. As the variables change the answer can’t possibly remain the same.
None of us have ever been in this position before, none of us have had to help our clients navigate through a pandemic and because of that, none of us really know what we’re doing. Because everyone in every agency across the globe is in the same position - all figuring it out as we go along, clients included - we’re all open to new ways of doing things.
So, I’ve learnt to see lockdown as an opportunity to drive change, and that now, while no one has the answer, is the perfect time for our industry to forge a new future.
We’re at our best when we’re influencing public opinion, challenging perceptions and transforming business. With the power of creativity we can help businesses, brands and the audiences they serve make better choices, we can tackle taboos, stereotypes and inequality and we can use the influence of big business to create value beyond the boardroom.
I knew this before, but what I’ve come to realise over the past few months is that none of us want to return to ‘normal’ and the change to drive meaningful change has never been greater.
Lockdown’s allowed a wealth of new content to be created - how do you keep up with feeling inspired and why?
If we’re going to use the power of business to influence public opinion and change society for the better, we need to understand what’s important to people and what makes them tick, we need to understand society, culture and how businesses operate within them. You need to keep one foot in the present and one foot in the near future.
So for me, inspiration isn’t really about having more time or more content. It comes from constant and on-going observation of society and the different groups of people who make it up. For example: the pandemic has shown us how much we all need each other and how connected we are. While we’ve been cheering from the streets for key-workers, we come to the realisation that without a healthy workforce, without a healthy society and without a healthy economy - none of us can truly thrive. The activism of Black Lives Matter has shown us that humanity still has a very long way to go.
The creative industries, whether it’s film, music, TV or advertising have a responsibility to use our influence to create the type of society we want to live in. It’s our responsibility to steer businesses, brands and popular culture in that direction.
What advice would you give to young strategists looking to crack into the creative industry post-lockdown?
As the pandemic has affected the lives and livelihoods of the nation indiscriminately, so too will the resulting economic downturn.
Historically, the creative industries have been hit hard in recession, but they have always found a way to come through stronger. The truth is that new jobs are going to be harder to come by, so what you do now, will stand you in good stead for months and years to come.
Young strategists (and anyone trying to break into the creative industries) will need to have a good story. What have you done in lockdown? What have you started? They’ll need to have shown initiative and demonstrated how they’ve used the situation to create opportunity for themselves.
If you have an idea for a project, a business, or an initiative, just do it. Just start it. The experience you’ll gain will undoubtedly help you grow and learn, both personally and professionally. Who knows where it will take you?
Even if it fails, at the end of the day you’ll have a great story to tell the next time you have an interview, and great experience in whatever job you decide to take in the future.
Which brands do you think are doing the most right now?
The businesses that are trying to create value beyond the boardroom. The brands that are using their power and influence to do more than just make profit and drive shareholder value. The ones that are brave enough to take a stand against the -isms, whether it’s sexism or racism; the ones that are tackling important topics and taboos. Most importantly the businesses and brands that are backing it up with action and not just words.
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