Former Colenso, Clemenger ECD Rich Maddocks + partner Louise Chapman on their new start-up

Former Colenso BBDO Auckland and Clemenger BBDO Sydney ECD Rich Maddocks and partner Louise Chapman talks to Campaign Brief exclusively about their new start-up, Problem Child.

We thought you’d retired from the business when you left the high profile ECD role at Clemenger BBDO, Sydney back in 2010. What brought you back?

RM: So did I. I was done for good. I sat in a cold office above a café for a couple of years and gave the novel thing a go, which was incredibly difficult. Every time I got half way through a draft, I’d have an idea on how to make the whole thing better and start again. So I’ve now got a collection of mildly interesting half written stories.

I worked on some screenplays, which was fun and then started doing some freelance a year or two ago and realized that I quite liked that too.

I guess with four years out of it you get a new perspective, and you start thinking about the things you’d do differently, so at the end of last year I decided I’d give it another go and see what happens.

Why the name Problem Child and not Chapman Maddocks or M&C?

RM: We deliberately didn’t want to sound like a regular agency for the reason that we didn’t want to be one. Plus, we liked it. And when you run your own place you get to do awesome things like go ‘Fuck it, we like it’.

Is Problem Child aiming to be NZ’s hottest agency or have you lesser ambitions?

RM: I’m not sure that you get very far in New Zealand if you don’t do great work to be honest. Clients want it over here, so unless you’ve got something to offer, they don’t want to talk to you.

LC: I’ve always been into great ideas, so if that makes us hot then great, but it’s less about our own fame, and more about success for the brands we work on.

RM: We made a call not to chase creative awards. I guess that’s another part of the perspective thing. We’re going to give that a miss. You can say what you like, but there’s a lot of crap around that, and it creates bad habits, and I’ve been trying to give those up.

Hopefully over the next few years we’ll be able to build a body of work that proves it’s not because we’ve nothing worth entering.

You obviously see a gap in the market for Problem Child. What are the opportunities you see?

LC: I guess we started the whole thing from our own discussions about the things agencies could be doing better. So it comes down to a couple of main things.

The first is to give clients open access to top end creative and strategy. There are so many layers in large agencies. We think we can streamline that by putting the thinkers in front of the clients, not the doers.

RM: The second is to have the creative and planner working together as one team the whole way through the process. I’d always felt creative didn’t get involved until too late in the process, and Louise always felt the planner got shut out too early. We think it makes sense, plus we like working together.

Pairing up creative and planners as teams isn’t just a short term thing for the two of us. It’s part of a long term growth strategy as we bring new people in.

What kind of clients are you targeting?

RM: I guess we’re not going to be attracting people who are after more of the same. So hopefully people come to us looking for a different approach. Both in the way we work, and the output as well.

How did you two meet? And why do you want to work together?

RM: I was doing some work at Shine where Louise was the Business Director, so we worked together up on a few projects and instantly hit it off. She’s great to work with, she’s smart, clients love her and she makes the work better, so it was a no-brainer really.

LC: Rich is a rare breed in that he is a strategically smart creative.  He gets the commercial world and he gets what our purpose is in this industry.  He’s incredibly passionate about great work and great results as am I so the fit was natural.

What about staff – got any? Will much of your work be outsourced or are you planning to do everything in-house?

LC: Right now we’ve got a bunch of loose partnerships with specialists all around town.  From media partners to digital developers to designers, we’re forming a network of great people that we collaborate with.

RM: The model’s about trying to find the best people to work with, not just the best in the building. Plus it feels like that’s going to be more interesting.

We’ve done big agency. Don’t want to try and act like another one.