Steve Miller | SVP, Executive Creative Director, Partner / Fuse Create
You are among the top 10 independent agencies in the world according to rankings from the 2023 Wina Festival, held in Dubai and Bogotá in June. How did you receive this honor?
You’re only as good as your team, and our culture is a direct result of that thinking. We value creative and people equally, and with that approach, we’ve been able to blow KPIs out of the water, and the socks off a few award show judges in the process. We don’t try to make our clients happy, we strive to make them look like heroes, and as a result, build pride, positivity, and passion in our people. And our client relationships aren’t relationships at all, they’re partnerships. We’re partners first. Creative first. And people first. That’s our formula, and I believe that’s how we’ve ranked amongst the top 10 independents agencies in the world.
What are you proposing for 2024?
Since early 2020, our agency has been on a growth trajectory; from rebranding to FUSE Create, to integrating our offering, putting a focus on creative, and putting a face to this ‘new’ agency. Later that year, we turned our attention to media, growing that offering to a stand-alone media group. In 2021, we doubled-down on social and in the process, tripled the size of our team and scope. And most recently, we’ve brought PR into the FUSE fold. For 2024, we’ll continue to look for new ways to support our clients with new services across new platforms. And in ways that supports our integrated offering and our raison d’être, to Turn Heads.
The Hilton case, for which you won your award, shows us that BTL is still very relevant in an online generation. How do you manage to make your cases go viral?
Virality in any campaign, event, spot, or BTL activation, is gained first and foremost by way of the idea itself; if it’s novel, it’ll get noticed, turn heads, and get talked about. From there, it’s about being smart with your PR and your influencer partnerships to drive as much amplification as possible, and to achieve as much virality as possible.
Do you think BTL must reinvent itself in order to remain relevant?
I think brands need to keep in mind amplification – that’s the changing landscape of BTL. It can still be effective with the right audience, for the right product, and in the right environment, but engaging with the user beyond the BTL moment is key now, be it through a QR code, video capture, contesting, social content, UGC, conversation, or online extensions. I think your BTL initiative will go further if brands keep this in mind.
Is this generation hard to surprise?
This generation is pretty hard to surprise yes, and even harder to do so authentically (i.e. not appear like a brand). They see and hear a lot through their social feeds, more than my generation was ever exposed to and more quickly. But breakthrough ideas will still surprise. And if you can produce said ideas in a way that doesn’t feel like an ad or a brand, or in a way this audience is willing to accept, then surprise this generation you will.
If you had to define Canadian creativity in one sentence, what would you say?
I find Canadian creativity falls in to three categories; smart, funny, nimble.