 Hey, David Griner here from Adweek. I'm the creative and innovation editor at Adweek, where I oversee our creative coverage and agencies and innovation coverage. Very excited to have as our guest this week, Kirsten Rutherford, ECD at Team One, an agency in Los Angeles. Kirsten, it's so great for you to join. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled we're actually able to chat together amidst all the craziness and the craziness on the tech side as well. Yeah, I should say that we're starting a little late today, so thank you for the patience of any of our regular viewers on this show. We try to be on time every day, one game live, had a little bit of technical issues. We'll probably have more. That's the excitement of this era. It's just every day is rich and full of new discoveries of all the things that can break, especially when it comes to video. But for now, we will plow through. First, Kirsten, I have had such a joy of knowing you for the last two years or so, since you were at TVWA Chai Day. And if you could just tell us a little bit about your background and then we'll kind of dive into how things are going right now. Sure thing. I'm, as you can tell from the accent, it's a little bit marked up, but I'm a Kiwi. I then moved to London for a long time. I've been in Los Angeles for about nine years now. I've had the privilege of working at some pretty cool agencies. I started off at FCB in New Zealand. When I moved to London, I worked at a bunch of different places, some big, some small, from Satchis in London, through to Brothers and Sisters, which was a smaller agency there, then Widen and Kennedy in London. I moved to Los Angeles to work at 72 and Sunny. Then I went to Chai Day and now I'm at Team One. I'm the global ECD on Expedia. So I lead Expedia work around the world. And I also lead creative for the Make-A-Wish Foundation who are very, very close to my heart. And we're going to talk about both of those because obviously that is Expedia and nonprofits and cause marketing have been kind of in the same... So I'm guessing he's probably saying this is something very important at the moment. And every time that David's going to cut out, I am going to try and fill in the blanks. Does that work, David? It's perfect, thank you so much. Like I said, we're just going to coast through any technical difficulties we have here. But one of the things I want to talk about is just kind of how day-to-day life, you are a creative leader, obviously, you're a global ECD. There's two sides of that. One is I'm curious how you've seen your teams react to this change of being quarantined and being creative while being a part when creativity is such a collaborative effort. But then also you've been doing this globally for quite a while. So this isn't new to you, this idea of being remote from the teams that you're leading. Exactly. You know, I'm spoiled in the fact that I have incredible teams around the world, some based in London, some based in Hong Kong, some in Korea, some in Japan. And we conduct our business remote the entire time. Connection and communication are key to these things. We meet on a weekly basis, so I have many, many meetings, but good meetings, not the ones that, for no apparent reason. And we check in. We also use Slack. I know some creatives will freak out when I say that word. But it does help. I can stay in touch. I can answer questions usually in real time for my teams. And we're discovering that these tools will help us get our jobs done. As for local creatives, I'm not surprised that creatives are able to pivot with any circumstance. We are used to finding out-of-the-box solutions and the teams have continued to do that. If anything, people have been even more creative because they understand that circumstances are changing and they're finding new ways through. And I'm so proud of our teams for being able to do that. Now, as you mentioned, Expedia is your main client. And I have to imagine this has been one of the most surreal and difficult times for them. What can you tell us about either the work you're able to do for them or the conversations around that client? You know, it is such a crazy one. I think travel was one of the first industries to really take a massive hit in this world, in this crazy new world that we're living in. The conversations that we've had with Expedia are sort of threefold. What can we do right now? And what can Expedia do right now to make sure that consumers are getting the help that they need? You know, flights are being cancelled, people are needing to get home. It's all about customer service and that's their key driver at the moment is to make sure they are solving these problems that are directly in front of them. Then there's the idea of priming people for travel in the future. We're all starting to get itchy feet and it may feel like we've been in this for months, but we haven't, we've been in this for what? 11, 12 days and it's going to last a lot longer. So we want to help people who are getting wanderlusty, who are getting these itchy feet to look forward to what's coming ahead with travel. This isn't going to last forever. That curve is going to flatten. So how can we excite people to get back into that world of travel and fulfill those travel dreams that they can't do right now? And then how do we reimagine travel? Everything's going to change after this. I think we're going to find that, you know, hygiene and sanitation is going to be top of mind with people traveling in the future. Naomi Campbell has had it right all along, perhaps. We've seen her use her mask and wiped down her airline seat for many, many years. There's going to be a trend, I believe, towards staycationing, towards domestic travel. Different markets are going to flatten their curve at different times. So if you really want to travel and you can't go overseas because perhaps there's still a hotspot, look in your own backyard first. A lot of countries, a lot of tourism marketing boards are desperate for that tourism and the first place they can get it is perhaps from people in their own country. So I think that's a key thing as well. And then let's look at what makes travel more meaningful. People are wanting to connect. They're wanting to spend time with their loved ones that they can't see right now. So I think there's going to be a massive trend in the types of travel that we look towards. Business travel, we're fast discovering that we can do a lot of stuff online. And I think that's surprising everybody at just how well we are all continuing to work remotely. So I think we're certainly going to reimagine what travel is after this. And these are really exciting challenges that brands like Expedia. Well, I feel like to your point about looking in your own backyard, both literally as we have to do every day while we work from home. But then also, I feel like the weird thing, this is both the most global moment I've ever lived through. And it's nice in the only in the sense that it's not a war, you know, that every other generation of my family had to live through something where it's this global of a shared experience. But on the other hand, it has... Oh, I'm so curious as to what he's going to say with that one. On the other hand, I mean, David, you're holding us in suspense here. He's back, David, on the other hand, keep going, I'm so excited. It has made us so appreciative of things locally that we took for granted, right? Like we're able to get deliveries. But on the other hand, we have found new ways to connect with and support local businesses. So I'm curious, what are you seeing in Los Angeles? You know, actually, when we talk about small businesses, I'm really excited by what into what QuickBooks is doing. They were a client I used to work on at TBWHI Day. They are advocates for small business, you know, before anything else. And they've been working with GoFundMe to create accounts for small businesses that are struggling. And they're also contributing, I think a million dollars to those small businesses and encouraging other business brand leaders to do the same. So I'm really excited by what we're seeing with brands to engage consumers locally and to help their businesses as well. I think one of the big things, one of the big trends we're seeing is that when brands make sacrifices, we are, whether that's, you know, through giving funds, whether that's through contributing their man hours or labor or some of their materials, we are appreciating businesses more. So yes, we're seeing that in Los Angeles as well as seeing that around the globe. One piece, you and I have been talking a little bit before the call about creative work that we've appreciated in this time of COVID-19 and how creatives have tried to keep people home and try to encourage and be part of this moment without seeming exploitative. One I wanted to share for our viewers who haven't seen it is a piece that Donor put together from Detroit. This is a Detroit agency, maybe one of the only three agencies you haven't worked at at this point, I believe. And Donor did a piece about Detroit and what happens when the motor city, you know, when the motor stops turning. So let's watch a little bit of that one. It feels unnatural to not be in motion for the city built on four wheels to stand still. But these vacant streets, empty stadiums are not signs of our retreat, but of our resolve. This is not us sitting out the fight. This is us winning it. Our fists doesn't need to move to have strength. If he were alive today, even Henry himself would have put it in park. So take this isolation as a sign of our togetherness as we take care of ourselves and the ones close. Because although it's time for America's motor to stop, we're coming back with all eight cylinders. Because here, we don't stop in the name of fear. Here, we stop in the name of love. So that was Donor, the work that Donor the agency did for Detroit, because these are difficult times both for production, to just physically produce it, and then also messaging. Who else do you think has been handling this well? From an agency side or from client side? Both. Gosh, you know, there's a few brands that have really stood out to me. Vita Coco, the coconut water brand, has done something very simple. And it's all about, for me, it's all about actions, you know, behind the words. They are doing quite well. A lot of brands are struggling, but Vita Coco was doing very well because people are stockpiling the product. So the founder of Vita Coco went online and pledged to donate his pandemic profits. He felt that because they were, you know, been quite successful in the current climate, they were going to donate a million dollars of their pandemic profits to COVID-19 charities. And he challenged a bunch of other brands to do the same, whether that's Netflix or Bounty Paper Tales. I thought that was a really, really super smart thing to do. And the production values on his tweet were not fantastic, but it didn't matter because here he was putting his money where his mouth was and actually making a difference. So I've been particularly impressed by brands that have done that. I mean, Nike has been amazing. We've seen this call to save millions and, you know, play at home, but they've backed it up with actions. So I gathered there's been a $15 million donation to COVID charities and they've also gone out and put all of their premium content out for free, which I think is a really smart way of getting into people's homes on a personal level, but just doing something that allows us all to understand what their true values are in a time of crisis. Yeah, we were talking to Fernando Machado, the global CMO of Burger King earlier this week about some clever work, this kind of DIY quarantine whopper that they had advertised in France out of an agency called Buzzman. And he said, you know, we wouldn't be doing any advertising if we weren't first taking the actions, if we weren't supporting giving away free kids meals, especially for families who aren't getting food at schools now donating to nonprofits. Like once he had, he felt like they had done that, then he started green lighting advertising. It was interesting to hear Brand say, you know, let's put purpose first and then we'll get to the traditional ads. And it's interesting then you bring up Burger King, perhaps we should maybe mention the Golden Arches being separated slightly in the backlash that happened as a result of that. It did make me intrigued by that because we were looking at some examples and I know out of the UK McDonald's was doing something very sweet where they were offering free coffees to anyone who was working at the NHS or anyone who was on the front lines. But perhaps that wasn't a big enough action when you're seeing a very big reaction to the Golden Arches being separated. Yeah, and that was a classic example of you and I have seen this for years, especially on the award circuit is that came out of I believe Brazil and it was just one creative team made it. But you know, the average consumer when it gets picked up by the news, they don't know that, you know, when it becomes a global news thing, they don't know that that was one small project out of one small, it just goes to show that the creative work in one market from one team can really become a global talking point. Absolutely, absolutely. The, and on that point of backlash, so let's talk a bit about that. There's been a push this week, there's a petition that is basically asking for award shows like CAN to basically ban any work about COVID-19. I have mixed feelings about that because I get it. I get that the point is it could be exploitative. They don't want people creating these campaigns for the wrong reason. But on the other hand, cause marketing has been such a core part of the awards programs and it's so, it's such a huge part of everything and celebrating when it's done well feels like something you'd want to do, right? I, you know, I agree. I hear you on the mixed feelings part. This is, and this is an awful way to say it. This is the biggest brief in the world right now. Every single brand is finding that they need to respond or if they have work in the market that suddenly doesn't feel appropriate or feels tone deaf, they have to pivot and they have to do it in the right way. So there is going to be a, a, absolute, you know, a massive amount of work that comes out of this, some of this which is going to be incredibly creative. I have seen work in the past at CAN that I think has been amazing and has been duly rewarded when you think about the KFC, FCK response ad that was done a few years ago when KFC ran out of chicken in the UK. I think this is out, this is out of widens and they, they responded by, you know, apologizing by turning the KFC bucket into an FCK one. Oh, FCK, we're sorry. I hope I'm allowed to say that on this live stream. And that was, that was rewarded and that was rewarded because it was a clever creative response to a moment of crisis. And that's what we're in right now. But of course, they backed it up. There were apologies that went with that. If we're looking at work that's doing, that should be awarded now, in my opinion, it's the work that is backed up with those actions too. I think if it becomes slightly scammy, if it doesn't have the deeds to go with it, perhaps we need to think carefully about how it's rewarded. But gosh, you know, this is a time where we have to be creative. So I would be up for if the work has the right backing behind it, put it into the award shows. You know, the judges will make those decisions. Yeah, exactly. And in the end, with all these award shows, you have to trust that the judges are going to be able to tell what's exploitative, whether it's for a children's cancer charity or you work with Make-A-Wish. I mean, every day marketers are working with nonprofits and working for advocacy campaigns. And in the end, you know, it's up to them, hopefully on the front lines and then the jurors to decide where that line of exploitative versus supportive really is. Exactly, exactly. You would hope the caliber of judges that we're seeing have certainly been around the bush a few times. They're gonna know right from wrong. So let's talk a bit about where you see the industry being changed by this moment. Obviously, some businesses are already starting to go out of business. You know, you have industries like retail that were already shaky going into this. And so no real surprise. But agencies are scaling back, agencies are cutting back their awards budgets, their hiring budgets. That seems temporary. But what do you think will be some of the lasting changes for better or worse that we'll see once we kind of get back to work? Yeah, I think we're fast discovering how well we can all work from home. I think that exclusive need in to be in the office is one that might not continue. We are getting a lot done. We are seeing that we can work for clients remotely and get things done even from a production side of things. I know we mentioned before that, you know, there are difficulties, but I know Team One has been absolutely spectacular in taking their entire production department and their studio off-line into their own homes rather than being in the office itself. So I think we're going to realize that we are capable of delivering things from our own homes, you know, not just being in the office. I think there is going to be a trend for project-based agencies to use a lot more freelancers. Now, David, you cut out there for a sec. Hopefully you can get back in time with saying the... I think there's going to be a trend for project-based agencies to use a lot more freelancers. We are seeing that as projects are made null and void by COVID, we're seeing that, you know, in our own home, but it also at other agencies around Los Angeles. Unfortunately, agencies are having to, you know, lessen their load when it comes to employees. I think freelance is going to be a big trend, and there's so many incredible freelancers out there that that might be a way of going forward that people will operate. I hope that people will be able to stop those pay freezes, start their hiring again. But it is a trend for the near future that I think we're going to see a lot of people turning to freelance. Yeah, and the, you know, the way that production is handled, it feels like there's a lot of things to your point earlier in the chat about when is travel really necessary, right? And it seemed like a lot of agencies, global agencies, especially in networks, we're saying at the beginning of this, turns out we didn't need to be flying people. Yes, I have heard that. But look, maybe there's an opportunity for these award, you know, we know award shows are going digital as well. Same thing with conferences. I loved going to 3%, I loved being at the 3% conference this year, but I also loved the fact that they were live streaming the conference to many, many people around the world. So I think, again, it allows us to just take stock of what's important, and maybe there will be less traveling. Maybe I won't see you again this year, maybe we'll be doing it, you know, we'll be streaming. And that's okay. It's the opportunity for us to learn, but we can learn from our living rooms, we can learn in our offices. Maybe we don't have to find business class to head out to a liqueurs set. Either way, I'm going to drink just as much. Wherever, you know, whichever side I end up in. Christian Rutherford, I cannot thank you enough for making time for us today, and it's so great to get to catch up with you. Thanks for joining us. It's lovely to see you, it's lovely to see your house. I think this is the weirdest part about the entire thing is the boyos and us all get to see what's going on in people's homes. And of course, the moment I say that, he drops out because I'm perving into his house. That's what I bring. On Thursday, we're going to have my colleagues, Josh and Minda are going to be talking about media and agencies. Justin Burg is overseas, our tech coverage, and Minda Smiley is on the agency's coverage team. And then on Friday, we've got Steph Patrick, our executive editor, and Lisa Lacey, our retail reporter who covers Amazon. They're going to be talking about Amazon, the impact on that. I hope all of you are staying safe and sane as you're quarantined this week. Kirsten, thank you again, and we will be back tomorrow. Thanks for having me. Stay safe, Paul.