5 Minutes with… Sarah Clark

When Sarah Clark joined BMB as chief strategy officer this summer, it felt like a homecoming of sorts. Two decades after beginning her career under Trevor Beattie at TBWA London, she’s now at the agency he went on to co-found – and bringing with her a strategic firepower honed across some of Britain’s best-known brands.

After 20 years at The&Partnership (formerly Clemmow Hornby Inge), where she helped shape the network’s strategic product and led work for British Gas, Hive, NatWest, Argos, TalkTalk, The Carphone Warehouse, RNIB and The Prince’s Trust, Clark arrives at BMB to reinforce its guiding belief that the most human brands win.

Here, she tells LBB’s Alex Reeves on the anthropology roots that shaped her approach to strategy, why creative confidence matters as much as commercial clarity, and how a guilty obsession with dating shows reveals more about culture than you might think.

LBB> Where did you grow up and what sort of kid were you? Were there any clues back then as to the career path you’d end up taking?

Sarah> I’m a Brighton girl; Brighton born and bred, one of the few remaining. I grew up at, interestingly, a small boys’ boarding school where I was the only girl. Probably tells you all you need to know about my ability to get my voice heard. My mum and dad were both teachers, so it couldn’t be further removed from advertising in some ways but couldn’t be more connected in others. I think there are probably some lovely similarities between teaching and advertising. At the end of the day, we're all trying to bring things to life in ever more interesting and inspiring ways.

LBB> How did you get into advertising? Was it a purposeful decision or more of an accident?

Sarah> I read anthropology and the plan was to go and be the next Jane Goodall, to live in some amazing tropical clime and work with wildlife. Over the course of my degree, though, I realised I loved the cultural and social side, and that started to translate into what that might look like in the marketing world.

I started as Simon Clemmow’s team assistant at TBWA\London, very much by accident. It was there I realised I was utterly useless at admin and diary management, but I was quite interested in that thing called strategy and understanding people. So that’s how I happily fell into it. A lot of the craft of anthropology feels super synergistic with what we do as strategists – understanding what makes people tick. That’s really what it’s about, and that’s how I describe my job to my folks.

LBB> You spent a long time at The&Partnership, or CHI as it was known earlier. Which clients or projects were real threshold moments for you in growing as a strategist?

Sarah> I think there are probably two types. Working with really big, interesting, complex organisations like British Gas, NatWest, and TalkTalk – helping them create strategic simplicity and ambition and winning back a relevant place in people’s hearts. And very contrasting organisations like The King's Trust (The Prince’s Trust) or RNIB - not-for-profit organisations needing to find their space in the world in order to create positive change.

What connects them both, and what I keep talking to my team about, is the opportunity to help brands find their creative confidence. Sometimes you work with not-for-profits and they don’t necessarily feel they’ve got the right to go into certain spaces. Or you work with big service organisations that need a bit more confidence to be creatively ambitious. A few highlights along the way would be creating a blind pregnancy test for RNIB, The X Factor sponsorship for TalkTalk, revealing real bathroom and kitchen lives for British Gas and for NatWest, embracing a true partnership with Team GB that got them into more interesting cultural spaces than broadcast alone.

LBB> What lessons do you wish you’d learned earlier in your career?

Sarah> There are so many, it’s hard to pinpoint one. But I think a big part of where I am now, and what I’ve learned, is remembering that this is and should always be a really fun job.

So, I think the key lesson I’ve learned is to always try and make sure that this stays the fun part for everyone. Make time for the fun part, keep it fun for the people you work with and make sure a meeting with us is the best time of the week for our clients. That really matters to me.

LBB> BMB’s mantra is that the most human brands win. How does that idea resonate with you personally?

Sarah> I'm inspired by it for its focus and simplicity and because it talks to the ethnographer in me. Ultimately, we’re not connecting with customers, segments, buyers, or shoppers – we’re connecting with humans first and foremost.

I love the conviction that the BMB team has in recognizing consumers as real people, as that's what really drives loyalty, satisfaction, and love. I think some businesses and brands have possibly lost sight of that – that people aren't numbers or segments, but humans with our own hopes, fears, aspirations, and dreams. That's one of the main reasons I wanted to come and join the team here because I believe being more human is where businesses will win.

LBB> What excites you most about stepping into the CSO role at BMB right now? What are your priorities for the agency?

Sarah> Growth, of course, like everyone would say. But really, it’s about helping all of the brilliant people here reach their potential and achieve their ambitions. Properly talented, properly nice and properly ambitious folk doing fabulously creative things.

Our ambition is to put our mission of creating more human brands front and centre in the industry and to celebrate the work that’s inspired by that. We’ve got big ambitions to deliver even more of the work that great brands really deserve. It’s a really exciting time.

LBB> BMB sits within Cheil but has quite a distinctive identity. How do you see the agency’s role within the wider network?

Sarah> They’ve got to be your biggest co-conspirator, and if they’re not, then you’re doing something wrong. Sometimes that means loads of positive tension to get you to a brilliant success story. If I’m not spending a disproportionate amount of time with my creative partner on any project, or as an agency, then I feel like I’m missing a trick.

I call them co-conspirators because it's where all the best debates happen, between the strategist and the creative, and that's where the best work comes from. You’ve got to know them well enough to have a bit of positive friction and love them enough to know you’ll get to the brilliant answer together.

I see it as a true collaboration. Two brains are better than one. I never question any creative input into my strategy because I know they’ll never question any strategic input I have into the creative. Together, we get a brilliant answer.

LBB> Who have been some of your strategic or creative heroes – people who’ve influenced your thinking?

Sarah> Ironically, I think there are probably two, and it tells quite a nice story of my career. Simon Clemmow brought me into this business, and I loved his brutal simplicity of thought and smarts. He taught me how to keep the main thing the main thing.

Then there’s Trevor Beattie, who was the first creative leader I worked with at TBWA. It’s interesting that I’m now at BMB, as the TBWA guys founded BMB – it feels like it’s come full circle. There was probably nothing more exciting in my early 20s than seeing the work Trevor was creating in the marketplace for PlayStation, FCUK, Strongbow and John Smith’s. That set the creative fire burning, and Simon Clemmow set the strategic fire burning in equal measure.

So those would be my two. It’s funny how the circle continues now that I’m at BMB – a sweet, circular story.

LBB> What sort of relationship do you like to have with creatives? As a strategist, what do you want that collaboration to look like?

Sarah> They’ve got to be your biggest co-conspirator, and if they’re not, then you’re doing something wrong. Sometimes that means loads of positive tension; sometimes it means brilliant success stories. But if I’m not spending a disproportionate amount of time with my creative partner on any project, or as an agency, then I feel like I’m missing a trick.

I call them co-conspirators. It’s where all the best arguments happen, between the strategist and the creative, and that’s where the best work comes from. You’ve got to know them well enough to have a bit of positive friction, and love them enough to know you’ll get to the brilliant answer together.

I see it as a true collaboration. Two brains are better than one. I never question any creative input into my strategy because I know they’ll never question any strategic input I have into the creative. Together, you get a brilliant answer.

LBB> What trends or themes in the industry do you find yourself ranting about most, and why?

Sarah> I’m not going to go near AI, because that feels like a whole interview in itself. But my rant would be about remembering that process and operating models should be in the service of better outcomes.

Sometimes I think we spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about how we’re set up, instead of focusing on delivering a brilliant product. It’s about finding the right balance between those two things. Process and operating models are about the outcomes – not an end in themselves.

LBB> Outside of work, what’s inspiring you right now? What’s energising you beyond advertising?

Sarah> This is probably a guilty secret revealed… I am massively into dating shows of all shapes, sizes, platforms and varieties. For a couple of reasons: I’m a sucker for a good love story, and I’m an old romantic at heart.

But I also think they’re brilliant barometers for what’s going on culturally, what’s important to people, and how that format evolves and changes over the years gives you a brilliant sense of what’s going on in the real world – what matters to people, how they’re negotiating it all.

If I was an alien strategist coming down to planet Earth to understand what makes people tick, I’d probably say, “Right, watch the last 20 years of dating shows evolve, and you’ll understand how humans have changed – but also how they’ve stayed the same.”

I hate to admit it, but Love Island is an addiction, not necessarily a positive one. And there was a brilliant recent one on Channel 4 [aptly named 'Virgin Island'] that brought together a group of people who’d never had sex. It sounds sensationalist, but it offered a fascinating insight into the loneliness pandemic – why people struggle to connect. Once you get past the titillating headlines, there’s something really fundamental there about people trying to build relationships and achieve their dreams when it comes to love. I think that’s fascinating.

Maybe it’s a whole seminar. Maybe it’s a whole new archetype process that will take the industry by storm.