5 Minutes with… Sintija Popena

Sintija Popena is creative director at McCann Riga, Latvia’s Agency of the Year for six consecutive years. Last year alone, the agency picked up awards at Golden Drum, Epica, Baltic Best, ADCE, and the Latvian Adwards. She’s one of the female creative leaders the European Association of Communication Agencies (EACA) and LBB has selected to showcase as part of an ongoing series.

Chief executive officer of the EACA, Charley Stoney, says: “We all know how shockingly low the percentage of female creative leaders is across the industry. EACA’s own Creative Equality Survey 2024 also found that only 25% of creative awards in Europe have gone to women. I believe in the ‘see it, be it’ principle, so my hope is that this collaboration with LBB, to highlight female leaders, will provide vital role models for those rising up through the ranks.”

Sintija has worked across brands including Lidl and Nurofen, co-won McCann’s Ambition Collective, and continues to champion bold creative thinking in a small but fiercely ambitious market.

With a BA in film theory (UK) and an MA in cinematography (France), Sintija’s work often reflects her cinematic background – balancing concept, craft, and emotion with sharp strategic thinking. Beyond advertising, she directs music videos, explores film and literature, and remains outspoken about creativity, resilience, and equality in the industry. LBB’s Alex Reeves spoke to Sintija about all of this and more.

LBB> You’re Latvian, but you’re very international as well, because you sort of grew up everywhere by the looks of it. How has that shaped your outlook?

Sintija> Yeah, I think I’ve lived in six or seven countries, maybe.

The reason I moved to the US was because the Soviet Union fell apart suddenly. We needed embassies for Latvia, so my father – one of the few people who spoke English – got a job straight away and we moved to America.

No one had really lived abroad, so I felt quite special. But then afterwards, everyone did – everyone who could, went to study in the UK and so on. We all kind of arrived back at the same time, when I was 24 or 25. We started building what is now the new country we have.

It’s really modern. When people come here, they’re always surprised; they say, “Oh, it’s so cool,” and we’re like, “Yeah, of course.” We’re a different generation. We have cool start-ups, we drink matcha lattes and go for brunch. It’s no different from London on a cultural level.

LBB> You started on the filmmaking side, rather than in an agency. What were your ambitions – did you want to be a director?

Sintija> Honestly, when I studied film at the University of Warwick, I just wanted to watch films for three years. That’s all I wanted to do. And I loved it.

I actually wanted to become an academic – I thought I’d be writing books about all kinds of things. Then something changed. I went to Paris to visit a friend, saw the film school she went to and thought, “Oh, I could study that.”

I decided to do cinematography because it seemed the best way to learn the craft, not just sit in a room talking about film. I wanted to learn what an F-stop is, what filters are, what camera sensors do – the technical side of filmmaking.

It was hard – some of my classmates had worked on ‘Game of Thrones’ as camera assistants – and I was like, “What’s a camera? What do I do with it?” But I learned quickly, made seven short films, and then came back to Latvia.

It’s not easy to get into the film industry anywhere. My first internship was on ‘Shameless’ in Manchester but when I came back I didn’t know what to do.

I started working in a small social media agency making really bad videos.

I saw big agencies like DDB and McCann making great work and thought, “That’s something I should go for.” So I got into DDB, and now I’m creative director at McCann Riga – Latvia’s best agency for six years in a row according to the Latvian Adwards.

LBB> So what started out as filmmaking broadened pretty quickly when you saw the agency world and how a creative has a broader canvas?

Sintija> I don’t think of myself as an artist. I really respect artists, but it’s often a bit too ethereal for me. I’m interested in business and entrepreneurial things – I’ve worked in a start-up – so advertising is a good mix of the two. You can have creative ideas and do cool things, but it’s still rooted in the real world. And I get bored easily, so advertising is good because there’s always something new. If you’re restless and curious like me, it just makes sense.

LBB> When you got into the agency world, were there any early projects or clients that really helped you grow as a creative?

Sintija> When you start working and have to think of ideas, you don’t think about the reality of making them happen, which is great for new creatives. You’re just like, “Oh wow, something crazy!”

I remember we did a project for BMW. They were sponsoring the bobsleigh Olympic team, and we decided to film the track digitally, then put VR glasses on people. The driver was in a BMW on a frozen lake, and participants looked at the bobsleigh track as if they were racing, but they were driving in the car. It was about minus 20 degrees that day!

I had the idea and no one wanted to do it; they said it would be too difficult. But I pushed for it and it happened. That was my first project.

Of course, you also do lots of functional, day-to-day work, but every time I feel something might be interesting, I push for it. You don’t get perfect opportunities on a plate, you have to make them.

LBB> Are you the sort of creative who keeps a massive book of ideas, just waiting for the right client?

Sintija> Yeah, I recycle ideas because sometimes I get really obsessed with something. For example, I was obsessed with the Hippocratic Oath; such a strange concept that it’s 3,000 years old and doctors still say it.

Long story short, we used it for The Ambition Collective. Women from any agency could take part. We came up with ‘The Hypocritical Oath’, about the fact that women’s pain isn’t taken seriously.

The platform already existed – they’d launched it the previous year – and they wanted activation ideas. We went to London, met the Nurofen team, pitched with the London team, and they loved our idea. But it was controversial – they worried it might look like it was blaming doctors for misdiagnosing women, which, sadly, is true. So they made a softer version, ‘The Pain Pledge’ with doctors swearing to do better.

Still, it was a great experience. I got to speak at Cannes, and it was the first time I worked with a truly global client. It shaped how I think about campaigns now. Before, we thought big companies did big things, and we did smaller things in Latvia. Now I know that doesn’t matter. We can think the same way, build big platforms, have bold creative ideas. Budgets aren’t the same, but that doesn’t matter.

Now we’re launching a big campaign called ‘The Pink Oath’. We took the Hippocratic Oath and rewrote it so women say it as a pledge to take care of their breast health. We made it funny, using real excuses women use, and turned those into lines that change the Oath.

Sometimes you can’t shake an idea – it evolves into something different with a new client or execution.

I had the same thing with an idea for Durex. My client and I imagined a woman running 42 kilometres, a marathon, and stopping just before the finish line. because women don’t… finish as much.

It was a crazy idea, but later we used the same concept for something meaningful. We did a stunt at the Riga Marathon where a rapper ran his first marathon but stopped before the finish line to highlight that one in five kids don’t finish the marathon of school – they don’t complete 12th grade. A good idea is a good idea, it sticks around.

LBB> Is there a lesson you wish you’d learned earlier in your career?

Sintija> Probably that this industry is a marathon. It’s easy to burn out. I’ve seen it happen to people, and twice I’ve been on that edge myself.

It’s about finding flow and enjoyment, not taking it too seriously. We’re not brain surgeons – it’s just advertising. Of course we should do our best for clients, but it’s a stressful job, so it’s important to take care of yourself and find coping mechanisms. I get a back massage once a month, leave my laptop at work, try to close it by six or seven and not bring it home. There have to be boundaries you don’t cross.

LBB> That’s very wise. And it’s difficult – you’re in a big holding company and about to be in an even bigger one. It’s not a time of stability for the industry, so with that comes anxiety.

Sintija> There hasn’t been any stability here – ever. We had the 2008 crisis, which ended the golden age of advertising. Then covid, then the war in Ukraine.

People don’t invest here. We have clients in China, France, the Netherlands, and I hear people say, “Oh, we’re scared to go to Riga now,” with all the border tensions. But you don’t feel any tension, it’s strangely normal. You can totally come here; it’ll be fine.
The tension is there, though. For people who are sensitive, it’s been a hard time. It’s like, should I be thinking about this campaign, or packing my bags and moving to Portugal to start afresh?

LBB> So you’re not doing that, you’re staying in Riga?

Sintija> As it looks now, yes. Most of my friends have done the army thing, some are reservists. I can shoot a gun a little – I go to the gun range.

It’s interesting for us too. Defence is also an opportunity. There are companies here making drones and military equipment. We help with branding those because, like any brand, they need help figuring out how to look and communicate.

For me, it doesn’t matter what the client is – there’s a method to how we work and it can be applied to anything. I’ve thought about what I wouldn’t advertise, but after eight years in the industry, I have a nuanced view. Everything can be looked at differently. We’ve never had anything truly controversial, though sometimes it’s something that makes you think twice.

Our specialty right now is finding older European companies that are successful but have terrible branding; websites that look like they were made in the ‘90s. We say, “We can fix that – you could look like this,” and they’re amazed. Big companies can get stuck with old design. With rebrands, we shake them up.

LBB> What makes Latvian advertising unique?

Sintija> We have very strong design. McCann Riga is great, but there are also amazing design agencies like Overpriced – not our sister agency, but we work with them. They’re fantastic, and not actually overpriced!

Latvian design in general is elegant and quietly witty. Don’t tell Lithuanians this, but they’re a bit more “bam!” – less nuance. Estonians are more Scandinavian; dry humour, and lots you can’t joke about. We’re in the middle; we have Scandinavian sensibility and humour, but we restrain it so it’s not too in-your-face. That’s why we’re unique.

We also have really good cinematographers and animators. ‘Flow’ won an Oscar. Animation is big here.

At McCann Riga we’re very strong conceptually and strategically – that’s why we win Effies and everything. Our strategy is always on point.

LBB> The SSE500 really stood out as a recent project. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. Where did that come from?

Sintija> We needed to raise money from alumni and realised they’re wealthy but don’t like to just donate; it’s not sexy. They like to invest, follow the stock market, attend bank lectures. So we thought, let’s turn the students into investments alumni can invest in.

We created dynamic pricing. If there was a lot of demand, the price went up. Investors wanted to climb the ranks as major stakeholders. We had a board with the people who donated most – but not just those who gave the most money, rather those who invested wisely.

LBB> When you’re working with educational or social clients, there’s often more leeway for creativity – maybe less budget but more freedom?

Sintija> That’s exactly how it is. When we have social clients or NGOs, we do it our way and they’re happy, because they know that when budgets are small, ideas have to be bigger, bolder, more creative.

We’re trying to teach corporate clients the same thing. We say, look at our social projects – they’re so popular, media writes about them. That’s because they don’t rely on paid media; they have to be organic.

Corporate clients agree, but they’re scared – scared of not being liked, scared of bad PR. We’re trying to educate them and show good examples. I just held a client day where we showed the best cases from Cannes and said, “See – this can be done.”

LBB> Outside of advertising, what’s inspiring you right now?

Sintija> Right now I’m really into the Brontë sisters. I think it’s amazing that they were
all incredibly talented. I’ve always loved ‘Jane Eyre’, and ‘Wuthering Heights’ is going to be big again with the new controversial film coming out. It’s weird that people market it as a romance, it’s really about generational trauma and how it affects everyone. And Anne Brontë is the least appreciated – people should check her out.

This all inspired me because I was just in Bath for the first time recently and loved it. I read up again on Jane Austen and Mary Shelley [who both lived there]. She had such a dark life, much scarier than anything in ‘Frankenstein’.

I was also at Hever Castle – Anne Boleyn’s childhood home – right before she was married off to Henry VIII. And this is something I think about a lot. I’ve said before I hate those “female creatives on the rise” headlines, but OK – I’m a woman and I enjoy seeing that progress. Still, if you think a few hundred years back – women like Mary Shelley or Anne Boleyn – their stories were tragic. I’m very glad we live now, in this part of the world. But it’s still a long fight. The scary thing is, it can go backwards as we’re seeing in America. So we’ve got to keep the good fight going.