Pablo: crazed, creative, ambitious year

"A crazed, creative, ambitious year," is how Pablo founder Gareth Mercer describes the agency's year. And there could be no better description. Pablo is an agency that has once again showed it’s talent to create funny, memorable and all-round unique campaigns for the likes of Flora, Dr Pepper and Giffgaff.

Add to that its expansion to New York - just another example of its chutzpah and confidence and its aspiration to always run to the next big challenge. And make a success of it. Mercer tells Creative Salon all about its transformative year.

Gareth Mercer, founder, on the agency's 2024

What have been the major highlights for your business in 2024?

Fun. Saxophones and eagles. Big shiny new hires. Dr Pepper making breaks weirder. Great client partners, new friends. Fun. Pablo living wage (which we were delighted to see other agencies adopt).

DFS shaking bums. Creative Jedi council. More fun. Smug cows skipped for Flora. New York Fairy tales, starting up Pablo in a new city. Clumsy barmen. So many ideas. Montell Jordan. Making tax returns funny with HMRC. Brave clients, big clients, small clients, pan-european clients, global clients.  Recruiting more Met police. Betfair trickshot extravaganza. Did I mention lots of fun?  

We are very, very grateful for the year we have had. By ‘we’ I mean Pablo and friends; a crazed, creative, ambitious, clever and passionate gang made up of Pablo people, clients, makers, movers, shakers, and even a procurement person called Tony. You know it Tony! 

It’s been a year of focus, huge organised effort and plenty of space for laughter and naughty ideas. We’re so proud of managing to hit consistent creative and strategic heights. The proof is in the performance of the pudding and this year’s array of sweet treats is one of our best ever - Are you on giffgaff or something? Wilkinson Sword Blade masters, a new platforms for Deliveroo, Dr Pepper’s weird world; have all gained real traction. Met Police recruitment work, Art_Fund and Pablo’s very own Living wage initiative all made noise and impacted peoples lives for the better. Chef’s kiss.

We love our partners, it's a joy to work with whip smart marketeers and bold CEO’s who have backed themselves and Pablo. We are also grateful that, out of the 11 pitches we have worked on this year, 10 brands have partnered up with us. 2025 is already looking delicious.

We have added to our gang with some incredible talent and it feels like we have an immense strength in depth bonded by kindness, support and raw ambition. It’s been wonderful to watch our Creative Council really click and take flight. Pablo’s unique structure continues to create the benefits we really hoped it would.

And last but not least, the reception we have received in NYC has been overwhelmingly lovely. As has the generosity of the marketing and creative community in London.

What is your proudest achievement from the last 12 months?

Easy. The Pablo spirit. 

We’ve grown in numbers but also in grit and determination. The agency has pulled tighter together (Squeezed as Ben Kay would say), everyone has focused harder and committed to the Pablo mission with unwavering drive. Like a clown car with a V8 3litre turbo charged 800BHP engine. It’s enjoyment on the outside and raw power on the inside and we’re powering and giggling into 2025.

 What are you most looking forward to next year?

More fun. More magic. More members in the gang. More challenges to get inspired by. More smart people to partner with. And more Pablo creative surprises unleashed out into the world. The start of the year should be particularly good. 

We can’t wait. But first, a rest!

What do you feel have been the greatest industry challenges for agencies this year and why?

There are many. One that stands out is confidence. Social, economic, political, business, creative confidence. You have to have the confidence and conviction to break free of head winds, the news and what the pack are doing. Stay informed but spot your gap and run at it with a big smile on your face.

Has the addition of any AI solution made the profound impact on your business that was expected? If so – what?

Profound is a bit far, but it's certainly had a positive impact. For Wilkinson Sword we were the first in the UK to find a well-crafted and cost effective way to do all of our translations for markets thanks to AI. This is now everywhere which shows you how quickly tech can move. AI has also been vital in many production areas and logistical areas and as many people are finding it is excellent at visualising what's in our weird heads so we can align easier with our clients and partners.

So far A.I is a fantastic tool with many capabilities, but it doesn’t threaten the thing we are really good at and hasn’t been sent from the future to kill us. Yet. 

What one change would you most like to see happen in the ad industry next year?

With global ad spend increasing we’d like to see the appetite for fearless smart creativity grow in step with it. 

Roll on 2025. The year of unbridled, optimistic fun.

Creative Salon on Pablo's 2024

Pablo’s 2024 began with the announcement that, alongside UNLIMITED, it will be producing work for The Metropolitan Police. Its debut campaign for The Met, ‘Change Needs You’, called upon Londoners desiring change to consider joining the police. It tapped into different emotions within short films with ‘Courage’ and ‘Empathy’, which were mostly rolled out on social channels and via out of home (OOH).

Its ‘Skip The Cow’ brand campaign for Flora’s plant-based butter, which initially launched in the UK in 2023 and went on to win a bronze win in the Creative Strategy category in Cannes, continued by asking consumers to question the perceived normality of dairy. With a hero TV ad and OOH posters, the campaign used elements of shock, humour and overall weirdness to communicate its message in how using regular butter is a 'Bit Weird’.

This year also saw its debut work with Wilkinson Sword in a campaign that poked fun at razors with a bad blade. ‘The Blade Masters’ was part of a repositioning from the brand that showcased its 250-year experience within the shaving industry in using humour to highlight the uselessness of full razors. The campaign was the brand’s most significant marketing investment in recent history.

A particular standout piece of creativity from Pablo was its work with mobile network providers Giffgaff where humour took the reins. Its new creative platform ‘Up To Good’ saw its customers celebrate the service in uniquely creative ways. The TV spot featured a woman celebrating her phone deal by playing a saxophone, but in reality it’s a traffic cone; the nearby workers ask her the campaign’s key question: ‘Are you on Giffgaff or something?’.

Another debut campaign with new business was its work with Deliveroo in promoting its Deliveroo Plus range. The 30-second spot ran globally across Europe and the Middle East, and aimed to show customers that moments can be all the more better by ordering through the online platform. Audiences saw a vampire cackling in his lair while tucking into a Deliveroo Plus order, all to the backing track of Montell Jordan’s ‘This is How We Do It’.

Creative Salon says... . Creating a world class product requires world class people. And Pablo founder Gareth Mercer knows this too well. From the agency's Creative Council - made up of eight world class creative leaders that any agency would love to have running its creative department - to its recent New York launch headed by a group of ex Wieden+Kennedy talent, the agency has taken big bets on the one thing that will always stand the test of time in these disruptive times - people. Also its ambition to always surprise the industry is infectious, and has everyone wanting more from them. Now with its foot in the door across the pond, we will be keeping a watchful eye for its moves in 2025. We predict another "crazed, creative, ambitious year."