Sarah Rabia — Global Director of Cultural Strategy, TBWA\Chiat\Day LA
Sarah talks to us about starting an editorial unit, championing gender issues, how ad agencies can attract top talent, and the power of the global TBWA network.
Sarah Rabia is the Global Director of Cultural Strategy at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA in the USA.
Sarah Rabia is the founder of Backslash, a cultural-insight studio based in Los Angeles, part of the TBWA collective. Backslash is powered by TBWA’s global network of 250 Culture Spotters. Every day, Backslash produces an Instagram feed and video that translate what’s happening in culture for brands and audiences.
Sarah found herself in this role after nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, trend forecasting and advertising. She began her career at The Face magazine. She went on to write and style for Vogue, Nylon, Wallpaper and other publications, and she even published her own magazine. Her experience as a journalist led her to the Future Laboratory, where she was a senior trends analyst, helping brands understand their audiences and futures. She joined the advertising industry in London, at Mother and BBH, where she led strategy on award-winning campaigns for IKEA, Unilever and others. In 2015, Sarah joined the TBWA collective. She was named one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Creative Women in Advertising largely because of her work in trailblazing a new form of cultural strategy with the development of Backslash.
At the 2017 Advertising Week New York, Sarah went on stage along with Amy Emmerich, Chief Content Officer at Refinerey 29, for a panel about brand activism titled “A Case for Bravery: Brands Taking a Stand”.
THENEXTGAG: I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT BACKSLASH BEFORE LOOKING AT THE ADVERTISING WEEK NEW YORK PANELS. I REALLY LIKE IT. IT IS A SHAME I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT IT BEFORE.
SARAH RABIA: Backslash started a year ago as an internal editorial unit — so you probably wouldn’t have heard about it unless you had worked for TBWA somewhere in the world! Our purpose was — and still is — to make the TBWA collective smarter about culture. Now we’re extending that to clients and audiences, and developing Backslash as a business.
One of the things that we did experiment with early on, was to publish daily culture briefs on Instagram (@tbwabackslash), based on reporting from our global Culture Spotters, and to make those public and free, to build our brand. No one needs another Powerpoint. Instagram has proven to be an effortless, habitual, not-just-for-planners way for our audience to keep up to speed with cultural insight. We are starting to see imitators — which is a sign of success, I think.
We try to reimagine an advertising network like a social network.
TNG: HOW DID BACKSLASH CAME ABOUT ?
SR: It started as an idea from the big boss: our global CEO and President, Troy Ruhanen. He wanted to create a video a day about culture. TBWA’s vision is to be the cultural engine for 21st-century brands. So, we need to “get” culture better than our clients and competitors. The concept was to create a daily stream of cultural content, to make the entire, global TBWA collective more connected to — and smarter about — culture, so we can make better work for our brands. My job was to make this video thing actually happen.
TNG: BACKSLASH SEEMS TO BE RE REALLY ABOUT YOUTH CULTURE AND GEN Z. IS THAT WHAT TBWA IS LOOKING INTO FOR ITS CLIENTS ?
SR: We aim to report on culture in the broadest sense, from subreddits, to sustainability, and everything in between, because of the diversity of clients and regions we serve. And also because understanding and anticipating culture and industry change are about making connections throughout what’s happening in the world. If you’re only looking at your brand’s category or customer, you’re not getting the full story — and you might not see what’s next.
Saying that, what makes Backslash different from general news and trends, is that it has a strategic filter for which stories are most relevant to TBWA, its clients and audiences. And Backslash knows how to make those stories insightful and actionable, rather than just more information. If it’s just a news story you could find somewhere else, then it’s not Backslash.
Advertising is, at its best, like an alchemy. It is this land of creativity, culture and commerce.
TNG: BEFORE JOINING TBWA, YOU HAD A FASHION BACKGROUND. HOW COULD THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY ATTRACT PEOPLE WITH MORE DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS ?
SR: It starts in school. I think you need to plant the seeds early so children have a broader awareness of the types of jobs that are available to them. Advertising was not even on my radar till I was about 25.
I grew up reading fashion magazines. My mum always read the French and the British Elle. She is one of my early style icons (especially in her 1980s, Sade-influenced, Calvin Klein-perfume-wearing days). She got me into that world. I think, from a young age, I had figured out I wanted to be a fashion journalist. I couldn’t sew, but I could write, so at 15, I decided that was my path.
Working in fashion was a brilliant, if unusual, introduction to working in advertising because it taught me about the power of brands; contributing to culture; and how to handle people with big egos! (The latter is an ongoing learning/tolerance curve.)
One formative experience that stands out is when I was at The Face. I edited what we’d now call “brand content,” a Levi’s-sponsored fanzine within the magazine. Levi’s was an ahead-of-its-time, dream client in this respect. It didn’t want us to talk directly about its brand or products. Instead, it wanted us to talk about how it was showing up in culture, such as at festivals and in second-hand stores, and to make those cultural moments the story. Even now, more than a decade on, that feels like a modern and distinctive form of brand communication.
Today — let’s be honest — advertising is not the first choice for top talent entering the workforce; it’s Silicon Valley, not Madison Avenue. I think young people growing up probably think of advertising as spam: that annoying thing you get before the YouTube content you want. If our industry wants to attract the best creative minds, It has got to refresh and rebrand what advertising is. And we need the best, most diverse set of people because we need to disrupt, reinvent and improve this industry. That’s part of the reason we set up Backslash: to disrupt ourselves as a network.
What attracted me to advertising is that it is, at its best, an alchemy of creativity, culture and commerce. I think there’s still something in that mix that could appeal to the more hybrid, entrepreneurial, brand-literate Millennial and Gen-Z talent.
TNG: PEOPLE MIGHT SEE ADVERTISING AS SPAM. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, THE JOHN LEWIS CHRISTMAS ADVERT IS STILL A HUGE CULTURAL MOMENT IN THE UK.
SR: There are still tentpole moments in advertising. In the UK, it’s the Christmas ads, as you say. The John Lewis ads are a lovely example of how advertising can contribute to culture. The nation looks forward to them and they add to the sense of occasion.
In the US, it’s the SuperBowl. It’s a rare moment when people beyond adland talk about ads. And it brings out some of the best, most culturally relevant work in the industry.
TNG: YOU ATTENDED THE TED WOMEN CONFERENCE IN NOVEMBER. WHY WERE YOU THERE ?
SR: I have always been a fan of TED. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to have attended the main TED conference for the first time. It was perfectly timed with my return to work from maternity leave, when I was feeling out of it. My advice to any woman or man coming back from maternity or paternity leave would be to do something like TED, because it is a massive whack of inspiration and networking. A great way to kick-start getting back into work. I just loved it.
My favorite subject is women’s culture, so I decided (got my boss to sign off on the fat ticket price) to attend TEDWomen. I am here for inspiration, thought leadership, and some client and expert networking. I hope it will lead to some stories for Backslash.
Global Director of Cultural Strategy
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