The Confrad Collective enables the exchange of ideas and insights and helps its members to grow professionally, culturally, and financially. It has been going for more than 50 years and its members come from all over Europe and the US, comprising marketing, digital and PR agencies.
Fleet Street has been a part of the Collective since 2019. Our managing director Tess Pennington sits on the board and we are huge advocates of the benefits and opportunities it brings. To try and foster even more collaboration across borders, last year we launched our Star of the Year programme, which gives Fleet Streeters the opportunity to visit and learn from an agency of their choice each year – and last year I got the nod.
My destination was Québec City in Canada to visit Kabane, an advertising and brand agency, where I would receive an education on all things Canadian, from trying poutine to learning a bit of Québécois, which certainly made it a week to remember.
The experience has given me a brilliant insight into the benefits of international collaboration, and here are just a few key takeaways.
Knowledge is power
The exchange gave me a fantastic opportunity to learn more about agency life at Kabane, with colleagues from each department taking me through their roles and responsibilities, as well as showing me their favourite projects to date and explaining how each internal team works together to fulfil a client brief.
It was inspiring to be introduced to new ways of working and the experience opened my eyes to the world of advertising, which so often sits separately to our work in PR. It was also fascinating to learn more about Kabane’s expertise in areas such as creation and video production, which enabled me to see the creative process from a completely different perspective.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to collaboration
Spending time at Kabane has shown me just how beneficial agency collaboration can be, with the Confrad network enabling agencies to exchange ideas and knowledge from a global perspective, which in turn helps to solve business and marketing challenges for clients. It also allows agencies to collaborate in a wide range of ways, whether it be working with a client across different markets or delivering different elements of a client brief.
Networking is fun
As well as sharing success stories, Confrad gives people the opportunity to connect on a more personal level, making it a platform for sharing knowledge and learning from each other’s experiences.
Building relationships with those in the Confrad network creates a safe space for learning and improving, while also giving you the chance to make friends with like-minded people from all over the world. This can often lead to partnerships across the agencies, which means you get to win together and have fun while you do it.
In my case, the exchange was a hugely valuable and rewarding experience, giving me the chance to meet wonderful people who are just as passionate about communications and creativity, and I’m sure that these relationships will only continue to flourish as we work closer together in future.
