Brave Spark: Erasing The Gap Between Thinkers and Makers

Rob Drake (left) and Robin Shek.

By Mark Tungate

It’s sometimes a good idea to create something out of frustration: to solve a problem nobody else seems willing to address. That’s what happened with Brave Spark, founded by Rob Drake and Robin Shek in 2010. They felt that production and creativity were working too far apart. Their creative studio – which fused the two – was the result.

But let’s rewind a bit. The pair met at a company called Big Earth Productions, where they were working on adventure travel TV shows for the BBC. Some of these featured a fairly well-known chap called Ewan McGregor. (A fellow Scot, Robin recalls that when he and the actor got together, their accents would thicken like porridge.) Robin and Rob forged a friendship while honing their content creation skills – and not just for the TV screen.

“We had the idea of making a web series for the production company’s website,” relates Robin. “We contacted a bunch of adventure travellers who’d written books, or were semi famous, and interviewed them for the series. It quickly became one of the most visited areas of the site.”

Rob Drake elaborates: “Although the TV shows were for the [non-commercial] BBC, they attracted sponsorship from the likes of Nissan, Nokia, Garmin and Michelin. As part of the sponsorship package, they’d been offered exclusive content online. At that point, in 2006, very few people knew how to make branded online content…”

“Or if they did,” Robin adds, “they were big agencies who were charging a lot of money for it. We were just two guys.”

Rob continues: “Basically we put our hands up and offered to do it. And over time, we got pretty good at it.”

That was the basis for Brave Spark. Rob went off to work for traditional agencies for a while, but was exasperated by the sluggishness and expense of roping together creative and production from two different companies.

The economy of speed

“The inefficiency made it impossible to make the kind of work I knew it was possible to make. So with Robin we decided to create an agency that merged writing and making – ideas and craft – right from the start. Nobody had done that before. The ‘branded content’ wave was beginning, and we rode it.”

Rob believes that keeping craft and creative separate disserves both. “We have editors and producers who love writing. We have creatives who love to design and mock things up. There’s a big value in bringing them together. As they’re all passionate about what they do, the work is better as a result.”

Like most start-ups they struggled at first to gain traction, but then clients caught on. Robin says: “They realised that by smashing creative and production together from day one, we’d saved them a lot of time and money. When we propose an idea we pretty much know where we’re going to shoot and which crew will be involved. So we can get to the set much quicker.”

This is vital because there’s more content than ever, attention spans are shrinking, and trends come and go in the blink of an eye. Content that reaches audiences fast remains relevant and compelling. Plus, clients now demand assets for various platforms, as rapidly and inexpensively as possible.

Robin and Rob built the agency by “bringing in people who are better than ourselves”, and now run a 50-strong team. In 2021 they became part of the MSQ network (which puts them under the same umbrella as The Gate).

The decision was an easy one because the founders felt they’d gone as far as they could as an independent entity. “We wanted to do more for our clients. MSQ helped us not only bring in the additional people we needed, but also to help the people who worked with us realize their ambitions. They all want to create amazing things. By investing in us, MSQ allowed us to invest in our people.”

Partly due to the MSQ deal, Brave Spark has doubled in size in the past 18 months. Rob says: “When you’re a small company, if you have something as trivial as a broken window, you have to work out how to get it fixed. Being part of a larger group takes all those admin headaches away. You can focus on the work, you can focus on pitching, and you can focus on serving the clients you have already.”

One example: when a client asked them if they handled design, they were able to build a design studio from scratch. They were also able to open Brave Spark New York, exactly a year ago. With a staff of only five, it’s already generated revenue of over a million dollars.

Clients – not ego

Robin says: “Obviously the fact the MSQ has offices on Fifth Avenue helped, so we weren’t going in cold. We work with the MSQ agencies there. But we have broader ambitions to win our own clients.”

Rob underlines: “It wasn’t an ego thing. We have some clients who are global – and we felt we could better serve them if we had a footprint over there. We’ve also somewhat turned our model on its head. While the creative is done over there, based on local insights, we can bring the master back to the UK and generate the additional assets at a fraction of the cost.”

Both founders speak with almost avuncular fondness of their staff, so it’s not surprising that Brave Spark was named one of the Best Places to Work by Campaign magazine. They strive to ensure a workplace that’s kind to mental health. For example, there’s no cap on vacation time: people can take the time they need, on the assumption that they’ll be grown up about it.

Rob says: “I’ve always felt that it’s a privilege to do what I do. I know the others feel the same – and they’ve fought hard for their place in this competitive industry. The least I can do is create an environment where they have the space to make the best work of their careers.”

——

Three pieces of work that define Brave Spark – as chosen by Rob and Robin

Which?

“Complementing our above-the-line campaign, we helped Which? call out mobile and broadband providers’ sneaky mid-contract price rises by taking over the biggest phone we knew – London’s Walkie Talkie building. Our social post got more than 2m Instagram views in the first 48 hours, generated more than 100k petition signatures, and Ofcom pledged to ban the practice the following month.”

Virgin Experience Days

“We took Virgin Experience Days’ Christmas campaign from brief to screen in less than two months. Two! Our creative team developed a new “Gift Anything, Change Everything” platform, and our in-house production and VFX teams made the magic happen (it was also the first ad in our 14 year history that started up an actor’s nose). The ability to do work like this is why we started the agency, because we knew bringing together everything under one roof from day one could get to a better place in double-quick time.”

The Unheard Third

“Supporting our teams in creating work that’s important to them is a truly crucial part of the Brave Spark makeup. When one of our creatives came to us with an idea for The Unheard Third – a new fake political party that highlighted the shocking number of registered voters who choose not to vote – we got the whole team on board, recruited new partners and produced these delightful ads.”