Nordic Special: INGO

Other top creatives would demur at the suggestion that awards are anything but
a nice extra, but INGO’s ECD Björn Ståhl, something of an accidental adman, is happy to admit that he’s only in it for the gongs.

Is he joking? The wry Swede also suggests it’s all downhill from here for his multi-Lion-winning agency, so perhaps his words should be taken with a large pinch of snus.

Dragging anyone into the office halfway through their holidays is hard enough… but drag them away from their favourite hobby (in this case, carpentry) and it’s a wonder they’ll come meet you at all. Yet when INGO’s ECD Björn Ståhl arrives, he’s a bundle of snus-chewing joy, rubbing the tobacco leaves on his gums in between insightful musings. Perhaps it’s INGO’s 2016 performance at Cannes, winning 20 Lions across two campaigns, that’s making him so happy.

Just five years ago, the agency didn’t even have one Lion under its belt. Then Ståhl promised the creative department that they’d produce one great idea per year, thinking that would take them quite far in Cannes. Implementing this strategy, INGO took home its first three Lions in 2013 for its work on Situation Stockholm, a magazine sold by homeless people. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of the vendors’ situations, with subway ads outlining their work and life experiences. Commuters quickly took note of the campaign and magazine sales rose by 101.5 per cent the following month.

Hello, is it Swede you’re looking for?

After that initial success, INGO obviously got a taste for winning, picking up Lions every year since. Ståhl jokes that 2016 is clearly the agency’s peak year, “It’s going to be downhill from here!”

He knows how difficult it will be to beat 2016’s record. But INGO plans to stick to the schedule and is aiming for three Lion-winning campaigns in 2017. Ståhl believes the real skill lies in recognising the potentially award-winning briefs and identifying the right opportunities early on – “I think we’ve become quite good in doing that.”

The Swedish Number for the Swedish Tourist Association is proof that INGO’s  strategical approach is working. This innovative campaign set up a single phone number that allowed anyone anywhere in the world to call a random Swede (anyone in Sweden could sign up to be a potential ‘ambassador’ and receive calls).

This idea didn’t conform to the original brief – INGO was initially supposed to present a campaign about Swedish food – but the team were confident it was a winner. “When you stumble upon [a good idea], you feel it in your stomach,” says Ståhl. Plans were ambitious from the start, getting Stefan Löfven, the Swedish prime minister, to take part and eventually attracting 36,000 telephone ambassadors

The campaign’s success proved that believing in your ideas is essential. Initially, the INGO team was terrified that it wouldn’t work, as it relied entirely on public involvement and they had very little media spend. When it launched in April, the team quickly surrendered full control after day two. “Then it was an entity out there living its own life,” says Ståhl. In the end, 15,000 calls were made per day and the campaign went global – creating a media space worth $147 million and receiving over 9.3 billion media impressions.

The accidental life of Björn

Gothenburg-born Ståhl has spent 27 years in the industry. He initially wanted to be an author, writing his first novel in his early twenties “about the agony and anxiety of becoming an adult”. He gave it to a publisher who encouraged him to keep writing, but by then he was already deep into his adventures in adland. “It was the famous banana peel [moment]. I slipped on it and then all of a sudden I was in advertising,” he chuckles. A high school teacher had told him about copywriting and in 1988 he enrolled at Berghs school of Communication in Stockholm. The intense programme revolutionised his life. 

Beginning as a junior copywriter at a small and now defunct agency in Helsingborg, Ståhl was given a lot of responsibility early on, thanks to the company’s size. In 1994 he returned to Stockholm ready to enter an agency network, and joined Lowe Brindfors, where he was creative director for 11 years, including a brief stint in London.

Although the agency had a bad creative track record at the time, Ståhl then grabbed the chance to move to Ogilvy Stockholm. “I’m a guy who needs something to push against,” he says. “It was probably the steepest hill to climb in the industry at that time… so I jumped at it.” After 13 years (and a merger with Grey plus a name change to INGO), he’s now a veteran in the building.

See one, feel one, touch one

Being part of two international networks has its perks. Ståhl sits on both global creative councils and is able to access their different communities and resources as well as witness the work emerging from their international offices. “When we want something, we can ask [either of them].  If dad says no we can always ask mum,” he says.

While he’s not exactly slogging up a steep hill anymore, Ståhl’s main satisfaction comes from bolstering the rankings of Ogilvy and Grey, both of whom benefit from INGO’s award show success. He admits, “I wouldn’t like to work in this business if it weren’t for the awards.” Perhaps he’ll eventually return to his novelist roots – he’s thought about writing a book based on the wild times he’s had on shoots.

He was quite ill before Cannes and didn’t actually make it to this year’s event. Then he was on vacation, getting his hands dirty with hammer and saw, and concentrating on something else entirely, so he’s had a long time away from the ad world and he admits he’s excited to get stuck in again. “I think that’s the problem with having
a job that’s also your hobby,” he says. “You tend not to listen to your body because you think it’s  so much fun.”