British Arrows at 50: Cutting to the craft
The new co-chairs of the British Arrows’ Board of Directors, Dom Thomas and Charlie Gatsky-Sinclair, talk to Tim Cumming about their plans for the future of the Arrows as it marks five decades celebrating craft and creativity.
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Last month, at Outernet, the immersive exhibition space near London’s Tottenham Court Road, the British Arrows launched an exhibition of 68 of the best British TV ads from the past half century.
Beginning with the evergreen Finishing School starring Penelope Keith and a Parker pen, taking in Cadbury gorillas, Guinness surfers, John Lewis Christmases and bringing us bang up to date with Channel 4 idents and some brilliant Bodyform work minus the “whooooaaaa”, it was a hugely entertaining reel, a testament to the enduring creative nous and chutzpah that British advertising brings to the world.
Thomas and Gatsky-Sinclair take on their roles at a time of disruption and change in the industry.
A testament too, to the organisation that has championed the advertising world’s impish, unruly, unbridled spirits of invention. The British Arrows will host a 50th Anniversary Awards night at the Grosvenor House hotel tomorrow [Thursday March 26th] – complete with a 1970s-style Glam Bar – and current chair, Simon Cooper, Managing Director of Academy, will relinquish his seat to co-chairs, Dom Thomas, Co-Founder at Object & Animal, and Charlie Gatsky-Sinclair, President of Brand & Entertainment and EP at Uncommon.
Above: Just three of the award-winning pieces of work that were on show at the Outernet last month.
While Cooper eased the British Arrows out of the Covid years and helped to establish the impact of the Young Arrows, Thomas and Gatsky-Sinclair take on their roles at a time of disruption and change in the industry. “Dom and I feel this is a time that requires a holistic approach to a lot of the issues we’re looking at,” says Gatsky-Sinclair. “Inclusivity, sustainability, technological change and structural changes within the industry… it’s a time when everything is up for grabs.”
“Dom and I feel this is a time that requires a holistic approach to a lot of the issues we’re looking at.”
As co-chair, Gatsky-Sinclair brings to the role her experiences as a client, account manager and agency producer at the likes of Mother, Fallon, then BBH, before landing at Uncommon following a stint in the music industry. “I represent the business, the strategic understanding of where the business and production meet from an agency perspective,” she says.
As for Thomas, “I was the work experience kid at Academy in the early 2000s, under Lizie Gower, a former head of the Arrows.” Back then, film was still king. YouTube, social media and mobile-first were only just beginning to shape and change the industry. “I was there for 16 years before starting Object & Animal,” he adds, “which exists to shine light on new talent and shape culture through filmmaking. So, my background is production and the craft that goes with that, and having insight into the business side of things as an indie company owner.”
Above: In February, the British Arrows launched an exhibition of fifty years of brilliant work at London's Outernet.
For both, the Young Arrows is perhaps the bullseye on the Arrows’ board. “We both acknowledge what an amazing job Simon has done,” says Thomas. “He’s been a champion of young talent and that’s something Charlie and I are passionate about,” he adds. “To grow on the foundations the Young Arrows have set, and fly the flag for UK creativity. It’s a huge part of the British economy, but it often gets overlooked.”
Entries to the Young Arrows have quadrupled over the first four years of its existence, and the duo are determined to build and expand on that. “We want to put more emphasis on the younger development and mentorship side of the industry,” says Gatsky-Sinclair. The key word in their strategy deck is ‘community’.
"The Arrows have always been about celebrating the best of craft, so it’s a chance to take a moment to reflect and look back, and ask ourselves questions like, ‘how are these lessons still relevant today?’"
“We want to see the British Arrows as more than awards,” adds Thomas. “There’s an opportunity for it to be more than a celebration, for it to be a part of an ongoing conversation with the industry and the wider public. And the Art of Craft festival was a really great starting point for all those conversations.” The Art of Craft, a day-long celebration which took place last week, on March 19th, will explored how craft, vision and innovation have shaped advertising’s most compelling moving images across the decades, with speakers including outgoing chair Cooper and industry legend John Hegarty, and was another part of the Arrows’ ongoing 50th birthday celebrations.
“Fifty years is such an accomplishment in an industry that has always been at the forefront of change and development,” says Thomas. “There are plenty of things we can be learning from the past. The Arrows have always been about celebrating the best of craft over that time, so it’s a chance to take a moment to reflect and look back, and ask ourselves questions like, ‘how are these lessons still relevant today?’ And what we come back to is that craft is still the cornerstone of memorable and effective advertising.”
Above: Dom Thomas and Charlie Gatsky-Sinclair.
The essential role of craft is as a guardrail against AI dominating the toolbox, rather than becoming another useful utensil within it. “A good idea will always be a good idea,” says Gatsky-Sinclair, “but the crafting of the idea will always take on another form – it’s ‘stories of old retold in new ways’ – and we have to embrace what those new ways might look like.” At the same time, she adds, “it’s an opportunity for brands to show what true creative thinking can do to cut through. Because you’re looking for cut-through and impact. If you’re just following the algorithms you’re creating more algorithmic solutions.”
“Too much importance is given to the algorithm. But art and culture don’t work like that. It’s sometimes unquantifiable."
“There’s a danger of over-analysis and over-reliance on data,” says Thomas of the digital-first creative landscapes of 2020s advertising. “Too much importance is given to the algorithm. But art and culture don’t work like that. It’s sometimes unquantifiable, and the work that really cuts through does so because it isn’t yelling into an echo chamber it’s standing out because of its difference. That’s the beauty of our industry. There’s tremendous opportunity out there to carve out great work.”
Gatsky-Sinclair recalls the two of them looking through strategy decks from the British Arrows’ early years. “What the Arrows has sustained is a sense of community that we would love to build on,” she says. “The decks were all about rewarding craft and creating community, and it feels like we need that now more than ever,” she says. Add ‘mentorship’ to that community and you can see what the Arrows is aiming for. “Dom and I both had the benefit of being well trained and tutored,” she adds, “and the generation coming up has had a very different experience.”
Upcoming talents have not only been dealt the severe impacts of Covid and the rise of AI, but the move to hybrid working has muffled their ability to learn with peers on the job at hand and in the same room. And it turns out that being there matters. “They lack some of the community we had,” says Gatsky-Sinclair. “The Arrows’ sense of community, and how they can rekindle that and grow it for the next era, is really, really important.”
Above: Last week saw the British Arrows' first Art of Craft festival which took place at Ham Yard Hotel in central London.
For Thomas, “the apprenticeship model has changed because the workflow is so fragmented and isolated in parts. So, how do you get a proper, rounded experience at a young age to be able to decide which path to take in this amazing industry?”
One way is building on the community feeling that the Arrows and Young Arrows does much to foster. “The community of the industry is what helps solve problems,” says Gatsky-Sinclair. “Relationships with production partners are key to a producer’s skill set. That becomes much easier with the opportunity to meet and mingle beyond the job in hand. And that’s something we want to consider with the Arrows.”
“The community of the industry is what helps solve problems. Relationships with production partners are key to a producer’s skill set."
They are also looking at how the categories of creativity and craft are changing, and how that impacts the Arrows. “Categories need to reflect what a modern production looks like now,” says Gatsky-Sinclair. “We need to be representative of the various skill sets. Look at some of the new award shows celebrating mixed-media, AI-crafted execution,” she adds. “They’re quite remarkable.”
“It’s quality that rises to the top, that’s what the Arrows have always been there for,” adds Thomas. “They’re even more necessary and relevant than ever. Original ideas crafted to perfection – that’s what we’re passionate about.”
“It’s a pivotal time,” says Gatsky-Sinclair of the current advertising landscape. “It’s lovely that it’s marked by the 50th anniversary so we can throw something back to the industry that will capitalise on the history and hopefully give us a platform for the future.”
