“I’m not here to change the industry – I just don’t see that as my role. What I want to do is create something based on the principles I believe in, based on the things I see that work.”

Micah Walker is something of a reluctant leader. Suspicious of those who seek fame in the advertising industry, rather than writing a thought leadership column, his ambition is focused on the work – “I’m happy when I’m making things, and I’m not happy when I’m not,” he says, simply.

Yet with Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, he and his team have created something phenomenal – an independent agency that is working with huge clients (as well as small startups) and making transformational work that is using creativity to change the minds of audiences. At a time when we are seeing a boom in independent agencies, Bear (I will opt for this abbreviation going forward) offers a blueprint of how you can remain small yet compete with the networks.

As its name suggests, the agency was an unusual offering from the start. Prior to its launch, Walker had worked all over the world – with significant stints at Fallon London, Sydney agencies Mojo and The Monkeys, and Wieden + Kennedy Portland, to which he was wooed by Dan Wieden. “I met Dan, and it was one of the most incredible conversations I’ll ever have and far beyond just work. It was incredibly moving – a wonderful conversation with someone who felt like no one else I’d ever met,” he says.

Returning to Australia in 2018 for family reasons, in early 2019 he realised it was time to start his own agency. Walker grew up in the US, and his wife, Lea Walker, is Australian. She runs an advertising talent agency and prompted him to start his own project. “Lea said, ‘It’s time to start the thing you want to work for’ … and it was the perfect moment.”

The whole idea was to be paid not based on the service we provide but on the value we add. We’re paid for our creative thinking and work, not just everything else

By this, Walker means being in a position to “go two years without a salary”. “If you can do that, then you’re ready,” he says. “Financially, but also just being in that head space. And in the end, it wasn’t two years, but nonetheless, you know, it was that adjustment.”

Launching on April 1, 2019 (in a nod to W+K, which was also launched on April Fool’s Day), the aim from the outset was to offer something different to clients, beginning with the payment structure. “The whole idea was to be paid not based on the service we provide but on the value we add,” he explains. “We’re paid for our creative thinking and work, not just everything else.

“The hope was to create something that wasn’t trying to be everything to everyone but had one foot in brand creation and brand design and another foot in what we call ‘advertising-shaped ideas’.

“I’d always had a frustration with design companies that everything ends in a brand book and doesn’t leave room for advertising ideas, and my frustration with agencies is that they treated design as if it was something like a studio to polish their advertising, rather than the wonderful craft that it is. Our early projects were both brand creation and advertising projects.”

In addition to having a broad offering and being paid largely on a project-by-project basis (though sometimes these projects can stretch over years), Bear does not pitch. “Mostly because I think it’s the wrong way to find the right partners, but also because it’s become quite abusive, I think,” says Walker.

“But if someone pays us … and that’s what ultimately happened, we found a couple of clients who said, ‘Look, I’ll just pay you to work on it. It just happens to be a competitive pitch.’ And then we were successful on some brands that were quite surprising in this market.”

One of their early clients was Rollin’, a spin-off youth insurance brand owned by parent company IAG. Bear did the full brand design, naming and comms for Rollin’, which in turn led to them winning a pitch against Accenture to work on IAG’s main brand, NRMA.

My frustration with agencies is that they treated design as if it was something like a studio to polish their advertising, rather than the wonderful craft that it is

“I don’t want to be overdramatic, but it’s quite a big deal for this market for an agency of our scale and size to be able to take on something that previously had a lot more people working on it. I think at that time there were only eight of us,” says Walker.

Bear’s model is built around a core team at the studio, then they flex up and down with collaborators, depending on the requirements of the work. Like many of the new independents that are launching now, the staff are, in the main, very experienced and senior, allowing them to “charge a premium” for their work.

“If we want it to be about the quality of what we make, it meant we needed more experienced people that can craft things better, faster.” Bear then builds a bespoke team around the project. “People we would never be able to get full time, we can pull in for particular projects, and it just brings in that different perspective, as well as an ability to create better things.”

The point where it became obvious that size was no hindrance to ambition for Bear was when Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, came calling. As with IAG, Bear was paid to take part in a pitch, but this time they proposed a unique structure: that Bear would set and lead the brand vision as the main creative partner, but for operational scale and media integration, they would also help build a bespoke agency collaborating with TBWA and Telstra.

The bespoke agency is now called +61, and what is especially unusual is that Walker oversees both teams. “The deal was Bear would take on the creative leadership and vision, then we’d help build this new +61 agency, including media, with Telstra and TBWA. We’re separate so Bear retains our independence – I didn’t want to become part of the holding company – but it was a way of playing at scale without fundamentally changing who we are, that gives the client a unique shape, designed around their business.

“I worked with them to find the right talent for +61, pulled in the creatives, and made sure there were creative opportunities for them as well. I spend a day a week with them as an extended team, and then on Bear projects, we do what we do and integrate when we need to.”

As might be expected, this is a longer-term arrangement than Bear’s typical projects and has seen huge success for both the brand and the agency. Projects have included an epic OOH campaign and a 26-episode, extremely charming stop-motion campaign highlighting the breadth of Telstra’s coverage in Australia, which picked up the Grand Prix in Craft in CR’s Annual Awards, London International Awards and most recently Cannes Lions (Bear was also the third most-awarded independent agency at Cannes Lions this year, largely due to its work for Telstra).

The only reason I’ve ever seen anything great happen anywhere I’ve ever been has always been just finding the right people

Walker puts the partnership’s success down to relationships and people. “It’s odd. Which is maybe why it works,” he says. “But it’s not because there’s a magical framework underneath it. The only reason I’ve ever seen anything great happen anywhere I’ve ever been has always been just finding the right people. We have a great partner in [Telstra CMO] Brent Smart – he’s a huge part of making it all come together. His drive is critical in making this all work.”

As true partners, they have also been given access to the business workings of the brand, allowing them to contribute to significant change. “If you want people to feel different about Telstra, then we’ve got to change the way Telstra feels – and that’s not just our direction or design, that’s ideas, the way you shape packages, the way you deal with people, so it’s a big project that runs as deep into the organisation as it does across advertising and design.

“What we’ve started to see is that the transformation of the brand has had a significant business impact,” he continues. “Creating a brand that is more pleasant to be around – this doesn’t sound like a very sophisticated take but it makes a genuine impact with customers. When people don’t mind seeing your advertising, when you make people smile and feel inspired, it drives the business.”

Reflecting on where the industry is at now, Walker could be described as cautiously optimistic, though notes, “I don’t think at this moment we have a super happy industry”, commenting, “it’s like everything other than the creative is where most agencies make money. Therefore, the creative is continually squeezed to be more efficient.”

He is excited at the thought that we’re “due a wave of people who want to break stuff”, and that Bear has allowed him and the team to be in the “messy middle” between advertising and design. “To me, it’s all brand, and that can live and breathe through absolutely everything you touch and hear and see. I think that’s where your creativity is so valuable.”

As to the future, he alludes to potential new Bear outposts but remains opaque on this front. Regardless of what might come, though, it is clear he is always looking ahead to the next project.

“I can’t complain,” he concludes, “six years have gone by fast. I’m proud of the work and, most of all, of our team. I still look back at all of it and kind of think we could have made it better, and I always hope the next thing that we’re working on is going to be the best thing we’ve ever made.”

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