In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each week asks two colleagues with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.

Chris Buchanan:

Simon and I met while working at J. Walter Thompson. We were working with other creative partners at the time but came together to answer a worldwide agency pitch on the Visa account. Our idea ended up doing quite well and got the agency down to the final two with the client. After that we got teamed up a lot more on briefs and ended up becoming a creative team. Now, three agencies later, we’ve worked through a pandemic, a major merger and have gone from Wunderman Thompson to Thinkerbell to Communicado together.

Our working relationship is built on open communication and not taking anything personally. Throughout the lockdowns and remote working we got used to hopping on a Microsoft Teams call every morning and just staying online all day so we could talk to each other like we were still working in the same room. This allowed us to comment on things in real time and still feel connected. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of trust in the other person to make it work. Simon has a lot of technical knowledge when it comes to photography and creating visuals, so he can be aware of and solve problems before they happen.

We worked together on the Repco ‘Bringin’ the Bathurst’ campaign which was a lot of fun. Repco even extended the idea into the next year of their sponsorship of the event. It worked well because the Bathurst 1000 and Repco have a very clear target audience who are passionate about cars and are unapologetic about who they are. So, it was easy to understand that passion and connect to people through........

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