Oliver Hicks opened North Six in 2001 out of his apartment in Williamsburg on North 6th street. Over the 20 years he has built North Six into a global agency with offices in NY, LA, London, Paris, Milan and Madrid. North Six Group is a 360-degree agency that supports brands in communicating their message through print & still, film & motion, live & digital experiences, PR, influencers and social media (www.northsix.com ). He is also a partner of Merman (LA, NY + London), a commercial and entertainment production company producing television shows, commercials, branded entertainment and digital content. Commemorating North Six's 20th anniversary, we spoke with Oliver about his learnings over the past couple of decades, his company's rebrand and their exciting new client offerings.
Reflecting on 20 years of North Six, what are some top agency milestones that stand out?
There have been many milestones for the company over the twenty years, and looking back, they tend to occur every 5 or 6 years. We have always tried to listen to the market and keep ahead; and many of those milestones are intertwined with that listening. We started in stills in 2001 and added motion by 2005, events by 2011 and in 2017 we added earned media strategy through engaging influencers and PR to amplify brand content and messaging.
It is interesting to see how our client base has grown because of those milestones. We were not only evolving to the changing marketing landscape, we were also attracting new opportunities and picking up additional categories. We started in a very focused lux space and now we are lucky enough to be working across categories and markets.
Film/Motion: this was an important and early milestone for us. When we started out most luxury and fashion brands tended to stay away from commercial moving content. Digital technology changed this – both by how we created content (as the red camera came out) and then ultimately how content was consumed with more platforms making it more accessible. Around this time, we found the photographers we were working with were being asked to shoot the commercial too, so it was a natural progression for us to invest significant energy into this.
Experiences: we were being asked to produce events for some of our regular clients –back then it was all about the pop-up experience. Brands wanted to find new and innovative ways of speaking to their consumers – and it was a natural progression to include this to our capabilities. The continued development in technology has been interesting to watch as the experience has moved from being purely live to virtual and even mixed reality experiences.
Amplification: with the over-saturation of content on so many platforms – we started to see what content worked and what struggled to get through the noise. We also saw traditional PR open up from just editorial. We added this to our capabilities, so that we could help brands maximize their content and experiences.
Tell us about the full rebranding and integration of the company's divisions under the North Six name.
The creative industry constantly adapts and expands. There are now more platforms and more ways to communicate with the consumer. We worked in an industry where the traditional levers of marketing were siloed between PR, advertising, celebrity, and events. In recognition of this structure we approached it in a similar way with three divisions: North six , 6Up and 6 Degrees.
But clients now need more assets for different touchpoints to engage the consumer; and this has resulted in the blending of marketing strategies to service our clients with experiential, public relations, influencers, and marketing, as well as content production under the one umbrella.
While these capabilities can work independently of each other, depending upon the client’s needs, we can generate 360-degree campaigns that reach consumers through multiple platforms, offering our clients real value with a range of expertise and consultancy services under one roof.
Since our origins are that of a production company, we have found ourselves in multifaceted projects, with 3 or 4 simultaneous sets for one shoot to create content for advertising, social media, and public relations.
Our core DNA remains focused on supporting and working with the creative and with our combined disciplines we are able to deliver innovative ways of amplifying across our global network.
What makes this the right time to open up an office in Amsterdam?
We have worked hard to diversify the company’s capabilities and offerings, and the markets we service. We opened LA in 2004, London in 2008, Paris in 2011, Italy (Rome first, then Milan) at the end of 2016 and Madrid at the beginning of 2019. We believe being local and global is one of the keys to success. Our Dutch office will continue in that same holistic approach and strengthen our agency’s global added value. We can operate locally on the ground with brands across the globe with our Dutch office as a strategic part to this.
With our network, we can have a Dutch client that needs to shoot in New York, LA or Rome and we can set it up remotely if they are unable to travel. This is true for our other disciplines as well. When executing global influencer campaigns, we can tap into our global network to find the right influencers in Milan, Paris, or London, leaning into the local markets.
We can look at global campaigns more strategically and advise which cities and countries may be more effective and efficient. With our growing company network, our resources and reach are significant beyond the 8 cities. Each office shares its global production experience and knowledge, enabling us to tap in to set client expectations, suggest the right locations, and even deliver on the right casting.
Looking ahead, what are a few future goals for the agency?
North Six has been on this journey for some time, but the last 12 months have given us time to explore the “how” at our company. How do we do things, and what can we do better?
Sustainability or a commitment to protecting the environment is one of the practices North Six is working on to achieve better corporate responsibility. Our first big initiative of 2021 was to join 1% For the Planet. This is a global organization leading a network of forward-thinking, aware and passionate businesses, and individuals committed to working to protect the planet. It’s a great group to be a part of and inspiring to be amongst so many other people who have committed to donating 1% of their annual gross sales.
We also wanted to make sure that we were accurately offsetting all of our projects and giving our clients the ability to engage with this effort if interested. We are working with Gold Standard, an internationally recognized certification offsetting program, to ensure our contributions have maximum benefit for the planet and society. With Gold Standard, we will be able to provide our clients with detailed reports that outline the total contributed to offset our projects with them and which climate protection projects were supported. This is something we are really excited about.
We believe in the power of long-term thinking and behavior, to be able to address the greatest challenge to our world concretely and do so in tandem with our clients. By partnering with 1% and Gold standard, we can ensure that the money we donate and raise is used in the most effective way and is reflective of the company and employees’ values.
Our increasing worldwide network of offices allows us to reduce our travel pollution while internationally supporting our clients on a local basis. We carefully choose our suppliers, to be local and as sustainable as possible and screen our suppliers to focus on vendors who share similar beliefs.
While environmental responsibility is one of the most pressing issues of our time, diversity and inclusion are also very important, and have come into greater focus this past year. We continue to work to create an inclusive and diverse company culture, ensuring opportunity is open to all. We are extremely proud of our strong female leadership across all the offices. In the US we joined the NGLCC – the business voice of the LGBT community. They are one of the largest advocacy organizations dedicated to expanding economic opportunities and advancement for LGBT people. Being a married gay dad with kids building and running this global company – I hope to serve as a positive example to my wider community.
What are your three most important learnings from the past 20 years that you would impart on a fellow business owner?
North Six’s operating principles and values are very simple and straightforward: Do Good, Be Good.
Do good work by finding solutions and common ground while being precise and clear and be good to each other! I would also add to be persistent - never give up and hold the course. We consider everything, not just what you see or what you get but how we show up in the world. In order to do good we must be good – to each other and the company, our clients, the public and the world.
