“Diversity has always been a foundation at Thinkingbox”

Toronto, February 4th, 2021.

Thinkingbox is a global creative collective shaping the future of brands through craft and curiosity. The agency develops all its work in-house with a passionate collective of abstract thinkers.

With offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and New York, Thinkingbox is committed to providing customized and interactive solutions.

Christine Clark is the Managing Director of Thinkingbox Toronto’s office, where she started five years ago as a producer.

In an interview with TIA, she explained her current role and what she likes more about it and reflected on the things that makes the agency stand out.

At the same time, she gave some tips on how to deal with the pandemic with her own experience.

To kick things off, what do you love the most about your city?

Toronto is an amazing city to live and work in. It’s the hub for all global brands in Canada, it’s only a short flight to most US cities (NYC in particular), it’s multicultural, clean, and constantly buzzing. In particular, I love the food scene, it’s super diverse and always adventurous.

What’s one must-do experience in TO in your opinion?

To me, a visit to Toronto isn’t complete without a day on “the islands”. They’re a short ferry ride from downtown. From the boat and islands, you can see amazing views of the city. On the islands, there are very few vehicles, many beaches, a theme park, restaurants, and beautiful gardens. It’s a total urbanite paradise, in the summer of course.

Tell us about your personal journey, how did you find yourself doing your role?

My journey to my current role was a winding road. I started in the games industry and co-founded a start-up that made artsy games as a side hustle. I spent a few years working in communications in research and healthcare (seriously, I was the comm’s lead for the Sex Lab at UBC). From there I freelanced doing various production work while living in Whistler. The lifestyle was great, but I didn’t find the work very fulfilling.

Finally, I ended up at Thinkingbox as a producer – it was great to find my “it” thing. I didn’t think advertising would be my jam but the amazing creative/tech-focused work had me hooked.

All my digital know-how from previous roles and my interactive production experience was a perfect fit. Now after 5 years and a couple of promotions (thanks boss!), I’m overseeing the Toronto office as MD and working to grow the team, continue to innovate, and be great partners to our clients.

What are your favorite parts of your career so far?

1. Promoting team members – I’ve been lucky enough to do this a number of times now, and it never gets old.
2. Working on a huge variety of clients/project types.
3. Building a team and over time seeing the fruits of their collective work.

What makes Thinkingbox stand out?

We have a great balance of creativity, design, strategy, and most importantly execution. We’re able to work with our clients on innovative solutions to all kinds of problems.

To our clients, I think our service stands out, we care about the work, we care about the outcome, and we push hard for excellence.

I am also very fortunate to work with the best team of people every day. Diversity both in talent and individual backgrounds has always been a foundation at Thinkingbox. I am one-fourth of an all-women lead managing director team and our company is made up of 36 different nationalities.

Do you have a particular methodology to help others achieve their goals?

Yes, I think one of the most important parts of my job is to support the team in growing. Everyone learns and grows a little differently so we need to make space for that. Overall, I like to have systems that ensure I’m checking on the team, and that they have places to go.

Individually I encourage hand raising, a lot of team members may want to participate or learn something but leadership will have no idea if they don’t speak up. Many people don’t naturally do that so we need to encourage this and create opportunities for our team.

Another thing I do is track goals, it’s not rocket science at all, but scheduling regular check-ins that don’t have to do with the day-to-day but focus on an individual’s goals helps keep their growth on the rails.

Can you walk me through your creative processes?

I don’t consider myself very creative, rather I’m creative-adjacent. My role is often to work with the team and ensure the creative territory is feasible and right for the client.

Process wise, I like to understand the brief inside and out, then ask why a few more times. I like to give good parameters to the team and work very collaboratively. Given my producer background I’m aware that we can often kill creativity with too many rules and parameters upfront so I like to make room for us to go crazy, then reel it back in, then maybe go crazy some more if it makes sense.

COVID-19 is a first of its kind disruption, one that leaves no community, government, or business untouched. How did you build relationships with clients during this time?

Honestly, this has been way more challenging than initially anticipated. I work well face-to-face and video calls don’t quite do it. Building relationships has needed to be much more intentional, so I’ve made a point to do virtual coffees on top of work calls so that we can unwind and be comfortable. It’s not perfect, but it’s helped!

What is some recent work from TBX that you’re most proud of?

We have a ton of great work that has recently launched:
We did a very fun Instagram filter with Rupi Kaur to help launch her new book “home body”, I love it because it’s so simple and fun.

We’ve also just launched the Rockstar Energy website with our friends at Laundry Service, and have a ton of great online events in the pipeline that we’re super excited to show off soon.

If you could change or improve anything about the industry what would it be?

Addressing burnout which is huge in the industry is really important. It’s something that I know many workplaces struggle with. We’re often working against hard deadlines and even when overtime isn’t intended it comes up as a part of the iterative creative process.

We want to push to do the best possible work while balancing our home lives. Long hours are often touted as par for the course in the industry but I don’t believe that should be our status quo.

What are some strategies you’ve learned that can help women achieve a more prominent role in their organizations?

Be aware of misogyny but don’t dwell on it. Focus on doing the best you can without worrying about what everyone else is doing. If you feel you’re being held back due to your gender, move on. When you are in a position to help other women, do it.

Is there a question you wish people would ask you more often?

Yes, generally that question is “Why”. I’ve found people will accept a directive or feedback without knowing the core of it. I love being asked why, always happy to answer.

Where do you go if you want to get inspired?

Skiing – it’s not really a where but a what I guess? I love being up on a mountain and remembering that the world is bigger than us. Bonus points for skiing in a new place.

Can you name a fun-fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

To unwind, I binge watch Hallmark mystery movies.

Thanks Christine!

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