Fifteen years is a long time in marketing and in life. Platforms have risen and faded, cultural moments gone from the headlines to memes, and trends have cycled from phenomenon to ironic and back again. Yet despite this backdrop of accelerating change, the thing that actually makes advertising and brands effective has stayed remarkably stable: people. Real people. People with mornings that don’t always go smoothly, people with opinions that change depending on mood, people who respond more to something that feels right and human than something that feels manipulative or insincere.
At Ponderosa, our belief has always been that Better Works when it is created for people and by the right people. After fifteen years of building brands, campaigns, digital experiences and social communities, we feel more convinced of that principle than ever.
Stay for a long time and a good time.
To create work that resonates, we must understand the lives it touches. Brands don’t exist in presentations, strategy documents, or client meetings; they exist in kitchen cupboards, billboards, late-night scrolls, and spontaneous conversations. Work that genuinely connects does so because it recognizes, reflects, or reframes something true about how people already think and act.
And to make work like that, you need the right environment. Ponderosa without its people would just be a building, some chairs, and a fridge full of questionable leftovers. Everything of value comes from the individuals within it. Their intelligence, humour, time, opinions, and problem-solving abilities. We’ve always tried to live by the No Dickheads rules. That’s not unique within the advertising world, but for us it’s a real guiding truth. Creativity thrives where everyone, clients included, feel free to contribute, challenge, suggest, disagree, refine, and share. That only happens in a space built on respect, not ego.
Over the years, people have come to Ponderosa for a time, but they leave stronger than they arrived. More skilled, more confident, and more certain of their voice. Surprisingly, the majority have built for the long-term, with continued growth over the years. All of this is true for our clients too though. We celebrate our client relationships that span years (even decades) as much as we do new pitch wins. And both are signs of a healthy creative environment, one that values investment in human connections, long and short term.
The inevitable (but mercifully short) mention of Ai in a marketing article.
People trust brands that show human traits like honesty, wit, intelligence, generosity, curiosity, or playful mischief. And trust matters more than ever. In a world where technology can mimic anything, as the new Sora release proves, the difference between something that is convincing and something that is genuinely real becomes incredibly important. True brand connection still relies on human judgment – the subtle understanding of why a line works, why an execution feels right, and why an idea lands as it does.
This is why for us, the people behind strategy and creativity are and always will be inseparable. The best human insights and observations don’t stay hidden in the strategy or in the brief, they are evident in the execution. If creativity was like telling a joke – strategy is the straight man doing the heavy lifting of the set up. Creative gets to swoop in with a killer punch line and take the laughter and applause. At Ponderosa, we cherish both Eric and Ernie, Mel and Sue, Ant and Dec (delete as age appropriate).
Let’s not lose sight of the point, of this commentary and marketing in general.
If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate the indulgence of my pontification. The truth is, a bit like the advertising industry in general, it’s sometimes tricky to remember the whole purpose of what we do in the first place.
The guiding light for us at Ponderosa is that marketing exists to help people spend their money, and there’s nothing cynical in acknowledging that. But there’s a responsibility in this exchange that is not to be underestimated or forgotten. If we interrupt someone’s day, whether in a feed, on the street, in a search result, or in their living room – what we present should be worth that interruption. It should entertain or at least offer something in return.
Better Works means we have taken that care. It means the work has been made with thought instead of haste. Better means the person on the other end gets something valuable, from joy, clarity, recognition, education, or simply a moment of delight.
Machines are nothing without people and vice versa.
The next fifteen years will certainly bring more automation, more blending of creation and tech, and more tools to speed up the making of things. We welcome anything that frees people from mundane tasks and lets them spend more time thinking deeply, experimenting and refining. The tools themselves are not yet our main focus. They are the means.
Ideas still arise from human observation. Taste is human. Intuition is human. The desire to feel seen, understood, entertained, or moved is human. And the decision and the means to spend money, whether on a snack, a sofa, a holiday or something dubious from Vinted, will always be human.
So, while the industry evolves, we will ride that wave but keep placing people at the heart of it all: the people creating the work and the people experiencing it. Because 15 years in, it’s the one thing that remains timeless.
