CEO & Creative Director
Godmother Consulting

On my recent visit to Singapore, Linda Locke was one of the people I was most looking forward to meet. She was a bit hard to track down, but when I finally managed to get a hold of her, she generously took me up on my offer, and was more than happy to play ball…

There aren’t many superlatives left in my superlative drawer to adequately describe her 30 year career. After cutting her teeth as a junior art director at Batey in the 80s, she went on to become one of the most powerful and influential people on the Asian ad scene, earning her the Godmother nickname. From winning Singapore’s first gold lion at Cannes, to putting Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore on the worldwide creative radar, to being the Regional ECD of Leo Burnett in Asia for seven years, she really has done it all.

Anyone that’s worked for her will tell you the exact same thing: She’s incredibly fair, but also very very tough. So it’s with a bit of apprehension that I met her for coffee to pick her brain and see what she has been up to since leaving Leos in Singapore’s fancy Orchard district. As luck has it, I broke my mac’s adapter while waiting for her, but she was nice enough to save my life and direct me to the closest mac store. And she paid for coffee, thanks Linda!

ihaveanidea: What’s the thing you miss the most about being a big shot creative director? And the thing you miss the least?

Linda: That’s easy. The thing I miss the most is interacting with creative people. Brainstorming creative ideas and the chemistry that goes with that. I also really miss nurturing creative people, helping them to develop themselves and actually find their path.

For the least, it’s definitely the difficult clients; I don’t miss that at all. And the horrendous deadlines!

ihaveanidea: What about you tell us a bit more about what you’re doing right now at Godmother Consulting. Everyone knows what you’ve achieved in the past, but what exactly are you up to these days?

Linda: Right now I am actually doing one major gig, which is being marketing director about two to three days a week for a very large luxury fashion retailer called Club 21. They have about sixty fashion labels under them including some very major ones like Dolce, Armani, and brands like that. So that’s a very different situation because I am now on the other side of the table. I am a client. So I try not to be one of the horrendous clients …

ihaveanidea: But do you have to sometimes?

Linda: No, not really. Funnily enough though, even in this situation, there’s still a client. They’re the principals that own the brand in the first place. Because outside of our multi-labels shops, everything we do is representing another brand as their distributor – managing their brand image and marketing their products. So we still have a client.

“The creative director has somebody to rail against, but the CEO has nobody. It’s a very lonely job, and it’s not one that I think most people would take on willingly. It’s a very difficult job. You have to please an awful lot of people AND deliver.”

ihaveanidea: The next question is about Singapore, since I know you’re a particularly proud Singaporean. How and why do you think this place has been able to shine so much on the global stage with so little resources at first?

Linda: I do think that a lot of what Singapore has achieved was partly due to having had quite a lot of very talented expatriate creative people who came into the market twenty years ago. They brought with them a lot of their experience, skill sets, technical knowhow, creative skills, and abilities. Also I very much think they brought a standard with them that the local creative community had to discover, learn and aspire to.

In addition, Singaporeans are very quick studies. So they learnt extremely quickly and well from this original expatriate community. Since then they have found their own feet.

Then in turn, they became the people that became the expats since a lot of them are operating in countries all around the region. We have quite a few creative directors in China for example, where in addition, their mandarin skills have come in handy. They’re expats as well. It’s a bit more interesting now, because they’re Asian expats. And some Singaporeans have even worked in markets overseas, where the original expatriates came from!

ihaveanidea: You’ve worn both hats before. CEO and ECD. Which one would you say is the toughest gig?

Linda: The CEO hat is the toughest. It really is. Because you get all the shit and you don’t get any of the fun. You’re responsible for hiring and firing, you’re responsible for the bottom line, you’re the one who has to be the bad guy who says no. The creative director has somebody to rail against, but the CEO has nobody. It’s a very lonely job, and it’s not one that I think most people would take on willingly. It’s a very difficult job. You have to please an awful lot of people AND deliver. Particularly in this day and age where almost every agency is a public company, so the financial pressures are tremendous. You’re very often dealing with people who do not understand the business at all, who only see the in and outs and that’s all. They have a very short-term view and do not believe in investing beyond twelve months. So that’s why I went back to being a creative director!

“That sets the bar very high for you. So I liked that, absorbed it, and tried to used it as much as I could going forward”

ihaveanidea: What would you say was the toughest time of your career? From being a junior art director and having to prove yourself, to being at the top of the top and dealing with all the responsibility and pressure it involves?

Linda: Definitely being at the top. When I look back at it now, I am surprised I didn’t end up in a lunatic asylum. I was doing two jobs, and at one point I was doing three jobs. So I would say the very early nineties was probably the darkest period for me because I was trying to manage a region, as well as manage a local office, and I just didn’t have enough time for everybody. It was stressful and utterly exhausting. I didn’t have as much time to devote to the creative work and the creative process, which frankly was the only thing that gave me any joy. So that would be the worst period. Coming up as a young art director was mostly fun.

ihaveanidea: If someone made you a really big offer would you be tempted back in the business?

Linda: Possibly. Depending on the agency, the job and whether I would have to work five days a week, or worse, seven days a week. Because I have gotten used to having a couple of days I can call my own and I quite like that! So if it didn’t involve being 100% full on, the job was interesting, I liked the brand, and it had the kind of integrity that’s important to me, yeah, I would probably consider it…

ihaveanidea: You’re known to be some sort of a star maker. You’ve had some pretty big names blossom under your guidance: Tay Guan Hin, Graham Kelly, Rowan Chanen, Victor Ng, Chris Chiu…these guys have all been awfully successful. So how do you make someone with potential fulfill it, and reach that stratosphere of creative excellence?

Linda: I think the key phrase you said there is somebody who has potential. I think I have and have had a bit of skill and a bit of luck, truth be told, as well as good intuition to spot those I really think have the passion and ability to develop into very powerful creative people.

Then frankly, the rest of it is people skills. It’s nurturing people, trying to instill a lot of discipline in their thinking and how they relate and work with the people that in turn they’re going to work with. You don’t become a creative director just because you’re a lovely human being. There are a lot of other skills that go with it. And not everybody can do it, not everybody wants to do it, and not everybody will like doing it. It does carry, not as much as a CEO, but it does carry a lot of responsibility. Suddenly, you could be firing people, and that’s not a pleasant experience to have to go through. But I think if anything, I like working closely with the creative people, and that somehow I have had some ability to be able to focus them and get them to  draw out their own skill sets in thinking and craft, develop them and so they could go on to be very competent and talented creative people.

“I am surprised I didn’t end up in a lunatic asylum.”

Sometimes, honestly, it’s about being able to give the right direction at the right time and after that they go off and shine. If you take someone like Graham Kelly; he left Burnett’s and subsequently TBWA, went off traveling for a few months, came back to see me and was frankly a bit lost at that point. So we had a chat, I told him here’s what I think: “I think the market for interactive is going to explode” and this was in the very early 2000s before the digital world as we know it today ( It’s sort of amazing when you think how much of a short time it has been). So I told him “ you’ve always been passionate about that, you’ve always been invested in it. In addition, you’ve got direct marketing skills and advertising skills. The digital world is going to use direct marketing skills more powerfully than any other skill set. Putting those three together, my advice for you would be to pursue a career in the digital world. Even if you have to take a pay cut, or whatever, that’s what I would do. Because in the end, you’ll probably end up being one of the most expensive creative directors in that field”.

The next time I heard from him, was to learn that he managed to get a job as regional creative director at OgilvyOne and never looked back.

He had a blue ocean opportunity given his skills. So I looked at what I thought were the trends, and I couldn’t think of anybody more suited to leverage them than him. A few years later I tried to hire him back, but at that time he was off and flying, so I lost out on that opportunity. He’s done very well and I am very happy for him.

ihaveanidea: So are you as happy when the people you’ve nurtured do so well, as you were for yourself when you were graduating through the echelons?

Linda: Oh yeah, totally. To me it means I got it right! He didn’t work with me in that role, but no matter my instincts were right. I always believe that the more you give, the more you get back. And I also believe in the Chinese proverb “always leave the cage open, and let the bird fly”. Because if you do that, you keep it open and there’re no bad feelings, you never know. They might come back to work for you again, and bring back something they didn’t have before. So it would be valuable no matter what happens.

ihaveanidea: Okay, so this is kind of a follow up on the last question. You’ve been a mentor to so many people, but who was yours? Who would you consider as a mentor?

Linda: My first boss in advertising Ian Batey was probably the best mentor I’ve ever had. And my second indirectly would be my ex-husband Neil French. I couldn’t do much better than that really.

Ian funnily enough for a suit, had such passion for the creative product, and as high a standard if not higher than most creative people you would meet. To the point where he would entirely trash a film, and absorb the cost rather than present it to a client if he thought it wasn’t good enough. He literally would say “as long as my name is on the door, if it doesn’t meet my standards, it doesn’t go out.” And that sets the bar very high for you. So I liked that, absorbed it, and tried to used it as much as I could going forward.

ihaveanidea: It’s funny since the most common criticism thrown at account people is trying to play creative director. Whereas you’re saying Ian Batey’s, who was essentially a super suit, best quality was just that…

Linda: He wasn’t just a super suit, he was the CEO of the company so he was quite a visionary person. He was also somebody who really did help build the Singapore Airlines brand, so he was no ordinary suit EVER. And they kept that piece of business for thirty years, not many agencies achieved that client longevity in this part of the world.

ihaveanidea: Yeah, it’s kind of sad when you see what happened to the agency now…

Linda: It just goes to show that they missed the contribution that he made and weren’t able to replace it.

“Always leave the cage open, and let the bird fly”

ihaveanidea: Since you’ve been an ECD, a CEO, and now a client, you’re probably highly qualified to answer this question. What do you think is the true barometer for great work? Cleaning up at the awards ceremonies, or genuine results in increased sales and stuff like that?

Linda: This is always going to be a contentious one. The truthful answer is both. In an ideal world – and it’s kind of the BBH philosophy, which I’ve always had great respect for- their first and foremost job is being paid to sell a product and to promote a brand. If as a result of doing that, in an exemplary way, they are also recognized by their peers, judged to have produced something that sets a new bar and win an award for it, well that’s just double great isn’t it? But doing award winning work, for the sake of award winning work when the client is paying you good money is a bit irresponsible…and believe me I feel that now, because we really count every penny, and every penny has to make itself work – you’re really waiting to see if it’s going to make the cash registers ring. So every agency that spends all its time focused on awards, and doesn’t have equal or better business stories out there in the press isn’t I believe, in the long run ever going to do that well financially. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for initatives, as long as they deliver to the bottom line or brand equity.

ihaveanidea: What’s the thing you’re the most proud of when you look back at your advertising career?

Linda: There are a few things really. I am really proud of taking an agency from a $6M agency to a $125M agency, for the most part of that I was both CEO and CD. I am proud of helping  clients meet their business objectives, and I think the third thing I am most proud of  is the talent that’s come through my door. And I don’t just mean creative people, because having been an agency’s head, I employed all kinds of people. I am very very proud of the talent I was able to attract, and hopefully of the very small contribution I made in developing their careers. That’s on the bigger scale. Of course you still like getting your hands on the Cannes and the D&AD awards, but in the bigger scheme of things those are the three things I am most proud of.

ihaveanidea: What about the things you wish you had done? There can’t be too many of those!

Linda: Honestly, there aren’t any. I did everything I wanted to do. The only thing I wish I had done, but I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did if I had, would have been to somehow manage a better work/life balance, which I failed miserably to do. At least I had the wisdom of getting out when I got pregnant to make sure I could have the baby I wanted so badly…

ihaveanidea: Which brings us to our last question. We know you’re extremely proud of your son. So knowing everything you do, would you let him work in advertising?

Linda: Oh yeah, he already can do it, he’s amazing! He comes up with ads and great marketing ideas that have me wondering “where do you get this from!?”.  Although I do believe the business is a heck of a lot harder than it was in the eighties and nineties. The young creatives coming into it don’t have that perspective, it’s normal for them, but for those of us who came up in those two generations, when we talk about it, we all hang our heads and think it never used to be so difficult.

The trust bond with clients was so much higher, more of the money was in the agency – because the media was in the agency. We had the ability to have higher caliber business thinkers working within the company. It was a very different, and a much more professionally regarded industry. So depending on what he would want to do in the industry, I wouldn’t stand in his way. Because I still think the process of creating ideas is one of the most joyous things you could possibly do and get paid doing it! You also get to meet and mix with really interesting people. Some of them are completely nuts, some of them incredibly intelligent and some of them are just hilarious. It’s a lovely melting pot of characters, and I can’t think of many industries where you would get that. So I think he’d have a good time…

ihaveanidea: Well, you said he’s ready right now, so have you booked his Cannes ticket yet?

Linda: No! He’s only 13, he just gone off on his rafting trip, that’s the only trip he’s going to for now!

Interview by:

Rafik Belmesk

Operations, AKOS

ihaveanidea