Justine Armour is at her best when she’s “in the work”. That means she has spent the first six months as international chief creative officer at 72andSunny introducing herself as a copywriter “all the time” and having conversations at “every altitude.”
During a trip to her native Australia, Justine and the agency’s CEO, international, Chris Kay — who spent years in this market, a chunk of which was spent at 72 — told LBB their priorities are premium work, playfulness, and performance.
At the end of September, Justine shifted over from Stagwell stablemate Forsman & Bodenfors. The agency expanded its footprint by rebadging Forsman’s Toronto and Singapore offices to the 72andSunny brand, and launched a global ‘Creative Collective’. Justine is getting ready to formalise that Collective, but the majority of her first months in the role have been spent less on “aerial, high-level, overseeing vision stuff” and more “in the work.”
“I’m writing, I am on set,” she said. “I introduce myself as a copywriter all the time. The modern CCO has to be able to be at every altitude, show your junior creatives how it’s done, show up to CMOs and have a conversation with authority and experience.
“People learn a lot more from me when they see me in action, in the work, in the meetings. How do I talk about the work? How do I help you get clarity on what an idea is? That’s where my real value is … I know when I show up, the work gets better.
“My job is going to be: make sure that the offices that we have, and then future offices that we build, which are also coming, are humming.”
“We Believe in Premium Creativity”
The agency network’s offices include Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, and Sydney, plus the new additions of Singapore and Toronto. The Creative Collective will be responsible for setting, and enforcing, a “shared criteria for what great creative work is.”
Justine wants creative leaders across markets to trust each other with their clients, and spot opportunities to work more closely together. “Collaboration between offices falls apart when you’re like, ‘I don’t like their work.’” And she wants “work that’s surprising, work that’s simple enough that people can talk about it in culture. It has a sense of audacity to it, that has ambition in what it’s doing, in what it’s saying.”
She added, “You can’t be a premium creative agency if you don’t think about every single element” observing, “in this world of AI, craft really matters.”
Chris agreed, “We believe in premium creativity. That for us is the one thing that we can sell that maybe others can’t.
“The best thing about the Creative Collective is it starts with the word ‘creative’. In our industry at the moment, when there’s businesses, brands, and people coming together, they’re not brought together with that as the reason. It’s a micro-network here, it’s a new system there. And what we wanted to create was just a company that absolutely had creativity at its heart.
“It’s the best time to be in this industry. If you absolutely believe in creativity, it’s the best time to be involved in it, and I think if there’s negative conversations, it’s because people haven’t got a vision and an answer. The people who are having the most fun know their value. And if this is the year our industry gets its value back, we’d love to play a part in it.”
He rejoined 72andSunny at the start of 2024 (he previously spent more than eight years running the LA and APAC operations, before moving home to England in 2021), and said Justine has “come in and set the standard.”
“She’s getting stuck into the work and really leading by example. And celebrating the standard,” he added. “It’s a virtuous circle. You set it, you show it, and you celebrate it.”
Winning, Sustainably
The agency is galvanising around an ambition to ‘play to win’. It promises to be hyper-competitive, while not losing sight of humanity and playfulness. “The more human we are, the more dangerous we can be on [clients’] behalf,” Chris explained. “And we’re seeing that in pitches.”
A combination of high performance and a creative spirit is what he wants to see from every team member, across every office. “If we just do that, we’re winning, winning, winning.” Justine noted it’s also critical people feel “energised”.
“You can kill yourself to deliver the work, and deliver a pitch, but if it ultimately drains people and they can’t sustain what they are doing, that’s not a win,” she said.
Chris’ focus is on attaining, then strengthening, client relationships to create the conditions for creative excellence. “Our best work comes from our best relationships.” Both point to 72andSunny Amsterdam’s Super Bowl work for e.l.f — a telenovela starring Melissa McCarthy — as an example of how client trust leads to the perfect blend of speed and quality.
Making a Super Bowl Ad in 11 Days
e.l.f is a “kind-hearted disrupter of the beauty industry”, as Chris put it, and has achieved “28 consecutive quarters of growth” by understanding its consumers and being part of the cultural conversation — whether on TikTok, by sponsoring a female NASCAR racer, or releasing a campaign called ‘So Many Dicks’ to draw attention to gender inequality in boardrooms.
The Super Bowl spot was created in just 11 days — that pace is the only way to respond to “the cultural moment,” Justine said. In its first five days, it garnered 70 million views across platforms. “It’s broken records.” The work was a nod to Bad Bunny’s half-time show and Spanish culture. In moments of division, political turmoil, and hardship, how do agencies guide brands on how best to show up?
“They know what’s right for their audience, and they’ve had years of understanding their audience. So there’s a very intuitive, instinctive, ‘That’s right, that smart,’” Justine said of the brand.
“We all knew and understood that this had to be something where everybody felt included. You can be in any cultural conversation, really, as long as you’re about really being radically inclusive.”
Chris predicted the brands that have spent the time crafting their personality, and channel it into playful world-building.
“2026 is a year of personality. The brands that are winning have a magnetic superpower that consumers just want to be part of,” he said.
“And so if you don’t know your brand vibe in 2026, you’re probably not going to win. If you’re really clear on your brand vibe, and the world that you’re creating, you’ve got a chance.”
date:2026-02-11 00:26:00