Creative catch-up: The Chariot Agency's Jarrod Reginald

“Every brief is an opportunity to break the internet,” says Jarrod Reginald (pictured), co-founder and executive creative director of The Chariot Agency, who believes creativity today is no longer just about making standout work, but making work that also delivers business results.

A+M's "Creative catch-up" series kicks off with Reginald, whose perspective on creativity has evolved from chasing “kick-ass work” to balancing bold ideas with marketing objectives, stakeholder realities and commercial outcomes. In this conversation, he shares why constraints can sharpen creativity, how intuition is built through repetition and mistakes, and why some of his best ideas have come from getting stuck in traffic, riding a double-decker bus with his son, and simply observing people live their lives.

Prior to setting up The Chariot Agency, Reginald spent a collective 10 years at Ogilvy, and also had had stints at Geometry Global, BBDO/ Proximity, and Reprise Digital. 

Find out more about Reginald’s creative philosophy, the moments that helped shape his thinking, and what he believes the Malaysian creative industry needs more of right now.

Don't miss: Meet the CEOs: The Chariot Agency's Adrian Cheah 

A+M: What does creativity mean to you today, and how has your definition of it evolved over your career?

Back then, I only saw it through a typical agency lens, where we just wanted to do kick-ass work. Now, the balance is about how we do kick-ass work that actually hits the marketing objectives, respects stakeholder decisions, and helps our clients get that promotion.

A+M: What makes creativity truly unique in your view, especially in an industry where ideas are constantly being shaped by trends and constraints?

I think we are talking about two different things here. Work that follows trends can still be creative, sure, but you're just doing the same thing as agency X, Y, or Z. On the other hand, constraints are great, as long as you use them to answer the client's objectives in a kick-ass way.

A+M: With marketing becoming increasingly driven by data and performance metrics, how do you personally protect and develop your creative intuition?

Again, I think these are two different things. Marketers who want work based strictly on performance metrics, more often than not, don't actually want creative work. They just want announcement ads. Data itself has been around since the beginning of time; we've always needed data before creating something. It's all about how you use it, not letting it replace intuition.

At the end of the day, creative work is about listening to your intuition, while data simply validates what your gut already knows.

So, what develops intuition? Just doing the work. Doing a lot of it. Making plenty of mistakes when you’re young and the stakes aren’t as high, and there are people around to catch you if you make the wrong call. There’s simply no substitute for first-hand trial and error. The key is to carry those learnings and your sharpened instincts over to the next job. Then rinse and repeat.

A+M: Do you experience creative fatigue? What does that look like for you, and how do you navigate through it?

What’s the difference between creative fatigue and just being stuck on a brief? I'd define creative fatigue as the point when creativity starts to look the same.

I think our job is always to do the opposite and stand out. Every brief is an opportunity to "break the internet," as we say at Chariot. It's about how we can do things differently. We only start experiencing real creative fatigue when performance metrics take over and the ads become skippable.

That’s why we make it a point to try to do something different each time. Avoid repeating concepts or staying married to a concept, no matter how lovely it is. Minimising creative fatigue is a lot like building a relationship: to keep things fresh and exciting, you need the element of surprise.

A+M: Can you share a personal moment where you were stuck on a brief, and eventually found a breakthrough idea in an unexpected way?

Working in the heart of the city really helps me get unstuck. Once, my art director and I hopped on his motorcycle to get some yummy pastries. We were working on Nando’s at the time and got stuck in a total jam. While we were sitting there, I noticed a Myvi logo bastardised to the owner's name. It instantly sparked the thought for our campaign: let’s just rename all our meals to whatever you want.

Another time, I had the opportunity to bring my kid to work. To kill some time with him, I decided to take him on a double-decker bus ride. Sitting up there, just watching the city, I actually noticed that raw ASEAN spirit of not giving up. That little break with my son ended up leading us right to the winning work we came up with for the CIMB pitch.

At the end of the day, I get unstuck just by looking at people living their lives. That’s who we’re making ads for anyway. I feel that as an industry, we don’t watch them or try to understand them enough.

A+M: Creativity is highly subjective. How do you personally process feedback or criticism when it challenges your work?

I actually disagree with it being subjective. I think there is always some sort of metric behind why someone criticises a piece of work. It could be that the work didn't meet certain priorities or objectives in the brief, or maybe seeing the work stirred another thought for them. However, I do believe criticism is always based on something tangible, not just random opinion, which is why creativity in marketing isn't really subjective.

A+M: Looking back at the Malaysian creative industry, what shifts have stood out most to you, both in the work and in how agencies operate?

Big retainer clients are way more open to working with boutique agencies now. They want partners who are comfortable moving at a faster pace and who are on the same wavelength when it comes to steering in a new direction.

Smaller, sharper, and more specialised creative setups are eating bigger chunks of business. Look at Chariot: we're nimble enough to move fast, but opinionated enough to ensure we're never just a production arm.

A+M: Beyond your own experience, what do you think the Malaysian creative scene needs more of right now to grow in a meaningful way?

Celebrating the wins and accomplishments of our competitors. We need to take the time to teach one another, and as an industry, we should be a lot more gracious with each other.

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