SBP 206: Great Creative Shouldn't Feel Scary. Karen Pearce, Rethink.

Most people assume award-winning creative work is a high-wire act: brilliant, risky, and impossible to repeat.

Karen Pearce of Rethink makes the opposite case.

Fresh off Ad Age's 2026 Agency of the Year and ADWEEK's 2025 Independent Agency of the Year, and as the most-awarded independent agency in the world last year, Rethink keeps producing famous, business-moving work on purpose.

Recorded as a Cannes Lions lead-up, this conversation gets into the machinery behind the run. Karen explains why independence lets Rethink protect creative standards instead of chasing scale, why the client's real job is finding sparks rather than poking holes, and how the CRAFTS framework gives a whole agency a shared language for what good looks like.

Karen walks us through the Heinz philosophy that every ad is a product ad, the go-then-grow approach that turns big swings into low-risk reps, and why, going into Cannes, she expects a reclaiming of human craft in an AI-flooded market.

The through-line: bold creative shouldn't feel scary. Build the right system and the right partnership, and the work that wins awards is the same work that drives the business.

Timestamps

00:00 Find the sparks, not the holes

02:08 What's behind the run: independence and the receipts

05:48 Why great creative shouldn't feel scary

09:12 Builders vs hole-pokers: the client's real job

14:27 Famous brands outperform business metrics

19:17 AI, human craft, and the IKEA sleep talkers

22:42 CRAFTS: a shared language for great work

30:57 Heinz: every ad is a product ad

36:24 Go then grow: getting your reps in

44:17 Idea first: when media becomes the creative

References

• Rethink: rethinkideas.com
• Karen Pearce: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/karengpearce/
• Rethink's Book: The Business of Creativity
• Referenced campaigns:
• IKEA “U Up” and IKEA organizer / Skittles out-of-home; Heinz “Looks Familiar” and the keystone ketchup pouch; Destination Canada; Coinbase craft-led film; Epitaph “garbage media” dumpster billboards
• Anthropic “Keep Thinking” campaign for Claude, by Mother
• Awards context: Ad Age 2026 Agency of the Year