Why 1977?

People ask about the name.

1977 was the year The Clash released their debut and the Sex Pistols put out Never Mind the Bollocks. Star Wars arrived in cinemas. Studio 54 opened its doors in April, and Saturday Night Fever closed the year by putting disco on every dance floor in the world. Punk, disco and blockbuster cinema had almost nothing in common — except that nobody focus-grouped any of them into existence.

Culture that year moved on instinct. Scenes formed in basements and clubs, and marketing had to run to catch up. Contrast that with now, when the catching-up happens in advance: trends are forecast, content is optimised, and by the time an idea reaches an audience it has usually been through more meetings than the thing it's promoting.

What it means in practice

We named the agency after that year because the instinct still matters — perhaps more than ever, because it's rarer. In practice it means we start with the culture, not the media plan. We back ideas that feel right to the people closest to the audience, even when the deck hasn't caught up yet. And we'd rather make one partnership people actually talk about than ten that tick boxes.

Algorithms are very good at telling you what worked last time. They have nothing to say about what happens next. That part still runs on feeling — and that's the part we're in.