An Interview with Kay Scorah

Kay Scorah is a researcher, facilitator and speaker, and an ambassador for Blitzworks — the creative and strategic agency founded in 2017 by Marcus Brown, Ajab Samrai, and John Pallant.

Kate has served on the boards of advertising agencies Ted Bates and BBDO, and launched her own agency, havemorefun, thirty years ago.

The Lessons of Covid

Speaking about the isolation and homeworking necessitated by the pandemic, Scorah talked in the interview about how, during this time, she discovered how important the presence of people — in a face to face, rather than virtual situation — is in terms of motivation.

Scorah detailed how she found working through the various processes of a project to be less enjoyable and rewarding, and that generating concrete delivery dates had been difficult during lockdown.

The Blitzworks Method

Scorah finds the Blitzworks model an extremely effective and satisfying way to work. She spoke of the innovative ethos of the agency, and how its set-up and culture allow for teams of creative professionals across disciplines to be comfortable throwing out their ideas in order for the best to be chosen and finessed.

She points to how Blitzworks allows team members with a vast variety of different skill sets and knowledge to feel safe sharing their ideas, and to let go when one idea is passed over for another.

Scorah explains how this strategy not only delivers dynamic solutions fast, but also represents how creative agencies need to engage with an increasingly fast paced world; she recalls leaving previous roles in brand work due to the slow pace of strategy and solution development.

For Scorah, her method is influenced by her study of improvised theatre in LA in the late 1980s. Fusing ideas around creativity, the arts and management theory is instrumental to her way of doing things, and the success she has delivered for the companies she has worked with and the clients she has helped.

Representation Over Token Gestures

During the interview, Scorah shared her frustration with companies that have not treated well, or have consistently under-represented, certain groups of society; as well as those organizations that have not had the regard they should for environmental concerns.

She passionately believes that token gestures to try to placate the public or an audience are not appropriate; what is needed is real change, reflected in the products and the boardrooms themselves.