One of the great things about running your own creative agency is the freedom you have to take on projects you can invest time in—especially those where you wholeheartedly believe in what your clients want to achieve.

OK, so they don’t always work out—there have been a couple of projects I’ve taken on that I ultimately wish I hadn’t—but this particular job has been as rewarding as it has been challenging.

Over the past 4 years, we’ve been working with Unilever’s Sunlight brand as they shifted from simply highlighting product functions to using the power of the brand to create social good—celebrating and encouraging female empowerment in Asia.

As a result, we’ve cast over 150 women in SE Asia, looking to find those who are living their passions, realising their dreams, starting their own businesses, finding time to help the less fortunate and more. Our client calls it ‘unleashing the untapped power of women in society’. 

Our first project in this journey was filming 15 women in 3 countries - Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. A 6-day shoot, with 5 women in each country, back-to-back.

A punishing schedule, but that’s what was required to make the budget work. Our second project was simpler: find 5 entrepreneurial women in Thailand, and use their stories to inspire others to break away from their daily routines and do more.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve been working on project 3. By far the most ambitious, it involved 36 women and their stories—and was done in some pretty unusual circumstances (thanks, Covid!)

The women are as different as their stories and their backgrounds, but what links them all is their belief that life is to be lived. Passions are to be embraced. Hopes are never to be dimmed. Some stories may inspire you more than others. And that’s ok—every woman has experiences as diverse as their characters. From a tattooist in Vietnam who fought her family for understanding to a Thai lady still working at 80 years of age, to a woman who’s set up schools to educate farmers children in Indonesia. 

We’ve now collated all their stories into a book. You can also watch their stories here.

How did we complete this mammoth project? Well, when you start your own agency, you learn the art of making things happen.

We originally looked at working with one of the many companies that brings film makers together with either a client or an ad agency. We quickly realised this was not the solution, as the middleman in the equation was often a hindrance, with many requests being met with a “no” or a “we need more money”. And while we understand better than most that everyone has a business to run, we felt that while this situation might mean more money for the middleman, it didn’t provide more for the project.

So we went direct to film makers and fixers on the ground in the local countries. All of a sudden, those “no”s became “right—let’s make this happen”. 

So in the end, the people who brought the stories of these inspirational women to life were film makers who were just as passionate about telling the stories as the women had been in creating them.

If there’s a lesson advertising creatives can take from the stories of these women, it’s to learn to make things happen, not to take “no” for an answer, not to think that money is the only thing it takes to bring a project to life.

Sure, it helps—but it’s not the only thing.