The best way to get a feeling for Meerkats is to read the handbook we give our new employees on their first day.

1. | Employee handbook

2. Welcome.
This is more than a workplace. It is a safe
environment where you can be yourself,
open up, ask the dumb question, admit you
don’t know absolutely everything. At some
agencies, employees feel the need to adopt
an act – the comedian, the surly genius,
the snappy talker, the boardroom bully.
Those acts don’t play here. We like real
people. Honest, fallible, what-you-see-is-
what-you-get people. Because we’ve found
they’re the ones who cut through all the
pretence in our industry and do the best
work. So relax. At Meerkats you can be You.
Better, you can be the You you want to be. Murdoch University The Vow

3. Our brand promise.
When asked What is your own brand promise?
a lot of advertising agencies will say things like
“Great creative”, or “Effective campaigns”,
or more recently “Through-the-line media-
neutral push-pull consumer conversations”.
We say “To make the world a better place”.
Yeah, we know it sounds a little pretentious at
first, but we’re deadly serious. Our mission in
life is to help make free enterprise work better
by helping the good businesses win and the
bad ones lose. Because we believe passionately
that when good businesses grow, people's lives
improve. The people buying a worthwhile
product or service feel rewarded because it adds
to their lives. The people who own the product
or service make profits and grow and employ
people who need those jobs to buy their houses
and raise their families.
Meerkats Warren

4. “Bad businesses” are those that are more
interested in making a quick buck or who
deal in ethically questionable products.
When we say Meerkats is for
good business, what do we mean?
By “good business” we mean those
organisations who believe they have
something to contribute to the world
with their product; organisations
that are prepared to work harder
to create genuine value and
communicate honestly about it.

5. we are a
brand leadership
company.
We find out what an organisation stands for
and we help them express that to the world to gain
for them a greater share of the future. It’s called
the Motivating Brand Idea. And it means that
advertising is often the last thing we do for a client.
Because brand leadership is more about how a
company behaves than how it advertises.
So we do a lot of un-advertising stuff, like create
workshops for our clients’ management and
employees, write staff handbooks, suggest new
product ideas, plan long-term business strategies,
design store fit-outs, create website content, social
media programs, branded events, sponsorships,
uniforms and vehicle design and heaps more.
Oh, and advertising.
HBF Essentials

6. We are dedicated to the truth here. The true promise of a brand. The true human emotions
that our advertising touches. Brand communications don’t work unless they reach past
people's natural defences and make meaningful contact with either their hearts or
their brains. It’s either an emotional touch or a logical touch. But we gotta touch
somewhere, somehow. And people won’t be touched by a message unless there is an
element of truth they can relate to. And the truth about Meerkats is, truth is everywhere
in our office. In our work, in our meetings, in our dealings with each other, in our brand
teams, in our discussions with clients, in our transparent financial dealings, in our sharing
of ideas. At Meerkats, you can’t escape the truth.
Westnet Down to earth

7. A culture of sharing.
Our office is open plan for a reason. We believe everyone is
equal. At Meerkats, the boss doesn’t get the corner office with
the big windows (he doesn’t even get an office). Sure, there is
a certain corporate hierarchy but that’s behind the scenes and
is essential to running a profitable company. But when we are
engaged in creating brand communications everyone is at the
same level. The focus is on the idea. When the ultimate prize is
making people's lives better, it’s a lot easier to drop your sense
of self-importance. That’s why we have that plaque out the front:
“Please leave your ego at the door”. This culture of ego-less
sharing carries through everything we do, from setting up a data
projector, to taking on a problem one of your colleagues is toiling
with, to asking for an honest critique of your idea.
Meerkats Warren

8. You gotta believe.
We have a theory (one of many you’ll get to learn here):
people do their best work for things they believe in.
As a brand communicator here at Meerkats, you can’t
reach out and touch someone’s heart with a powerful
truth that’s brilliantly observed and beautifully expressed
unless you buy into that truth. This is why we dedicate
so much time and effort to finding those truths, so that
we can believe in them first. Whether it’s the fact that
your health really is the most important thing in the world
(HBF) or the fact that having an open mind is the best
way to discover new ideas (Murdoch). We don’t believe
that just because you are a professional you should be
asked to fake a passion for something. So if you ever
find yourself working on something here that you don’t
believe is true, sing out. Something has gone wrong.
iinet Hallelujah

9. Why the name.
We love it when people ask us “Why did you call yourselves Meerkats?”.
Because that’s why we did it. To prompt a question that will allow us to
explain our brand values. You see, right from the start we wanted to
practice what we were about to preach. By making ourselves a
contemporary brand with clear values, a memorable brand identity
and a great brand story to tell. In the wild, meerkats have four
behavioural traits that we believe are great brand communications.

10. Curiosity Keen Eyesight
Meerkats are insanely inquisitive. They dig in Ever seen a photo of a meerkat standing
the dirt and poke around and leap on sticks on its hind legs, with its little front paws
and nuts and other animals in an insatiable dangling out the front there, peering out to
quest to understand their world. We do too. the horizon? They do it all the time. They
We are fascinated by how humans behave, even take turns at it to protect their families.
how they respond to ads, what makes them They use their amazing eyesight to detect
act on a thought rather than just think about danger at incredible distances; like a tiny dot
it, how media channels work, what makes against the sun that turns out to be a fast
humour better than pathos in ads, how to approaching eagle. They also do it to detect
do better focus groups, where the next big food, like when an almost undetectable
leap in brand engagement will come from, change in colour on a desert landscape
etc etc etc ad infinitum. We invite you to be turns out to be edible plant life. We employ
curious too. Embrace your inner meerkat. the business equivalent of great eyesight
for our clients. We not only detect threats
and opportunities where others see nothing
but desert and sun, we also cast our eyes
Family Values further out, to the horizon, to devise long-
Meerkats are incredibly social creatures. term brand strategies.
They not only share their living space and
workload equally among their multi-family
group (called a mob), they sometimes
share their living spaces with other species. Fun Attitude
They figure animals such as anteaters and If you’ve ever seen a documentary on
moles help them catch food and dig better meerkats you’ll know how much fun these
warrens so why not, hey? We have adopted little guys are. They play and tease and
a similar behaviour in not only creating a muck about with each other. They have
work environment of openness and equality such human qualities that it’s not surprising
amongst our own staff, but one that we to learn that in many zoos the meerkats
are happy to share at any time with our enclosure is the most popular. Likewise,
clients’ partner agencies, such as media we always wanted to create a company
companies, digital specialists, researchers, that was fun to work for. So hopefully you
etc. Like the meerkat, if the relationship is experience a certain playful nature in the
beneficial to all, we are not territorial. meerkats enclosure at No.1 Rokeby Road.

11. The grand
Don’t be under any illusion here.
Just because we are a collection of smart
experiment.
marketing minds doesn’t mean we think we
know everything. We see Meerkats more
as a grand experiment than a know-it-all
business. We consider ourselves students
of this game; always just one chapter ahead
of our clients (and competitors) in the book
of modern brand techniques. Always testing
new theories as they occur to us. In this
business, the moment you believe you have
The Answer is the moment you start the
steady slide into oblivion. We must keep
experimenting and refining.
Murdoch University The Vow

12. Happiness and conflict.
One of the side effects of Meerkats’ philosophy of equality and honesty
and embracing change is a calm, happy working environment. Over the
years our office has developed a wonderfully casual and contented air
about it. And we love that. But something unexpected has also happened
as a result: negative events seem to get magnified. In a normal agency,
things like verbal disagreements, or an unhappy client, or even a heated
exchange are all part of a normal working day (this industry is, after
all, a stressful environment where emotions are heightened). In Happy
Katland however, we’ve noticed that these things can show up to our
staff as terribly bad events that shouldn’t happen. But really, they’re part
of this game. They will happen. They just don’t happen very often here.
Lotterywest Mystic Money

13. Lotterywest Super Sleuth
Our 6th sense is common.
During the space race in the 1960’s
NASA spent millions inventing a ballpoint
pen that would work in zero gravity.
The Russians just used a pencil.
It’s amazing how often the simple
solutions are overlooked in our industry
too. We think it’s because a lot of
agencies think the client is paying them
all this money so they’d better
over-complicate things to make it look
worth it. It’s the same with overwritten
pitch documents, the use of impressive
technobabble, 3 hour long meetings
when 30mins would nail it, stuff like that.
Common sense avoids elephants in the
room and Emperor’s new clothes in the
boardroom. We urge you to use yours.

14. We value momentum.
We hate twiddling our thumbs. We loathe dilly-dallying.
We despise going round in circles. We love momentum.
We crave action. We demand impetus. For our clients,
for our agency and for you. If you’re not moving
forward in this business, you are becoming out of touch
with society. And for a brand communications company
that is death. This perpetual “what’s next” attitude is
why we create long-term brand strategies for our clients,
why we often call a new campaign “the next chapter in
the brand story”, why we demand that all senior Kats be
efficient storytellers and presenters, and why we’re going
to end this point here so you can move on.

15. Loose Tight.
This is the key to loving life at Meerkats. Knowing when to work loose
and when to work tight. And agreeing that with your team mates.
There are times when we must cast off the self-imposed shackles of
client demands, deadlines, budgets, traditions, rules, fear of failure,
logic, etc, and think freely. And wildly. To surprise ourselves with just
how original we can be. It’s that magical moment when we all embrace
what’s possible, not what’s probable. Tight mode is when the idea
has been chosen and now stuff has to be organised and planned and
costed and scheduled and delivered on. You must be able to switch
between these modes instantly. The bottom line? There are agencies
who operate loose all the time (creative hotshops, for example) and
they burn bright for a while then gradually fail under the weight of
the realities of running a functional business; and there are agencies
who operate tight all the time (some big multi-nationals) and they plod
along making good profits but losing their brightest people because
the management doesn’t let them fly. Meerkats can be the best of
both worlds. As long as you get the whole loose-tight thing.

16. Perth is the new Miami.
We believe we can do world class work from right
here in little old Perth. Not because it would make us
feel big and important, but because it would prove that
Meerkats’ brand idea is potent. And we don’t mean just
the occasional international advertising award.
We mean having people in other states and countries
talk about our work and our clients and our philosophy.
To have them be curious about us and maybe even
learn something from us. That’s the kind of legacy we
want to achieve. It’s happened many times before.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky began in Miami with a
passionate brand idea and achieved global renown.
Likewise Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Fallon
McElligott in Minneapolis, St.Lukes in London, Kessells
Kramer in Amsterdam. Why not Meerkats in Perth?
Trigg Beach

17. You’re the next world-beater.
There’s another very important upside to this ambition:
You. If you are very good at what you do, you will feel
the urge to apply it on grander stages, on bigger brands
with national and global impact. You will want to have the
chance to create world recognised work. Imagine how
cool it would be if you could achieve that without having
to move you and your family to some horrible smoggy
grey metropolis and work 14 hour days.
Imagine if you could fulfil your potential while living in
an amazing place like Perth, with all its sunshine and
healthy lifestyle and relaxed pace.
We think that’s a win-win worth chasing.
Police&Nurses The Stand

18. Ideas before heroes.
Advertising is famous for creating heroes. It turns creatives
into rocks stars and agency owners into legends. So it’s
understandable that our industry attracts people seeking glory.
But at Meerkats, we put the pursuit of individual glory aside and
focus on the greater good of nailing the objective.
We don’t care where ideas come from: planners, media,
accounting, creative. That’s how we like to play here.
No noses out of joint. No egos dented. So resist the urge to
be territorial about your role. Keep your mind open to good
thinking from others.
iiNet The new No.2

19. Suppliers are family.
Printers and film companies and
sound studios and photographers
are our No.1 partners in this grand
adventure of ours. On countless
occasions they have helped us to
prove that our philosophy delivers
better work. On time and on budget.
We wouldn’t be where we are
today without their passion and skill
and patience and help. So they
deserve to be treated with respect,
to be invited to contribute, to be paid
fairly and on time, to be listened to,
to be consulted and involved.
Just as the meerkat shares its home
with other species, so too do we
consider suppliers a part of our
extended family. And will be
treated as such.
Stockland Townside

20. No bad work, ever.
We’ve noticed that many agencies seem happy to let
the little jobs slip out the door with a quality of finish
that is lower than the big stuff. On a full page colour ad
the copy is perfect, but on that little 10x2 mono ad the
copy is not quite interesting enough, the art direction
not 100% on brand, that sort of thing.
Like they have all agreed that a lower level of quality
is simply unavoidable at the bottom of the food chain.
We disagree. We think the true measure of an agency’s
performance is the quality of the small stuff. It’s like a
secret window to their soul. And we truly believe Meerkats
has a higher level in the lower levels.

21. We like awards. We like evidence that we are good at
On the sensitive subject of awards. what we do. We just don’t think about them until the
job is done. We never ask “will this win an award?”
at the concept stage. It’s the wrong motivation.
We ask “will this nail the objective brilliantly?”.
A simple analogy is a football game (either code).
You can have one eye on the ball and one eye on the
scoreboard, willing it to tick over. Or you can keep
both eyes on the ball, play as damned hard and
skillfully as you can, then at the end of the game look
up at the scoreboard. We all know which mindset will
get the silverware at the end of the season.
Westnet Down to earth

22. Rule#47 How many times have you been in a meeting,
had a thought pop into your head but kept it to yourself,
then later somebody says the same thing and everyone goes
“Wow, great idea Tony”. Well we have a rule about that:
Never leave a meeting with a nagging thought still inside
your head. Get it out. Let it live and see what happens.
Ask the dumb question. Go against the popular opinion.
If a thought appears, you have a responsibility to voice it.
You’ll be amazed how many times it turns out that others
were thinking exactly the same thing and not speaking up
(especially if it’s to highlight a problem, or burst a client’s
bubble). You never know, it might be the thing that makes
an idea better, or prevents a catastrophe.

23. Give away Meerkats was launched with a public
everything
lecture on a research project we
did into the buying habits of West
Australian consumers. The findings
you value.
were subsequently printed in the
local industry magazine. All for free.
All available to anyone who wanted
to learn and benefit from it. In other
words, we are totally cool with sharing
how we work. And why. It’s a kind of
commercial karma; let it go and it
will come back tenfold. Or something
like that. Maybe twelvefold, we can’t
remember. The point is: don’t be
protective of what you have learned,
how you crack big ideas and solve
problems, all your clever tricks and
techniques. Share it with whoever
will listen. That should lead to the
gradual improvement in the level of
trustworthiness held for our industry,
which currently ranks alongside
lawyers and car dealers.

24. Stockland Townside
It’s not about the client. And it sure isn’t about the
money. Or the awards. Or the fame.
This business is about the people who will help our
clients grow their market share. It’s about what those
people think, what drives them, what they fear, what
they hope for, how they see themselves, how they see
advertising, how they consume media, how they live
their lives. Everything at Meerkats begins with the
truth about people.
It’s not about us.
Some agencies call them consumers or the target
audience. We think that’s a trap. Straight away you start
to view them as different to you. Dumber somehow,
or more gullible. We call them people because the
audience is all of us. It’s your mother and your sister
and your Uncle Trev and his mate with the chip shop
and the guy who sits at the next desk to you.

25. We want to feed your soul,
Career or job? your curiosity and your
ambition so much you
never want to leave.
You have a wonderful
We want to give you such
opportunity here. To build
rewarding brand projects
a home for yourself.
to work on you can’t
To create a role and a
believe people from other
career path and a sense of
agencies aren’t trying to
belonging that means you
bust down the front door
won’t want to leave. Like,
to get in. Every employee
ever. Traditionally, ad folk
here has their own annual
are nomadic. We change
training budget, so go ahead
agencies like we change
and use it. You represent the
our mobile phones. Always
next generation of brand
looking for that next job
communicators and we want
title, pay rise, greener grass.
you to show the world the true
Well, here at Meerkats we
power of the Meerkats way.
have chosen you carefully
So, what are you here for
and we want to keep you for
- a job or a career?
as long as we can. We want
you to grow and learn and
succeed and take over this
place one day.
HBF The Deal

26. Cut the crap.
Give ‘em up.
The excuses.
Now.
Before you finish your first day here. Whatever your
role is, there are no excuses here. Only learnings.
We find out why something went wrong, we learn,
we do better, we move on. No finger-pointing,
no martyrdom.
We get better, together.

27. No.1 Rokeby Road, Subiaco WA 6008 | T: 618 9388 0011 | F: 618 9388 0021 | E: thewarren@meerkats.com.au | W: meerkats.com.au