Ask Me Anything: Sean Topham talks working with Christopher Luxon and Boris Johnson and facing ‘dark arts’ backlash

Sean Topham is the co-founder of ad agency Topham Guerin.

Can you imagine incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon hanging out on Twitch? His globally successful social media gurus certainly did.

Getting Luxon online and interacting with gamers was one of the ideas pitched by Topham Guerin, the advertising agency started in New Zealand by Sean Topham and Ben Guerin.

Since launching in 2016, the agency has worked with the likes of Australia’s Scott Morrison and Britain’s Boris Johnson on their successful election campaigns, and returned home to work on National’s general election campaign.

Topham, in New Zealand after the election, told Paula Bennett on her NZ Herald podcast, Ask Me Anything, that video game live streaming service Twitch was one of the platforms they considered getting Luxon involved with, though the idea didn’t pan out.

“I mean, there’s still time. Maybe as Prime Minister, you’ll be the first PM on Twitch, but you know, it’s a really important constituency community space to talk to people where they are and in the same way that they’re operating.”

Adapting to the digital age has been one reason why Topham Guerin has succeeded around the world. Topham said that they have focused on social media and growth areas like TikTok and Twitch, as there are dedicated communities there with niche interests that make it easy to talk about specific issues.

“Politicians are the oldest influencers in the world. TikTok is the place where influencers are thriving at the moment,” Topham said. “You need to start taking pages out of TikTok influencers’ books to try and be an effective influencer in this day and age.”

Each campaign and client brings its own challenges and opportunities with them, though Topham noted that former British Prime Minister Johnson was “one of the most unique individuals” he’d ever worked with.

“You could be sitting in a meeting room with him in Downing Street, and this was before the election as we were sort of getting bits and pieces, and the way he’d sort of furrow his brow and look at you and ask good questions, and then suddenly quote ancient Roman texts and stuff, just the sort of intellectual rigour and fascination ... it’s something unlike any other.”

While the agency has been successful, it has also garnered some backlash, largely due to working for conservative or right-leaning clients.

Topham said he feels the media tends to dramatise the agency’s work as more “controversial, edgy, dark arts” than it actually is.

“Online advertising, every brand and organisation does it, and we happen to have done it for a couple of high-profile individuals and on political campaigns, and so therefore, somehow, there is a very evil core that could possibly do this.”

He said their agency started as a “couple of guys with MacBooks making ads and running ads” and they were surprised by the backlash initially, but now they brush it off.

And he has some simple advice for their critics.

“They just need to take a chill pill. It’s kind of funny to read some of the reckons. It’s actually quite good for my self-esteem and my ego. They make me sound a lot better than I think I am from time to time, in cahoots with Rupert Murdoch and everyone else, stringing the world together and, uh, pulling the strings. But that’s just not the case.”

Listen to the full podcast to hear more from Sean on adapting your business and brand to the digital world.

Ask Me Anything is an NZ Herald podcast, hosted by Paula Bennett. New episodes are out every Sunday.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.