Digital Natives: Social-first creativity with strategic depth‍

Since its 2013 founding, Digital Natives has established itself as a distinctive force in the world of social. What began as a strategic bet on social media becoming "a new discovery channel" has evolved into a comprehensive agency offering that pairs timeless brand-building principles with the dynamic practices of social media to capture audience attention in increasingly crowded digital spaces.

"We had a really strong inkling that social media was going to become a new discovery channel on the internet," explains Alistair Fitch, co-founder of Digital Natives. "Rather than going directly to brands' websites or via Google, there was going to be this new layer called social media where it would be the jumping-off point for people's online journeys."

This early vision has allowed the agency to evolve alongside the social media landscape, expanding from its initial focus on longer-form storytelling to a comprehensive service offering that includes strategy, creative, production, influencer marketing, paid media management, analytics, and increasingly, consultancy for brands navigating the shift to social-first thinking.

Pairing brand principles with social practices

At the heart of Digital Natives' approach is what Fitch describes as "pairing brand principles and social practices." This philosophy acknowledges that while advertising principles remain relatively constant, social media changes regularly, creating a complex operating environment that requires both strategic depth and tactical agility.

"We're not naive enough to think it's exclusively about chasing trends on social media," Fitch explains. "It's about pairing timeless brand building principles like driving fame, talkability, eliciting emotion - with that crazy, dynamic, ever-evolving world of social media which is about understanding subcultures, driving relevance and being really agile and timely."

This approach has positioned Digital Natives at an interesting intersection, competing as much against traditional creative agencies as against other social specialists. The agency's work increasingly sees social-first ideas elevated into traditional media channels like out-of-home and television, demonstrating the growing influence of social thinking and insights on broader marketing strategies.

Global consistency with local relevance

For global brands, Digital Natives has developed particular expertise in balancing brand consistency with local market relevance, a challenge that Fitch identifies as a priority for many clients.

Their work with multi-national cosmetics company Avon exemplifies this approach. Rather than simply mandating global assets for local implementation, Digital Natives creates toolkits that provide creative direction while allowing for local adaptation. Associate creative director Charlie Frank, explains: "It's not just about coming up with a campaign idea and executing it. It's coming up with a campaign idea that could work globally in lots of markets and then creating guidelines on how local markets could execute it themselves."

This approach has proven particularly effective for influencer campaigns, where the agency outlines a creative concept and key messaging "beats" while allowing flexibility for influencers to bring their authentic voice to the content. The result, as Fitch describes it, is "consistency across different markets delivered through a culturally relevant lens."

Transforming legacy brands for social-first engagement

Digital Natives has found particular success working with established brands looking to transform their approach to digital engagement. These more established brands  often operate on traditional marketing cycles, pushing out television advertisements that run for three to six months before changing, but recognise the need for greater agility in social spaces.

"When consumers are spending a lot of time engaging on these social platforms via their mobile, you need a different operating system," Fitch explains. "These larger legacy brands need help because they have been established and grown with a specific approach to marketing, which is based on longer lead times, lower volume of content, higher media spends."

The agency's consultative approach helps these brands understand what it means to behave in a more social-first way, often requiring significant shifts in thinking. Associate Strategy Director Bryony Barker, notes: "We do a lot of education pieces on how the 'brand down, do your brand message, your TV, your broadcast message' is a tired approach now. It's all about building a cultural ecosystem in which you can tell a story through a million moments."

This perspective extends to reimagining traditional marketing channels through a social lens, considering how experiential events, special builds, or out-of-home advertising can generate content for social platforms. As Barker puts it: "An experiential event isn't just about showing up in a shopping center; it is about the content that you get from it and the reach that it achieves on social channels."

Human curiosity in a technical world

Despite the technical nature of their work, Digital Natives maintains a distinctly human approach to both client relationships and creative development. The agency values curiosity as a core principle, with team members bringing diverse references and interests to daily standups where they discuss everything from "goblin core" to beauty trends.

"Being able to bring all of those different things together and borrow and pinch from different categories and interests to bring that to our clients makes really good work," says Barker. "That energy to find the next big thing is so contagious."

This human element extends to client relationships as well. Frank describes their approach as "very human" when navigating the constant changes in social media: "We have conversations with clients like 'we don't know the answer yet, this thing might be coming.' Our clients have described us as being quite scrappy in that we're learning with our clients because social moves too quickly for us to say that we've got all the answers."

This collaborative spirit is reflected in how the agency structures its teams, bringing together diverse skill sets rather than following traditional agency models. "Creating social, you don't just need skill sets, it's how you pair your skill sets," Frank explains. "It's not like a traditional ad agency where there is a copywriter and art director. We match the right people with the right content"

Looking ahead: From persuasion to partnership

As Digital Natives looks to the future, the team expresses excitement about the shifting client mindset toward social media. "We don’t have to persuade anyone anymore," Barker notes. "It's not having to fight the good fight for why you shouldn't just do a TV cut-down on social. It's now 'what can we actually do to make leave our mark on socials?'" This evolution reflects a broader maturation of the market, with brands increasingly understanding the need for social-first thinking. Recent significant client wins with household name brands Ferrero, Avon and Beko undergoing digital transformation programmes suggest that Digital Natives approach is gaining traction at the highest levels.

"Having these global  household name brands bring us onto their roster to help them think in this way is really testament to the market growing up and wising up to social-first thinking," says Fitch. "These relationships are really exciting, and the impact of the work that we can do over the coming months and years will be significant."

In a landscape where attention is the ultimate currency, Digital Natives' blend of strategic thinking, creative execution, and human collaboration positions them to help brands navigate the increasingly complex world of social engagement, not by chasing every trend, but by finding the meaningful intersection of brand principles and social practices.

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