Adam Biddle is the CEO and founder of GH05T, a social media agency merging the worlds of creativity and performance. Transitioning from celebrity social media maverick to corporate expert, Adam has worked with a diverse collection of clients, from Charli XCX to HSBC, all while staying under the radar.
Throughout his 15 years building GH05T, Adam has been proudly behind the scenes, pioneering social strategies for clients and watching them ascend to international fame. As part of our 5 questions series, I caught up with Adam to discuss the ever-changing world of social media, the unknowable nature of virality and his ultimate pet peeve.
How has the industry changed since you started your career?
When I started, social felt like the wild west. Now there are about 34,532 platforms and twice as many opinions on how to use them. The biggest shift is how much common knowledge exists. Everyone understands the basics of content, community and algorithms, so staying ahead of the game is essential.
Technology has also blurred the line between creator and audience. Anyone with a phone can influence behaviour, culture and buying decisions. It has raised the bar for originality and pace while making the industry noisier than ever. The fundamentals matter more now, not less.
What’s one thing you wish more people understood about your role or the industry?
People often mistake speed for simplicity. If something is created in an hour, it isn’t because it was easy. It’s the result of eighteen years of learning, testing, failing and refining. It’s like getting a tattoo. You are not paying for the thirty minutes it takes to draw the line; you are paying for the skill that makes that line perfect. Social is the same. Behind every quick turnaround is a huge amount of judgment and experience. The craft sits in knowing what to do, what to avoid and how to land an idea first time.
What’s the key to virality?
There isn't one.
You can stack the odds in your favour through smart creative, sharp cultural timing and understanding the behaviour of the platform you are publishing on, but there is never a guaranteed formula.
What’s your creative pet peeve?
Agencies that still don’t understand safe zones. If you have a design studio, you should know instinctively where text can and cannot sit on an asset. Social feeds have very clear interface rules, yet it is staggering how many established players still deliver content with captions sitting under UI, key messages blocked by buttons or graphics cropped off entirely. It tells you they are designing for a deck, not a feed. If you want to be taken seriously in social, respecting the basics of layout and platform nuance should be the absolute minimum standard.
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever ignored?
Someone once told me to buy Bitcoin on the dark web. I ignored them...
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