I came through the ranks of one of the world’s most competitive and consistently brilliant creative departments, Saatchi & Saatchi London - joining as a junior copywriter on Currys and leaving as a Regional Creative Director for Procter & Gamble.
For 15 years I worked with some of the world’s greatest CDs; the legendary Paul Arden, Alex Taylor, John Pallant, Adam Kean, James Lowther, Simon Dicketts, Cliff Francis and the all-conquering David Droga.
And wrote advertising for quite a few of the world’s most famous household names; The Times, Ariel, Comet, Pampers, Toyota, The Army, Cheerios, Hewlett Packard and Baby Bel, to name but nine.
In 2004 Mike Sands and I were headhunted by Dave Alberts at Grey to look after some of their P&G brands - Pringles, Flash & Bold, and to work on AOL. We stayed for three years, helping raise the profile of the agency, mentoring quite a young department and winning some prizes for Flash.
By 2007 I felt the lure of Charlotte Street again and returned to the Saatchi fold as Regional Creative Director for the Ariel business across Western and Southern Europe. Here, I developed work that worked across the region and helped grow Ariel to number one in the UK.
Since 2012 I’ve been operating as a consulting creative director, working both with smaller agencies and direct to client, getting my hands dirty every day and getting my head properly around the digital environment – while still stretching budgets and finding smarter innovative solutions to traditional issues.
And last year I set up a creative collective – Horse’s Mouth, essentially a pop-up ad agency for people who are a bit fed up with ad agencies. The collective offers access to some of the best creatives in the world for a fraction of the cost – it’s not for everyone but some brands seem to love it.
I’m also doing a Professional Doctorate. It seemed like the right time to try something completely different.
My views on the industry haven’t changed materially with the move to consulting and an evolving media landscape.
I still think a big idea is more important than big data.
I still think that technology’s role is to support the idea not drive it.
And I still think that advertising is less about doing research, winning awards or starting conversations than about getting more household names into more households than before.
But then I would think that wouldn’t I.
