Who am I?
I am a creative director who thinks creatively as well as strategically about building brands.
I have over twenty years experience in the advertising business. I’ve worked in some of the best agencies in London and New York. I’ve been awarded for my work by some of the most prestigious awards in the advertising industry.
I started my career at Saatchi & Saatchi at a time when it was seen as the best agency in the world (I’m sure they would like to still think so). Whilst there, I worked on British Airways, NSPCC, Allied Breweries and Reckitt & Colman. My work for British Airways and Brasso was awarded at the D&AD. I spent a year working in the New York office cutting my teeth on brands such as P&G, Habitat and General Mills.
After three and half years I left and went to work for a small agency called Edwards Martin Thornton. There I managed to develop my airline, luxury brands and drinks experience by working on Singapore Airlines, Rolls Royce and Bass Brewery now known as Molson Coors. Once again my work was awarded at D & AD and One Show. Edwards Martin Thornton was a small agency; it was a lot of fun to be working in a small tight-knit team where you had contact with all the people that worked there (a little like VCCP is today).
After 18 months the opportunity to work at Lowe Howard-Spink as a middleweight art director came up. It was a really exciting opportunity that was too good to turn down. I worked on some of the agency’s flagship brands such as Smirnoff, Malibu and Vauxhall Motors. It was at Lowes that I really started to develop as an art director learning from people like Steve Dunn, Charles Inge and Vince Squibb - all these creatives have a very good eye and a dedicated work ethic. It was there that I started getting the chance to solely look after my own projects, which was great. This time my work for Smirnoff was awarded at D & AD, Eurobest and Cannes. It was also where I met my wife, Lucie, so I have very fond memories of working at Lowe Howard-Spink.
After five years at Lowe I left to become a senior art director at the newly formed London office of Springer & Jacoby whose base was in Hamburg. There I worked on Lufthansa, Mercedes Benz, and Daimler Chrysler. It was good experience to work in an international agency that had a totally different work ethic and culture. It was also where I learnt to work on pan-European and Global brands. I spent three years at Springer & Jacoby and picked up Cannes, D & AD and One Show awards for my work on Lufthansa, Mercedes Benz and Terres des Hommes (a German children’s charity).
In 2003, the opportunity was given to me to be creative director of a small agency called Spirit Advertising. This was great experience as I learnt a lot; I had sole responsibility for looking after the creative department. I became much more client facing both in presentations and pitches. The clients that I worked on were Chevron Texaco, Trees for London, Certina Watches and The London Health Commission. After 18 months I left Spirit.
In 2005, I moved to VCCP (Vallance Curruthers Coleman Priest). The first account I worked on was O2, the agency’s flagship account which was a fantastic opportunity. I worked on the 2006 campaign, which was a great success. What was also good was that this was a campaign refresh; this is something I was to also do for ING Bank. What’s good about refreshing successful campaigns is that you get a free reign to give a facelift or simply a breath of fresh air. I helped launch the O2 brand in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. One of my most important achievements at VCCP was that I helped the agency win their first piece of business for the COI (Central Office of Information), which was my account for the next year and a half, The client referred to my work as the “Best piece of communication the Home Office has produced in a long time” and was very appreciated of the enormous amount of column inches the campaign generated . I helped grow the COI account with wins such as HepC and Alcohol Units. I also developed all the work on Hiscox Insurance which included press, poster, TV and online which saw a 57 % increase in sales and generated £3 million on new revenue.
After 3 years of working in the main VCCP office I was offered a promotion to look after the creative department of VCCP Blue - a smaller unit of the main agency. This has been great as I have had the opportunity to work on different brands and work with different people. Some of the main highlights of working in Blue is my work on Carling won the business for the agency. The Aunt Bessies campaign that I worked on was voted one of the most recalled FMCG ad campaign of 2012. As well as Muller yogurt, the campaign was so successful the client had to stop the advertising due to the heavy demand of the product. As well as doing work that works, I’m also responsible in overseeing some fun work for a retail client the Range. My experience at VCCP Blue has taught me how to nurture young talent whilst allowing more experienced creatives to go that extra length so that average work can be turned into highly effective campaigns that clients want to see.
On a final note who am I? I’m someone who is highly passionate about building brands, building great client relationships and above all creating great work.