After learning the ropes at TBWA Hunt Lascaris and NetworkBBDO, Claire Harrison and I launched an agency called HarrisonHuman in 1998. It was named Agency of the Year in 2001 and 2002 and eventually acquired by Ogilvy & Mather in South Africa – where I joined as ECD. Ogilvy Johannesburg went on to have considerable success and was named Agency of the Year several times during the period I worked there (2003 – 2008).
I joined O&M London in January 2009 to lead the Unilever account globally and from 2011 – 2016 took on the role of Executive Creative Director of the UK ad agency. It is the most awarded period in the agency's 54-year history.
In 2012 we built on Dove’s positioning as a force for change and embraced social media as a way to give consumers a voice in the beauty debate. Our visionary client, Fernando Machado, helped ignite the Dove brand across the world by pioneering innovative programmatic, targeting and monitoring tech.
Our "Dove Ad Makeover" campaign won social/digital awards in every major show in the world and in 2013 our Dove “Camera Shy” campaign became a viral sensation, gaining about 100 million online views and winning Film Gold at Cannes, LIA, Epica and Eurobest.
2013 proved to be a ground breaking year for O&M London: No.1 UK agency, Cannes 2013. No.1 UK agency, Clio Awards 2013. No.1 UK agency, LIA 2013. Agency of the Year in Outdoor & Radio at Campaign Big Awards. Expedia was named "most awarded campaign in the world" by The 2013 Gunn Report (WARC rankings).
2015 was another record year: we won 8 Lions at Cannes and 15 statues at The Clios (including Grand Prix and advertiser of the year for 28 Too Many) as well as UK Agency of the Year.
In February 2016 I took on the role of Global Executive Creative Director, with Philips global as an anchor client.
Our "Breathless Choir" campaign for Philips was awarded 2016 Cannes Grand Prix (Digital film in the Pharma category) as well as seven Lions across multiple categories.
Millions of people in over 15 global markets loved the idea. Mass engagement, bundled with micro-targeted content, helped Philips fundamentally change the perception of their brand from a purely electronics company to a pioneer in health tech. So much so that Philips’ brand value rocketed up by $2bn in the same year (Interbrand).
Brands that stand for inspiring ideas are the ones winning in the 21st Century.
Ideas matter.
The average person now sees around 5000 ads a day – more than ever before. Anywhere the eye can see, it’s likely to see an ad.
But if we’ve got advertising coming out of our ears, eyes, knees and toes, why do we keep hearing that it’s obsolete?
The reality is advertising is very much alive and kung-fu kicking - it’s how it’s delivered that’s dying a death.
Media is not the state-of-the-dark-arts profession that it once was. Now anyone wishing to place an ad has easy access to staggering levels of customizable data and performance monitoring tools, all at the click of a Facebook/Google etc. button.
Everything has changed about the way people engage with media, but why is there this mad presumption that ads should still look and sound like ads always have?
Every year brands waste billions of dollars on predictable, disjointed advertising that hardly anyone notices. Traditional, dull and drawn-out processes produce clichéd formulas that people see, but don’t really see.
But brilliant creative ideas that instinctively tap into here-and-now are the ones that actually do work – not the pedestrian stuff that comes from over-reliance on research etc. Because regardless of how everything keeps changing, people still respond to fresh, original thinking.
Great ideas capture people’s imagination and hold brands together across platforms, countries and cultures.
Ideas are what build trusting and valuable relationships with millions of people.
Ideas, not ads.