I like ads.

 

I like making them and helping other people make them.

 

I like working with anyone who works as hard as they can to find the right strategy and the most effective expressions of it. 

 

I like making it easier for everyone to decide which companies they prefer.

 

I like seeing that the Patek Philippe campaign I started  over 20 years ago is still working. Because the idea behind it gave them a brand position different to all the other watches, and turned a name that only the experts knew, or cared about, into the most desired watch brand in the world.

 

I liked being one of the all-time ten most featured copywriters in Lürzer's Archive magazine. And one of the few working copywriters in the world to be selected for D&AD's updated edition of The Copy Book. 

 

But I don't like the fact that creatives have stopped wanting to be copywriters or art directors. Because agencies are losing the communication craft skills that had always helped them create their most effective work.

 

So I still like being a copywriter. 

 

As a CD and ECD, I could show some amazing campaigns that the agencies produced while I was there. But who's to say that their creation owes much to me. So the campaigns on this site are just ones that I’ve written and produced myself. 

 

Currently

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At the moment I'm working on project-by-project contracts. Some for agencies and some direct to client. I looked after the L'Oreal account at Publicis for a while, and worked on Airbus, P&O and Investec. Mullenlowe kept me busy on a few global Unilever campaigns. The&Partnership in New York asked me to help on briefs for Credit Suisse and The Wall Street Journal. I spent a while working on Tesco Bank for BBH. And I've recently been helping some new ventures define and launch their brand positioning. 

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Since I started working independently, I've written campaigns for cars, cleaning products and Chinese computers, political lobbies, banks, breakfast-cereals and the world's biggest deodorant brand, as well as hotels, a supermarket, two great newspapers and a nice, big airline. Some of which have been nominated at D&AD, shortlisted at Cannes and selected for Archive magazine. 

 

Krow

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I won every new business pitch that I led at the agency, including a couple that became two of the agency's biggest accounts. And I wrote all of the 'Float to Live' online, tv and outdoor campaign that, within days of it first appearing, started being credited by some people as the thing that saved their lives. 

 

Leagas Delaney

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I worked at Leagas Delaney in the mid 90's, then I went back in 2011 to run the London agency's creative output, to build the creative resource and the agency's multi-media capabilities and to coordinate and contribute to the tv, print and digital work on all of the agency's accounts. While I was at Leagas, our pitch success rate was one of the highest in London, adding The British Red Cross, The Open University, Lil-Lets, Shelter, FeelUnique, Nuts magazine, Time Centre, Ultraviolet, Moonfruit, MSC Cruises and Waterstones to our client list. And the work that we produced won awards. 

 

CHI & Partners

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Before Leagas Delaney, I was a Creative Director and Partner at CHI & Partners, looking after Lexus, The Sunday Times, The Prince’s Trust, Argos and parts of The Carphone Warehouse. We won a lot of new business (Full Tilt Poker, Heineken, Heyday, Lexus, The Big Yellow Self Storage Company) and quite a few awards. 

 

AMV/BBDO

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I was Creative Director at AMV/BBDO before CHI, looking after most of our accounts (effectively the role that's now called Executive Creative Director). I led some of our biggest successful pitches, including Aviva and the retention of BT – at the time, Britain’s highest spending advertiser. And while I was Creative Director, more AMV teams won more awards for more clients than had done for a few years.

 

Ogilvy

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I looked after Ogilvy London's creative output on all of the accounts apart from Ford (which had its own dedicated team) including Amex, Unilever and KFC. In the first year that I was there, the agency had a long awaited return to the awards shows.

 

TBWA

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Before Ogilvy, I was a Group Head (old language for Creative Director) at TBWA, looking after all of the clients of Bainsfair Sharky Trott – one of the agencies that had recently merged into TBWA. In 2001, campaigns that I'd written for 5 different clients all won D&AD Yellow Pencils.

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