Born Licensing was ranked 60th in the Financial Times Europe's Top 1000 fastest companies, and they represent fictional characters for the likes of Universal, Nickelodeon, and MGM. I was approached by the company after they liked the bold and irreverent tone of voice of my Itsu campaign. I was asked to come up with a campaign that would appeal to advertising creatives, and we tapped into that frustration creatives have in creative meetings when ideas are sometimes killed by a can't do attitude. So, I turned can't into the new c word, backed by an A-team of fictional characters, who have sometimes been left on the sidelines and are managed by Born Licensing.
On this project, my art director Sander and I were essentially our own boutique agency, managing the client relationship, and managing the work flow with the designer too. The work has been showcased in many publications, including:
Luerzers Archive, The Drum, LBB, Creativepool, Marcomm news, HelloYouCreatives
Itsu has been the place to go for pan-asian food for over a decade. Many of us associate Itsu with sushi but very few people know that Itsu now also sells warm snacks such as the Bao, a warm steamed bun.
We created an integrated campaign to bring this to people's attention.
The campaign ran in branches and OOH spots all over London. The campaign tactically connects with the commute and 9 to 5 work life using a cheeky tone of voice.
Why spend £££ on an electric car brand you've never heard of, when you can get a car that comes with 75 years of engineering history included? The new Honda E:Ny1, Electric. Still a Honda. To launch the new E:Ny1 in the UK the team and I at Accenture Song created a series of out of home billboards, all inspired by Honda's original adverts from their 75 year history.
Branston likes to make it special. Working with the sculpting team from Game of Thrones and director Sam Brown, we built a six ft cheese mountain which tells the story of cheese itself, before the sculpture is topped off with a dollop of Chutney.
*A top pick with Ad Age, David Reviews, Ads of the World
To get cricket fans match-fit for the T20 Blast tournament this summer, I didn’t just create an advert but launched a whole new fitness regime inspired by umpire signals and the world of 1980s Aerobics. Using a real umpire and a music video choreographer, Umpire Aerobics was launched first online, as well playing out in stadiums across the UK interacting with in-match situations on the scoreboard.
Facebook found that 9 million Brits were confused about how to customize their privacy settings on social media.
Through this integrated campaign we aimed to create awareness around facebook's privacy tools and urge people to change their settings.
The campaign ran on VoD, cinema, DOOH, print, digital radio, Spotify and podcasts, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.
NatWest are not a Rugby World Cup sponsor, so they can’t talk about big moments on the field. But, they can create epic moments off it. The Flying Winger featuring Shane Williams is the first in a series of rugby stunts made in collaboration with Extreme Sports. The following stunt ‘The Fastest Interception’ became an official World Record after stunt man Lee Bowers caught the rugby ball at 51.3 MPH.
*Pick of the day on Creativity
Alongside charity workers from One25, I interviewed 12 sex workers to craft the story for my film The Green Light District. Instead of a bad news story, we wanted to create an honest but positive narrative of a woman moving on from her life on the streets. The film for sex work charity One25 has now featured in Campaign and BBC news.
Winner of the Grand Prix & four other Drum awards for OOH & Two Silvers and Two Bronzes at Creative Circle.
Tournamental was the biggest live DOOH campaign in the UK ever. Within seconds of a goal/incident happening during the Euros, I would write copy, which would get approval through the client What’s App group. It would then go live within a minute, effectively turning billboards into newspaper headlines, so that the Sun was at the heart of the Euros wherever you were. Here are a few of my quick response headlines that went around the UK.
Pre-tournament: 1st time England, Wales and both Irish teams made a major championship together.
Argos created a brief around same day delivery. 16 Olympic gymnasts and dozens of trampolines later, we have ‘Bounding’.
Animal charity Blue Cross needed a social campaign to support their ‘I will Survive’ TV campaign with an idea that would unite pets and their owners. Show your Suppawt with a paw-bump was born and it got coverage in the Metro and Huffington Post as it became viral online.
Check out the Blue Cross Pinterest page to see the hundreds of pawbumps shared.
Blockhead Calm Mints are a premium chewing gum brand that helps consumers stay calm and sleep better. There wasn’t much spend, but when the world was freaking out I thought it could do with a weekly goooood news bulletin delivered by a soothing ASMR artist. A bulletin was created for the first 6 weeks of lockdown
I developed the Give a Quit mobile app early on in my advertising career as an innovative way to Quit smoking. Many years ago my sister ran the London marathon and damaged her knee with 4 miles to go. All the medical people said she had to stop. But, she had the crowd on her side and thousands of pounds going to charity. She had to finish the race.
What if we could apply the same thinking to smoking? What if you had a social media crowd on your side and they’re donating to a charity of your choice? What if people could give up for good.
The Give a Quit app is currently in its prototype phase and I am looking for funding.
I wrote and directed this film in partnership with Zedem Media to help get the word out there.
