Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-92-rick-brim

Episode #92 features Rick Brim, Co-Founder and CCO of adland’s newest agency, Ace of Hearts. Rick joined us with the agency just a few days old, so we discussed the big stuff such as if he knew how to work the photocopier, who locks up at night and how they came up with the name.

During 25 years in the industry, Rick’s won every award going, including 4 Cannes Grand Prix in the same year for Harvey Nichols Christmas campaign: “I spent it on myself.” During his tenure at adam&eveDDB the agency was named Agency of the Decade by both Cannes and Campaign magazine. He’s been President of both D&AD and the Cannes Films Lions jury.

We started with Shelter ‘House of Cards’ and discovered if there was a connection with the name of the new agency. Next several graphic posters for Think! where Rick & Dan involved Paul Belford in the design of the campaign. Then it was Sunday Times Rich List - one of the most fun and awarded of all the STRL campaigns.

And then “I spent it on myself’ which started life as real products sold in real Harvey Nichols stores at Christmas.

We also discussed CALM and the campaigns created under Rick’s tenure. We focussed on Project 84, an iconic piece of OOH from Ant & Mike who are now Rick’s successors at adam&eveDDB. We finished in pets corner with cats going crazy for a pack of Dreamies on a billboard, followed by a huge inflatable dog stuck between two buildings in New York for IAMS dog food.

Rick, thank you so much for sharing the stories behind your brilliant billboards. It was a blast. Hopefully you’ll return soon with more ace work from the new gaff.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-92-nick-entwistle

Episode #92 is the last in our Manchester trilogy and features Nick Entwistle the brains behind the global phenomenon that is the One Minute Brief. Nick is also the founder of The Bank of Creativity, is a TV commercials director, a commissioned artist, the author of five published books and a respected voice in the creativity community.

In short, he’s a busy man ;-)

So we felt lucky to get an hour of his time to tell us a bit more about himself and the amazing projects he’s involved with.

Obviously the One Minute Brief was centre stage. OMB is an open brief for creatives anywhere in the world to create work for clients such as WWF, Coke, Oxfam, Pringles, PG Tips, KFC, Guinness. It has yielded huge success stories, most recently for Taskrabbit on London Underground, while most famous is undoubtedly the spec idea for Kit Kat (by Sam Hennig), which still regularly features in top 10 billboards of all times, resulting in Nick getting sent mountains of KitKats

We also discussed how OMB spawned a great campaign for WWF losing the wildlife from team football logos, a brilliantly simple campaign which is ongoing.

We also heard how Nick helped the NHS beat Justin Bieber to the Christmas Number 1 in 2023. And how he was involved as Creative Director on the 'C-Word' campaign for Neuroblastoma sufferer Isabella that went viral with 50 million views across social media.

We did a few other bits ‘n bobs and then he was gone, to watch Man City beat Bournemouth. United then succumbed to Spurs in the dog poo Europa League final and Hugh had to buy Dan beers before both legging it for the train home.  Thank you Nick for coming on and sharing so much of your life and stories with us, we really appreciate it.

Thanks again to GAS for hosting us. It was a brilliant session and we are loving our new theme tune which is banging.

Thanks also to Tim from Meanwhile for kicking things off, and Gary & Lisa for the middle slot.

And thank you most of all Manchester. So much to answer for. We will return.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-91-gary-fawcett-amp-lisa-nichols

Podcast episode #91 features Gary Fawcett & Lisa Nichols, ECDs at TBWA\MCR, in the second part in our Manchester special.

Gary & Lisa have worked in the business for over 25 years, for a huge array of clients including Pizza Hut, British Airways, EA Games and Harvey Nichols. Their work has been recognised at Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, New York Festivals, Epica and London International Awards.

We spent a lovely hour chatting all things Manchester, advertising and a tiny bit of football (Gary, like Hugh, is a long suffering United fan).

We discussed how to crop a man’s elbow perfectly to resemble a man’s bottom for prostate charity Prost8. A brilliant and incredibly important campaign which has been one of our favourites for ages now.

We covered the Stop Homelessness Spiking work highlighting the worrying trend of harmful architecture. The work is graphic and disturbing and we really hope it helps. To learn more go to hostiledesign.org

We also discussed classic OOH campaigns for Harvey Nichols Manchester, British Airways, MBNA, Anti-Knife Crime and appropriately enough ending on the Lowry Centre which we could see from GAS studios.

Thank you Gary & Lisa so much for coming in and sharing your work in such friendly and humble fashion. Manchester is lucky to have you.

Sponsored by:
View2Fill
Super Optimal
GAS Music

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-90-tim-jones

Podcast episode #90 is the first of our Manchester special and features the charming and uber-talented Tim Jones. Tim has an incredible track record when it comes to OOH, both from his time at BBC Creative and more recently at Meanwhile, the agency he set up with long term creative partner James Cross and Al Marchant.

Meanwhile have enjoyed great success since launch in 2022, thanks not just to their creative work, but savvy association with Bez of the Happy Mondays, himself an icon of the North West. It’s no surprise Meanwhile were Campaign’s Start Up Agency of 2023.

We discussed Tim’s extensive OOH portfolio, including the 7m tapestry for the BBC World Cup in Russia which formed the centre pice of the History Will Be Made campaign and was meant to have an additional segment, allowing for the next bit of history. Tim told us how he was prepping the new piece to incorporate Harry Kane lifting the trophy. Oh Lord. How many years of hurt?! Too much. Anyway, it wasn’t meant to be, but a brilliant story about what goes on behind the tapestry.

Then there was the Netflix Diamond Heist and how Meanwhile placed a 9-carat diamond onto the side of a billboard.

Next Travel Supermarket with a vertical stack of inflatables in a shopping trolley on the side of a building. How will they stay up? What happens if a member of the public throws darts at them? And a million and one other daft questions that have to be answered in order to get creative work to run.

On and on the stories went, the Manchester tram that toots the theme tune of Coronation Street, the BAFTA winning work for BBC Tokyo Olympics, the award-winning launch work for Chester Zoo, the iconic Park Run work for Mental health Day.

Thank you Tim. It was a total pleasure. We can’t wait to see what you and Meanwhile do next.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-89-liam-and-alison

Episode #89 features Liam Bushby & Alison Steven, Global Creative Directors at Ogilvy London and two of the finest, most humble creatives you could ever meet.

We talked at length about what it’s like to work on Dove and in particular their multi award-winning campaigns Reverse Selfie and #TurnYourBack which won more metal than you can shake a stick at, including a Cannes Grand Prix.

We also discussed their first ever poster for McDonald’s, a wonderful idea that has a great story about timing, opportunity and being open to nailing a brief, even if it’s over lunch on a Friday when you’ve got shitloads of other work on.

We also heard about Liam & Alison’s outdoor work which is not confined to billboards, in particular two audacious campaigns for Hellman’s Mayonnaise, the Charli XCX inspired “Club Classic" sandwich and the The Margaret bag that debuted at London Fashion Week. Both sound be appearing at an awards show soon.

Thank you so much Liam & Alison for coming on and sharing your stories.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-88-hermeti-balarin

Episode #88 features the charming, uber-talented Hermeti Balarin, joint CCO at W+K London.

Hermeti works with his wife Ana, who was Behind the Billboard guest no. 9, which means the Balarin’s are our first ever married couple on the show 🎉

Hermeti & Ana started out at as interns at Mother before rising to Partners a decade or so later. Under their leadership, Mother was named International Agency of The Year twice by Ad Age thanks to iconic award-winning work on Stella Artois, IKEA, KFC, Boots and more.

We talked about recent minimalist OOH campaigns from brands such as BA, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s and Tesco, before focussing on Hermeti & Ana’s similar approach on Heinz and KFC and how ‘less is more’ is not really new at all, citing campaigns such as Silk Cut, which was the Daddy of them all.

We did a deep dive into KFC and the stories behind the Covid and AFC to ZFC work. Covid was a great example of every cloud having a silver lining. KFC and Mother decided to embrace the madness with ‘The World's Least Appropriate Slogan’ campaign, which resulted in the brand emerging from the pandemic stronger than ever. Never let a good crisis go to waste.

We discussed #FreeTheFeed, an incredible campaign featuring huge 50ft breasts dotted around the London skyline to raise awareness of the stigma surrounding public breastfeeding.

And we discovered how Hermeti is an Exec TV Producer, a decent basketball player, a Star Wars geek and the owner of the coolest hair in advertising.

Thank you so much Hermeti for coming on and sharing your stories and creativity. Hi to Ana and please both come back soon?!  

NB: In this episode Hugh repeatedly mispronounces the words Wieden & Kennedy. We have no idea why this happened. We apologise if this affects your listening pleasure and Hugh promises it will not happen again. Arse.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-87-jeremy-craigen-part-2

He’s back! Jeremy Craigen returns for episode #87, talking all things VW.

Jeremy worked on the brand as a creative / CD / ECD and Global CCO for over 20 years, winning endless awards with iconic campaigns for every model in the range, even getting a free appearance on Top Gear (estimated viewing audience 90million).

How did it feel to be the creative lead on such a prestigious account? Who were his inspirations? What is the essence of VW? And did he play as hard as he worked?

Jeremy tells all and more.

We found out how two creative teams independently came up with same Polo Cops idea. And how, for the same brief, King Kong was also in the mix and the client was persuaded to run it a year later.

The Polo Ice Car was another fascinating story … a press ad that became national news, involving a life sized car carved from 9.5 tonnes of ice. We also discussed the Surprisingly Ordinary Prices Wedding execution, which is still the most awarded print ad ever (facts by Neil Dawson).

Then there was Swear Box, Ele-pump, Cabriolet, Dr Who x3, Nightdrive and more. A phenomenal body of work. Thank you again Jeremy. It was an education. Apologies we didn’t have any booze, schoolboy error. Next time promise 🍷

We’ll close with a quote from Jonathan Hill, Former U.K. and European Business Director Volkswagen:

"Jeremy is the best ECD I have worked with for spotting a good idea. It might just be the one line in a pile of 100 scripts but he will spot it every time. And there is no one better at turning a good idea into a great idea."

Amen to that.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-86-jeremy-craigen-part-1

Episode #86 features legendary creative, CD, ECD, CCO, bonvivier and lover of life, Jeremy Craigen.

It’s hard to know where to start with Jeremy’s incredible body of work, which has won every gong going for just about every client going.

So we took a corporate decision and split him in two. Ooeerr.

Part one is all about Optrex, Marmite, Budweiser, The Labour Party, The Financial Times and Harvey Nichols.

Iconic work with brilliant stories told by the man himself. Hear how Jeremy’s chest hair inspired a marmite billboard. How the Optrex brief was cracked in the blink of an eye 🤓 And how the original Love / Hate Marmite line came to be. And much more.

Jeremy is a complete one-off. Charming, talented, passionate, honest, generous and ultimately someone who always strives for great work … all with a cheeky glint in his eye. We like that.

His only drawback is an apparent hatred of flapjacks. No one’s perfect right?!

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. And there’ll be more Craigen very soon. He’ll be back in a couple of weeks for part two, the VW special, which promises to be another cracker.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-85-felipe-serradourada-guimaraes

Episode #85 features Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes, the recently appointed ECD at BBH. It was a real pleasure talking with Felipe, who we think is the only creative ever to go from being on placement at BBH, to being the ECD at BBH. That is some achievement, but no surprise considering his portfolio of work. During his 14 years with the Black Sheep, Felipe has been behind some incredible campaigns and yet feels like he’s only getting started.

We discussed Tesco’s and discovered the stories behind the recent ‘Bags’ campaign. We also had another chat on ‘Icons’, which was fascinating. Hearing about the craft that went into both campaigns a real lesson and reminder in how to get to great work. And making it happen.

We also covered Burger King and three fantastic campaigns - Grill Lines, National Burger Day and Bundles of Joy. Some great insights into how the work came about, especially the perseverance and passion to get Bundles of Joy made.

Then there were the Paddy Power ‘A shirt is not just for Christmas’ billboards, posted next to the grounds of various Premier League teams in suitably un-PC PaddyPower fashion. And we even had time to find out how an Alexander McQueen dress inspired the campaign for F+F Homeware.

Felipe thank you so much for being such a charming and gracious guest. We loved it and v much look forward to you coming back with more stories.

This was also the first episode in our new streamlined approach, where we get in and out within the hour. It feels more focussed that way, but apologies if any listeners miss Hugh droning on ;-)

To (belatedly) welcome in the new year, we decided to go forth into The Great Outdoors and discuss plans for 2025.

We covered all sorts of stuff: the need for a new sponsor, upcoming guests, a book of the show, masterclasses, talks, merchandise and more. Let us know if you have any feelings about any of this as we always want to hear what our listeners think.

The hoody tops are amazing - high quality stitch and super warm - if there’s a desire we can deffo put in an order. More details on this to follow.

We also covered the crucially important football issues - a very short conversation - and what Dan is going to do with his new found freedom. The walk itself was amazing, taking in a beautiful golf course, a slightly creepy wood and a view across a valley where we saw where James Bond was blown up. It’ll make more sense when you listen.

Cheers all and here’s to a great 2025.