Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-73-nicola-wood

Podcast episode #73 features Nicola Wood, Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy London, winner of many shiny prizes and someone with a liking for a farty Valentine’s Day card.

Strap in folks. This is an absolute belter of an episode.

The farty card was a good start. But the story behind the Relate campaign shot by Rankin is something we’d never heard before. And we’ve heard quite a bit in the past five years.

We don’t want to reveal too much but let’s just say Nicola’s Nan features quite prominently. And some of the conversations Nicola had to have to persuade Nan to appear naked on billboards up and down the country are quite something.

We also discussed the incredible craft that went into the British Airways ‘New York We’re back’ billboard which rightly won awards on both sides of the pond. Instead of choosing the easy AI / post production route to recreate workers sat on a girder atop a New York skyscraper, Nicola and long term partner Andy Forrest decided to do it for real. Or as ‘real’ as you can as the nation was emerging from Covid. Another brilliant story involving previous guest photographer Adam Hinton (episode #18) a real life girder and a lot of wardrobing.

We also found out how gardening and sex can help reduce STI’s in the over 65’s in another raunchy campaign for Relate ‘The Hornicultural Society’.

Cannes, flapjacks, you people voting, Maaate, Araldite Glue, Tony Cullingham, Nike … we packed a lot in.

Everything Nichola does seems to have a story, an edge, a relevance to popular culture. We may need a part two soon. Maybe with special guest Nan?!

Thank you again Nicola for coming on and lighting up the studio with your incredible stories. 

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-72-rachel-miles

Episode #72 features Rachel Miles, BAFTA award-winning creative and Creative Director at Meanwhile Campaign Start-up Agency of the Year 2024.

Rachel not only brought stories from behind her billboards but also some sensational pies from Great North Pie which usurped Hugh’s ‘tiny flapjacks’ as Dan calls them.

Dan and Hugh discussed many things with Rachel. We covered her six year tenure at BBC Creative where, along with creative partner Michael Tsim she created many iconic campaigns, including setting a billboard on fire for the Perfect Planet series, which made the national news and won just about every award going.

We also featured the wonderfully graphic OOH campaign for This is Our BBC. And a campaign of virtual billboards that appeared in the BAFTA winning Tokyo Olympics trail. Adam Peaty, Laura Kenny, Jason Kenny et al getting the Manga treatment.

We even squeezed in her first OOH work of note at Meanwhile for Lifeshare - a clothing charity - that ran during fashion week just before Christmas. And we had a brief chat on the special build for TravelSupermarket featuring a heavily stacked supermarket trolley. So good.

Rachel, thank you so much for coming on and being your wonderful charming talented self. We loved it (and the pies!).

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-71-steve-hudson

Podcast episode #71 features the super talented Steve Hudson.

Not only is Steve one of the industry’s most awarded creatives, he’s a brilliant director and also the founder of The Power of Advertising (TPOA) platform.

We covered a great deal in the hour or so together, in particular Steve’s prolific time at BBH where together with creative partner Victoria Fallon, he created iconic work for Audi, Levi’s, Polaroid, one2one, Electrolux and more.

Obv we focused on the billboards and two campaigns in particular.

For Levi’s the Original Wearers campaign shot by fashion photographer Nick Knight. A stunning campaign. Idea. Casting. Art direction. Photography. Lighting. Wardrobe. All faultless.

And for Wallis we talked about the Dressed to Kill campaign shot by another legendary snapper Bob Carlos Clark.

We heard how on a train ride to Brighton to shoot Wallis, Steve claimed advertising can be art. Bob begged to differ. Halfway through the debate Steve got a call from the V&A, telling him that one of the Levi’s posters had been accepted into the museum. You couldn’t make it up. Listen out for it. Steve tells it much better.

We also discussed Audi ‘Number One’ - one of the greatest car ads of all time - how it came to be, how it was sold to the client, and how the final line of dialogue was used by yuppie bankers as reference for cocaine.

It was a real pleasure having Steve on the show, not just to hear the stories behind his work, but to feel the passion and energy in the room and his positive outlook for the future of the industry. Thank you so much again Steve for coming on and good luck with the power of advertising, which we firmly believe in.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-70-paul-banham

Can you project the two moons from Mars into the night sky?

Can you sell over 1,000,000 lights in the world’s tallest building?

Can you build an underwater mobile phone store to sell a waterproof phone?

These are just some of the questions, answered by MullenLowe MENA CCO Paul Banham on episode #70, where we take a deep dive into life as a creative in Dubai.

It’s an absolute fascinating chat and one we’ve been wanting to have for ages. We caught up Paul on a flying visit to London.

So we sat down with tea and flapjacks and a microphone and off he went.

It was a massive eye-opener hearing about life and all things outdoors in the Middle East.

Everything is different.

The weather.
The budgets.
The ambition.

But the one thing that thankfully stays the same is the desire for ideas.

And when those ideas happen, they are big.

And more often these days award-winning, with the previous mentioned campaigns picking up Cannes Lions galore.

Paul it was a total pleasure and we’re so pleased you managed to fit us in on your tour of the UK.

Looking forward to seeing you again in the summer, possibly for a second round and certainly a couple more pints than this time.

Take care and keep applying the factor 50 😎

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-69-paul-brazier

Episode #69 features Paul Brazier and his brilliant billboards. The Economist, Guinness, Think!, Aer Lingus, Wrangler, Museum of Childhood, Walkers, Cancer Research…every one of them a banger. Paul has created and presided over some of the greatest work of the past 30 years. And he’s spent the best part of these years at @amvbbdo, as Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, CCO and Chairman. During this time, Paul and his partners (@psouter and @Nick Worthington) and his creative department have amassed a mountain of awards, including an incredible 239 entries into D&AD, which must have gone some way to him becoming D&AD President in 2010. We hear Paul’s side of the ‘Industrial Secrets for Sale’ billboard for The Economist. It’s a real lesson in craft, never giving up, ending up with a jaw-dropping piece of work. Then there are the celebrity tales from the Aer Lingus campaign - Roy Keane and Vinnie Jones don’t disappoint. The Think! campaign saw Paul & Nick go on a police patrol to witness the harsh reality of how drink driving ruins lives. We also heard about Paul’s favourite posters - ‘It’s Frothy man’ and the entire portfolio of Mark Denton @mdentonesq which Paul lovingly brought to life in his own homage. Thank you Paul for your generosity in telling these amazing stories. 

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-68-dan-and-hugh

Episode #68 features two titans of the industry, huge characters with oodles of charm, awards and humility. Yep, we’re talking to ourselves, finding out what’s going on in each of our worlds.

We covered the following:

Watch advertising in Geneva Airport

Three dimensional screen mapping in Barcelona and New York

The delayed launch of Hugh’s novel

The billboards at the end of our streets

News of upcoming guests including Rachel Miles and the billboards hidden within her brilliant BBC Olympics promo

Digital ads on the subway

The 280ft billboard in the Oculus NYC

Flapjacks

And of course Jeremy Allen White’s pants (which Dan spotted will soon be usurped by Idris Elba’s suit)

We do hope this isn’t the equivalent of The Fly episode from Breaking Bad. Or worse still the finale of Beef. We’re just two blokes trying our best. Normal service will resume next week.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-67-matt-lever

We’re back folks. Dry BtB Jan is over. And we’re starting the year with a belter in Matt Lever.

Multi talented.
Multi awarded.
Funny.
Charming.
Loves a big idea.
Loves a gag.
And loves the in-house BtB flapjacks.

We spent a leisurely hour with Matt chatting billboards, from his very first one for Macallan that he bizarrely spotted while on holiday in New York…to DOH anti-smoking, Tfl, Trident Gum, Gym Box and closing on Breast Cancer Now and the perfectly pitched topical work that ran during the Women’s World Cup.

Listen out too for Matt talking about The Chat - the UK’s first drama series to play out on a messaging app group chat on WhatsApp. An audacious idea which not only garnered many awards and much PR, but more importantly has helped women cope with the disease.

Matt, thanks so much again for coming in and sharing, it was a real pleasure.

And for those after extra content, we’re also posting on the website Matt’s good copywriting doc, which is basically a reminder of what great work looks like. 

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-best-of-2023

Best of 2023

We’re nearly there folks. 2023 just about done. How was it for you?

For us it was a year of amazing guests, incredible stories, home-made cake, some lovely beards (esp our Dan’s) and best of all, broadcasting from our new home at Soho Radio. Thank you Rachel and Adrian for putting up with us. You guys are the best.

So in episode #66 @hughtodd and @mymatedan look back over the year in outdoor…any and everything ooh, billboards projections, adshels, stunts, special builds, enormous shopping bags, musical posters, massive microwaves, spider’s webs and more.

This year we’ve gone for a slightly new format. Without giving anything away, it was a battle of the billboards, each of us bringing our fave campaigns to the table in an effort to find the winner(s)of 2023. It was feisty. Some strong debate, explosive cracker pulling and scoffing mince pies (off-mic)

Who won? Who nearly won? Was it all UK? Or did a Global campaign win?

We also launched a new award. The People’s Poster, for the work that garnered the most likes right here on Instagram. Another tight contest with quite a bit of drama ;-)

Huge thanks as ever to our sponsor Talon
To Soho Radio. To all our guests who gave their time so generously. And of course thank you to all our listeners. We love the feedback, the DM’s, the requests, the very faint praise and more. Keep it coming.

And we are eternally grateful to the legend that is Jon Jones aka JJ. Quietly keeping us afloat as the loudmouths wang on into the microphones.

And also Jordan for his endless help on design and last minute mock up favours.

We hope you all have a great festive break and we’ll no doubt see you on the other side.

Take care and thanks again for all your support.

Hugh & Dan & JJ

x

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-65-dan-fisher

Podcast episode #65 features Dan Fisher, Global ECD at Ogilvy and WPP, the man behind a vast portfolio of award-winning billboards and the owner of a classy beard.

With Christmas nearly upon us, it was most apt we discussed the brilliant “I spent it on myself” Harvey Nichols campaign which on its own could’ve filled an entire episode. Listen out for how Dan had to haggle on the price of gravel to get the campaign through. A real lesson in the lengths you have to go to for great work. We also covered The Sunday Times Rich List and another great anecdote involving a dragon and a gold Lion on a yacht in Cannes. And of course we spent plenty of time on Dove and the incredible work Dan has presided over these past few years. Some of the stories behind the work are humbling and inspiring in equal measure. Thanks so much again Dan. Please come back again when you’ve snaffled a few more Grands Prix 🦁 🤓

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-64-neil-dawson

Episode #64 features Neil A Dawson.

We spent a lovely couple of hours discussing his career which has featured many iconic billboards, notably the VW surprisingly ordinary prices campaign. Classic VW. Classic DDB. Every one of them a cracker with Weddings still the most awarded print ad of all time. Neil drew us a billboard live in the studio, recreating his first ever billboard for Sanyo. We also discovered what the ‘A’ stands for, if he is related to our Dan Dawson and of course Clive Pickering, Neil’s partner for many years on many amazing campaigns.

Thanks again Neil. It was a total pleasure.