Behind The Billboard

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-98-peter-heyes

Episode #98 feature Pete Heyes, award-winning creative, creative director, top northern lad and United fan.

Pete has worked in the business for over 30 years at some of the very best agencies, including DDB and Leo Burnett. He’s won awards on huge brands such as McDonald’s, VW, Marmite and Harvey Nichols. People often talk about Pete as ‘one of the nicest guys in the business’. Which we can vouch for. Fun Pete fact: he was once a Media Planner on P&G.

We started as usual with the billboard at the end of Pete’s street, which is from the recent British Airways campaign. So yes, you guessed it, we had yet more ‘logo v no logo’ chat. Then we jumped into another topical debate, the potential demise of the DDB name.

And all this before the work, of which Pete has loads. We distilled it down to four clients in the end:
VW, Marmite, Magners, and McDonald’s.

For VW we got behind the story of the classy and minimalist Touareg campaign shot by Giles Revell.

Magners was an exercise in collaboration with Illustrator/Artist: Noma Bar, who seems to be everywhere atm, but Pete was the first to use him in advertising.

Marmite was the Christmas lights, a bit of love ‘n hate for the festive season. Most apt!

While for McDonald’s there were many campaigns which Pete worked on both as a creative and a creative director. We managed to cover McNuggets, Lights on McDelivery / Iconic Stacks (Creatives: Andrew Long & James Millers), See One, Want One / Search (Creatives: Phillip Meyler & Darren Keff)

Thanks so much for coming on Pete. It was a real pleasure talking about your work and the current state of the industry. Apologies for not having a pint. But hopefully we can fit one in before Christmas.

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-97-andy-clough-richard-mcgrann

Good things come to those who wait … and we’ve been waiting a while for Andy Clough & Richard McGrann, but it was thoroughly worth it. Andy & Rich are one of adland’s most brilliant and prolific teams, creating iconic award-winning work wherever they’ve worked. RKCR / Y&R, BBH, AMVBBDO, adam&eveDDB and Neverland have all benefited from their passion for big ideas, superbly executed. They’ve won awards wherever they’ve been, including 5 Grand Prix for their emotive ‘The Last Photo’ campaign for CALM, placing them amongst the world’s most awarded creatives at D&AD and Cannes.

In a packed episode, we talked about The Times ‘Biggest For Sport’ campaign and got a sneak peek into Andy’s notebook and his sketches which were incredibly close to the finished work.

For The Last Photo we discovered the inspiration for the big idea came in part from a Google search for ‘depression / suicide’. Every result had people sad, head in hands, in a dark place. The question was asked, what if people looked happy? Like a weight had been lifted, because they had decided to take the next step. This lead to the line ‘Suicide doesn’t always look suicidal’ and the concept of the last photo featuring real people. It’s an incredibly moving story and a worthy follow up to the previous year’s Project84 from Ant & Mike.

We went into the wild with Whiskas, Feeding Your Cat’s Instinct, which naturally won an outdoor Lion ;-)

While for The Economist, for once we didn’t discuss white headlines out of red, instead a thought provoking piece of DOOH on the subject of assisted suicide.

Another important project was for Melanoma, more great crafting a simple graphic idea. And of course we found out how pot holes help create a great poster campaign for Pot Noodle.

Gents, it was a total pleasure. So much amazing work for such a range of brands and projects, a tour de force in the great outdoors. Thank you so much.

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-96-ajab-samrai

Episode #96 features Ajab Samrai, Ex-CCO of Ogilvy Japan, who not only brought incredible stories of nearly four decades in the business, but two enormous bags of apples from his orchard in the Malvern Hills.

We discussed how Ajab started his career at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1987 as one of the first British born Asians to break into the industry, creating the iconic Commission for Racial Equality poster campaign. He became one of the youngest Creative Group Heads in the history of Saatchi’s going on to work on some of the world’s biggest brands.

We discovered why he decided to ‘frighten himself’ after his long tenure at Saatchi’s to take up the challenge of Ogilvy Japan, an agency in a different country, with a different culture and different language. Plus the agency was stuck at the very bottom of the Ogilvy league. No pressure then!

His story of success is a lesson in perseverance and belief with some incredible OOH projects for Tokyo FM and Uber Eats, helping Ogilvy Japan become agency of the year and Ajab was named Japanese creative of the year. This success helped push his awards tally to over 300, winning major honours at every show in the world.

Listen to the craft that went into the Sagawa soy sauce campaign, where all the imagery was created by an artist using soy sauce. And hear how the Condomania campaign flirted with suffocating the cast on what must be one of the most insane shoots ever. We even had time to cover the Mount Fuji Rubbish Billboards which were anything but rubbish, cleaning up the mountain and at awards shows alike.

Ajab thank you so much for being so generous with your stories (and your apples!). It was a real pleasure.

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-95-simkat

Episode #95 features Sim Sidhu and Katy David aka ‘SimKat’, one of BBH’s most brilliant and prolific young teams.

We talked about their rise to fame at BBH after their time spent along the corridor at The BBH Barn Adschool, where they learnt the ways of the business from legendary and much missed tutor Tony Cullingham. One of Tony’s classic questions he asked anyone at any level: “Are you having fun?”

It’s a really important question.

Fun seems to run through much of SimKat’s work. TC would be proud. Their proactive approach is a lesson in making shit happen.

In an effort to secure their job they showed the then ECD Helen Rhodes an ad a day for BBH clients for an entire year. It paid off and they were soon winning awards for debut work on Barnardos and The Fire Safe Sari.

Since then there’s been great work on Audi, esp the recent Proms inspired campaign, creating musical scores to mimic the throaty sound of the more powerful Audi models.

Arch Nemesis for BK was a triumph in cheekiness and speed of turnaround. Along the way they met Gordon Ramsey before their latest work, creating a bookshop to tell the world about the Monzo book of money. This audacious idea is a fully fledged bookstore called ‘Booknook’ home to 3000 books each with a different front cover, all to help people better understand how to use their money.

SimKat thank you so much for coming on. You’re a breath of fresh air in the great outdoors. Long may it continue. Stay in touch!

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-94-paul-pateman

Episode #94 features Paul Pateman aka Pâté on Toast. Paul is a graphic artist, art director, writer, speaker and general good egg who we loved having on the show.

Paul has enjoyed an incredibly successful career as a creative / creative director at AMV and TBWA. His work has won over 130 awards. Since focussing on being an illustrator, Pâté has been shortlisted numerous times in the AOI World Illustration Awards, sat on the D&AD jury and regularly lectures around the country on the power of visual imagery.

He is now firmly established with nearly 10 years’ experience in the commercial art landscape and regularly creates images that are not only beautiful but satirical and funny.

We talked broadly about the difference between being a creative and a graphic artist.

We covered Paul’s huge success on Museum of Childhood, a real lesson in going out and making shit happen. Paul and Mike Nicholson his partner at the time, were having a quiet period at AMV and decided to go get some business of their own. They approached the Museum of Childhood on the quiet, selling in the campaign which was art directed and drawn by Paul. They then had to approach the powers that be at AMV to approve the work. It paid off incredibly well, the campaign won every award going and sowed the illustrative seed in Paul’s mind.

We discussed Right Guard, Heinz Meatballs and the D&AD pencil winning John Smith’s topical ad for the royal wedding. Then we covered Paul’s more recent illustrative creations, which are stunningly simple and beautiful. Whether adorning the cover of a magazine, a poster for a school event or a billboard for Boots opticians, the level of craft is wonderful to see.

There’s also spec work which Paul does in downtime to keep the juices flowing, as shown in the billboard mock-up he did for this episode.

Paul, thanks so much for coming on, it was a real pleasure.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-93-buildhollywood

Episode #93 features Jayne Andrew & Isobel Deevy from OOH specialists BuildHollywood, who very kindly came down from Manchester to chat about some of their amazing projects.

We’ve been saying for ages who are BuildHollywood? Their name is always on the coolest stuff.

So this was our moment to find out. It’s no exaggeration to say if you’ve seen something iconic and spectacular in the great outdoors, chances are BuildHollywood would have been behind it.

We started with a brilliant idea for a brilliant book, Max Porter: Grief Is The Thing with Feathers. BuildHollywood created a ‘feather billboard’ in Shoreditch … nearly 100 episodes in and we’ve never discussed a feather billboard. Great story.

Then there was their ongoing commitment to Manchester International Festival, the Marmite special build, Travel Supermarket inflatables with Meanwhile, the super cool F37: Mancunio which recently dominated the streets of Manchester and more.

The great work kept coming: Prost8 and Specsavers were next before we ended on a very special, special build for Dreamies ‘purr-fest poster’.

We also got an exclusive (at the time!) of Listen to Your Heart, an immense collaboration with Creative Review and 3D artist Joseph Melhuish featuring Melhuish’s signature quirky style. Designed to showcase the creative potential of 3D billboard art, the project highlights how physical installations can still make a strong emotional and visual impact in an increasingly digital world. Amen to that.

Thank you both so much for coming on the show and enlightening us on all things BuildHollywood. Not to mention the yummy buns. A real treat all round.

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.

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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.