ENGINE Group (Oct 2013-Present).

Learning: Proposition powers everything.

Joined as Head of Digital of the group’s Sports & Entertainment marketing agency and evolved into Creative Director of ENGINE Sport & Brand Experience. The launch of a state-of-the-art content facility, group restructures, a complete re-brand of all 15 sub-agencies to one ENGINE, Brexit and COVID-19 all powered the business’s evolution from ‘siloed specialists’ to ‘integrated experts’.

I developed ‘All-In’ - a collaborative creative process that gave everyone the opportunity to contribute to creativity. I championed this across over 200 multi-channel strategists and creatives. In a business where the ATL and BTL creative cultures and processes are so different, this was no mean feat. One of many success points was winning the global pitch for the through-the-line Jagermeister account, beating 53 other agencies to the prize. The big learning? You’ve got to have your commercial proposition straight before you organise your creative culture and processes.

Google, Accenture, Under Armour, Bose, YouTube, WeWork, TUI, Royal Salute, Paddy Power, Vitality, Jagermeister, Ballentines, Mitsubishi, BP, SSE, Standard Life, RBS, Principality, Canterbury, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1, World Rugby, Commonwealth Games, 6 Nations Rugby, ECB

Sports Revolution (June 2007-Sept 2013).

Learning: A great product is not enough. Investors need a vision to believe in and a story to tell.

As Director of Creative & Integration I brought the unifying power of brand, design and storytelling to this fragmented tech-sales startup. The business was on a mission to acquire and monetise a growing portfolio of apps, social communities and it’s flagship product: StadiumLive. In partnership with Cisco we built, branded and secured sponsorship of this state-of-the-art stadium wifi platform. Launched at Celtic Park, StadiumLIve is now running as a separate business and the content arm of Sports Revolution is now known as Snack Media: one of the UK’s largest and fastest-growing social sports media platforms.

Cisco, Ford, Emirates, UEFA, WWE, Celtic FC

Robinson Pincus (Jan 2010-June 2011).

Learning: New ideas gather crowds, so you’ve got to be ready to monetise that interest.

Social media was taking marketing by storm. The numbers around live experiences weren’t adding up. Paid media was looking over it’s shoulder as earned media crept up behind it. As Co-Founder of this agency startup, my former boss and I took a ‘socially-supercharged sports’ proposition to the sponsorship market, from a cold start (no clients). Within 4 months we had won UEFA, WWE, MacDonalds and Heineken: all looking for clarity on how to ‘monetise the social sports fan’. This was an intense, rapid-learning experience - exploring and selling something completely new. Other agencies and brands came knocking and we happily parted company to take what we’d learned in different directions. Ben Pincus is now Commercial Director of F1.

UEFA, MacDonalds, Heineken, WWE

Experience Worldwide (May 2006-Aug 2009).

Learning: What next is more important than what now.

This integrated agency was born out of Omnicom’s acquisition of 4 different creative agencies spanning sponsorship, live events and content, including The Works (below). As Head of Strategy and Creative I oversaw the new agency’s creative proposition and its creative output during an inevitably disruptive transition period populated with earn-outs, US involvement and the increasing importance of a ‘digital proposition’. We steadied the ship, leveraged the Omnicom network, won new clients and grew our core clients, particularly SAP which now had a dedicated team of 25 managing global activation from the UK office. I left the agency to get deeper into digital and Experience Worldwide was wrapped into Omnicom’s big global brand experience agency, GMR.

SAP, Canon, BlackBerry, Heineken, SONY Playstation, Tiger Beer, Infiniti, Nissan, Walkers, KIA and many more.

The Works (May 2001-April 2006).

Learning: Integration is the future. And still is.

I cleaned the desert sand from between my toes and joined this sport, music, fashion and film-focused agency startup as Creative Director just as ‘experiential marketing’ was fuelling the growth of the sponsorship sector. SAP, Canon and Heineken were our big global wins. Coca-Cola was our big UK win, unlocking the full portfolio. Integrated Marketing was the name of the new game. Budgets were big. Social and digital were glistening on the horizon but hadn’t landed hard yet. We collaborated closely with OMD’s ‘Fuse’ winning Nissan, SONY Playstation, Blackberry and Vodafone, ultimately leading to the agency’s acquisition by Omnicom and a merger with 3 other agencies, together known as Experience Worldwide.

Coca-Cola, Canon, SAP, Tiger Beer and many more.

Oakley Inc. (Jan 1999-Dec 2000).

Learning: Innovation is the beating heart of the best stories.

A fabulous baptism of fire for my first ‘proper job’ as Head of Sports Marketing, Oakley Middle East. I was dropped into the desert (early Dubai!) to set up and run Oakley’s Middle East sports marketing operation: recruiting athletes for sponsorship, building relationships with local media, organising brand events and working with the sales team to secure sales by selling the Oakley eyewear technology dream. Regular trips to LA to learn the ropes of big-brand innovation-led sports marketing at Foothill Ranch, Oakley’s global HQ, were all part of an immense indoctrination into a long career in sport, tech and lifestyle marketing.