Richard McGrann

Here's a handy reminder of what's expected of a Creative Director. My A to Z guide is not comprehensive; I cover more details when coaching people, but this is a good start. ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ My 'HOW TO BE A CREATIVE DIRECTOR WITHOUT SUCKING AT IT' Coaching Course starts on June 26 - there are 2 spots left. Sign up before the end of June 17 for a 10% discount. Message me or comment for more details. #creativedirector #creativecoach #advertising

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"Stories don’t just capture our attention. They keep us engaged, and they stick with us afterwards. All the ingredients for an effective ad - and an impactful photo." Joanna Barnett, our brilliant new Strategy Director, featured this week in the 'I Tried This' series, for Creativebrief BITE, asking industry leaders to share the #experiences which have positively impacted their creative outlook and how they have influenced their work. Joanna shares how #photography has broadened her perspective and reminded her of some of the fundamentals of #advertising. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gB3FzUep

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Fair amount of people popping off in the creative community about Jaguar's new rebrand with some pretty heavy comments. Am I defending the choices and is it for me? No. But here's the thing: how many dropping these clever and scathing comments about "death of British icon and its heritage" were actually ever planning to buy a Jag? Or even considered it a viable car they'd be looking to buy in the next 3-5 years? 10? Truth is, heritage brands like Jaguar face an impossible task. Stay the same, you're dinosaurs - sales fall off as only 65-year-old blokes are buying them. Try to evolve, you're "killing an icon." It's a poor rebrand (or a very clever stunt), but at least they're taking a swing at reaching a new generation. The execution might not land for everyone (or at all) but from one creative to another – sometimes you need to break things and upset a few people to build something new. And sometimes you have to fail. #Branding #CreativeDirection #Jaguar

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Inspired by John Dyer’s post about overcoming loss, here’s a story for the weekend about Love Shack by the B-52s. Now, back in the mid to late 1970s in Athens, Georgia a group of friends who didn’t have enough money for food shared a flaming volcano cocktail. Afterwards they went to a friend’s house and jammed. Switching instruments and roles they ignited a fire in each other. Soon this group of friends were playing at College parties and one day the guitarist, Ricky Wilson, wrote a catchy riff that would become a song called Rock Lobster. The band were suddenly thrust into the limelight. Bowie and Lennon praised the song and they did a standout performance on SNL that led to tours of Australia and Europe. The band released a couple of follow up albums but during the recording of their album Bouncing Off Satellites, Ricky discovered he had AIDS… a diagnosis he kept from the rest of the band including his sister Cindy. Ricky died before the release of the album and the band went into hiatus. I suspect many had written them off but the drummer Keith Strickland learnt how to play in Ricky’s unique style and became chief songwriter. The band went back into the studio and recorded an album called Cosmic Thing which yielded the track Love Shack… which was a huge global hit. Their biggest yet. Interestingly they wouldn’t be the first or last band to lose a member and turn adversity into success. The Shamen did it after member Will Sinnott sadly drowned. Feeder did it after drummer Jon Lee died. And famously the Manic Street Preachers achieved wider recognition after losing Richie. It’s clear that whatever the loss, it can stir something in us that helps us create something wonderful. And with that I’ll avoid a ‘top voice’ business or life lesson and leave you with Love Shack! Btw… my favourite B-52s song is the amazing Give Me Back My Man. Altogether now… The love shack is a little old place where… Happy Friday. #creativity #advertising #marketing

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Delusional. The ad industry is dead because of creatives. You’ve become so self-centered, you’ve lost touch with reality. My LI feed is full of creatives ranting about nothing but their own feelings. Some mediocre writer is angry because “Greg in finance” killed creativity and “old white men with receding hairlines run agencies” (even though he’s only a few years from being one). 1000’s of creatives celebrate a video comparing themselves to Van Gogh. Really? People pay to see what Van Gogh made. And they pay to NOT see what you made. Bernbach didn’t make the VW Beetle a success. It was successful in many countries where no Bernbach ad ever flighted. He just made the ad. 100’s of the world’s smartest engineers spent years making the car. My engineer friends don’t post pics of those verifiable geniuses with lines like “oh, how I miss good engineering”. Creatives brag publicly about winning awards for their idea that fed hungry kids. The entry makes it look like 1000’s of kids. The truth: 32 kids were fed. Once. The cost of the award entry could feed a 1000 kids. You’re literally lying about feeding hungry kids and then you use the award to get more business. Banksy isn’t talking about suits. He’s talking about YOU.

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Tomorrow is World Suicide Prevention Day. And today marks the start of the next chapter in our campaign to unite the nation against suicide. Together, adam&eveDDB, the Campaign Against Living Miserably and ITV are launching Missed Birthdays. A campaign to draw attention to the fact that suicidality amongst children and young people is at a record high. 10 years ago, the single biggest killer of young people was accidents. Today it’s suicide. It has claimed the lives of 6,929 young people. Every single one of those lives is represented by a missed birthday balloon: a simple, powerful symbol of the hope, happiness and humanity that has been so tragically lost. It should make you angry. It should make you feel outraged. But it shouldn’t make you feel hopeless. Because we can all play our part in ending youth suicide, for good. Today, we aren’t asking you to donate. We’re not asking you to sign a petition. We are simply asking you to CARE. C: Check In with the young people in your life. A: Ask if they’re feeling suicidal. R: Remain close and remove them from harm. E: Escalate to emergency services - like CALM’s suicide prevention line or 999 - if necessary. To understand how to use CARE more, please visit care.thecalmzone.net Please share if you see fit; one conversation can be the difference between a life saved and a life lost. Today, tomorrow and every day after, we are #unitedagainstsuicide.

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You only have to look at top TV viewing figures over the years to see evidence of fragmentation*. Add this to a world of rapid technological, political, economic and environmental change and you quickly realise why the world of marketing has become such a behemoth of often deep, siloed expertise. There is absolutely a role to be played for businesses (and generalist individuals) who can bring these worlds together under one roof, with a clear strategic vision and operating model. *most watched programmes on a single channel

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It's time to flip the script on how we approach brand advertising by starting with where people spend most of their time - on mobile. Big thanks to Lauren McNamara for the kind words. #POPULA #MobileFirst #Brand #Advertising #Agency

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Imagine an orchestra with a rather unconventional conductor at the helm—a dog and its waggling tail! It’s definitely going to be emotional. Why? What makes dogs wag their tail is their inner feelings of joy, anxiety, agitation, excitement, etc. Each wag would mean a new tempo, a new rhythm for the orchestra. In others, it’s going to be a kind of Music of Suprise, where the instrumentalist are not sure of what to expect😃 Just a quick question, who would own the copyright?😂 This experiment was created by Pedigree, a dog food production company. #MarketingCampaigns #Advertising

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Love it or hate it, Jaguar's rebrand has everyone talking. Attention is currency – and Jaguar just made a massive deposit. However, rebranding isn't about shock value. It's about evolution that respects brand DNA. Where the leaping jaguar once symbolized automotive excellence, the new brand feels disconnected from Jaguar's heritage of luxe perfornance. A logo is more than a visual mark – it's a storytelling device. Strip away a brand's essence, and you risk turning everyone against you. Successful rebrands progress, they don't depart. The focus should be on preserving the emotional connection that originally captivated your audience. #DigitalMarketing #Branding #BrandStrategy #JaguarRebrand

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This week the full Cannes Lions UK agency rankings were released. Some people might have raised their eyebrows at the UK agency in the No2 position, Edelman. Who they? Our agency is, perhaps, an ‘Unusual Suspect’ ranking ahead of those well-known creative powerhouses Adam & Eve, Mother, Uncommon and Ogilvy. For decades we have been the world’s leading independent PR and Communications firm but while those in Creative Agencies might not be familiar with our name, they will be familiar with our work over the years; IKEA Buy Back Friday, ASICS Eternal Run and Hellmann’s Mayo McHack to name just a few of the big award winners in past years. This year’s phenomenal achievement makes us all particularly proud because it was not just down to one lucky piece of work winning big. Instead, our winning work was from a very diverse range of our clients; Dove’s ‘Code my Crown’, Sanofi’s ‘Allegra Airways’, Heineken’s ‘Social Swap’ and DP World’s ‘The Move to -15’ (the latter bagging the first ever Titanium Lion for a PR agency) One of the special things about Edelman, as our teams will tell you, is that the briefs we get are different from your usual creative brief, digital or otherwise. We use the power of creativity not just to execute a solution, but much further upstream to create the solution. Put simply, we use creativity to solve problems. That’s key when you are creating ‘earned’ ideas, ideas that have to capture the public’s imagination without a paid media budget behind them. If you are a forward thinking creative (or anyone from any part of the industry for that matter) who understands that earned creativity is the future of creativity, and would like the opportunity to do the best work of your life, Edelman is a name you should get more familiar with.

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📣 UPDATE ANNOUNCEMENT: I have made some changes to this - it is now One-To-One - not a group. Why? Well, I have had some requests for this, as it can be difficult for some people to stick to set times - life and work can be hard to juggle, so it helps if there can be some flexibility in things like this. There are limited spots available - you can start now, or sometime in September or October - whatever works for you. I'm offering a 20% discount if you sign up before August 29. The current group taking part in my Creative Director programme is about to wrap up, so it’s time to get started with some new sessions. You can see more details in the carousel below - but ignore the whole group thing and dates - LinkedIn won't allow me to replace the carousel. 😎 What can you get out of it? ☑ New perspectives. ☑ Inspiration. ☑ Answers to burning questions. ☑ Advice on how to navigate certain obstacles. ☑ Creative leadership advice and insights. ☑ And much more. And if you want it…I'll share my guacamole recipe. Better creative leadership skills lead to better work, happier staff, and stronger client relationships. There are limited spots available. If you want to get on board and benefit from a discount then sign-up before August 29. Oh, and don't forget about the guacamole recipe. It's pretty good. Just sayin'. If you're interested in joining please email me for more details - [email protected] #creativity #creativeleadership #advertising

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"10 years ago, the single biggest killer of young people was accidents. Today it’s suicide. It has claimed the lives of 6,929 young people." Amazing new work by Campaign Against Living Miserably adam&eveDDB the7stars Hope&Glory PR! 👏 A timely reminder ahead of WSPD that we need to CARE for each other, and especially the young people in our lives. These simple steps could help save a young persons life: C: Check in with the young people in your life. A: Ask if they’re feeling suicidal. R: Remain close and remove them from harm. E: Escalate to emergency services - like CALM’s suicide prevention line or 999 - if necessary. For more information on how to use CARE, please visit care.thecalmzone.net #unitedagainstsuicide

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The word 'innovation' is a loaded word. When you hear ‘innovation’, you probably think of brands like Tesla, Gucci, or challenger brands like Surreal and I think that makes a lot brands think they don’t have licence to be ‘innovative’ But I think that every brand is capable of innovation, and to give it a definition: 👉 Do something new to set yourself apart 👉 Change the rule books All with the aim to: 👉 Add value to your customers so that they choose you, and ultimately, your brand grows in return. Whatever your industry or brand size or aesthetic, we can hopefully all agree that we want to to grow our brands. And so to apply 'innovative thinking', I see it as going back to the fundamentals: What is your challenge or the problem you need to solve for your brand? What does success look like? And then for the fun part, is there an innovative way to make that happen? It was a pleasure to share the stage at Pion with these brain boxes Grace Miller James Wallis and shout out to panel host / my big scary boss (I kid) Oliver Yonchev for the great session 👏 Check their pages for some mad learnings and takeaways 🔥

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Brand Distinctive Assets are a hot topic of conversation again as we have seen brands like thenorthface walking away from them with its recent shift from the iconic 'Never Stop Exploring' to 'We Play Different'. The North Face are not the only ones. Neilson Active Holidays have the done the same with their shift from 'Relax as hard as you like' to 'Good Energy'. Brand Distinctive Assets are the backbone of strong, enduring brands. They take years if not decades of consistent investment to build yet our 2023 research found only 28% of companies have in place a strategic approach to protecting, nurturing and amplifying their distinctive brand assets. This week's blog recaps the three key steps to taking a more strategic approach to managing distinctive brand assets. Don't ditch them.... Measure, Amplify, Track and Treasure them!!! https://lnkd.in/ebvdanHE #branddistinctiveassets #trackandtreasure

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Surprisingly, there is very little guidance for those wanting to step up to the Creative Director position or those who have landed in the role and are looking for more advice. That’s why, as part of my coaching services, I have added a programme focused solely on how to be the best Creative Director you can be. I’ll be sharing, via video calls, insights and the lessons I have learned along the way on my creative leadership journey. Details are in the carousel below. #creativedirector #creativity #creativeleadership #advertising

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Learn how to Get Stuff Done. A very key element of our agency value proposition is to be counted by clients as problem solvers. This a message that the team at FDRY tend to hear repeatedly. In general, people want to get ahead and be seen as positive contributors in an organisation to get recognition and visibility. The thing that matters when it comes to stand out is to reliably get stuff done. “Just learn how to get stuff done. I’ve seen, at every level, people who are very good at describing problems. People who are very sophisticated in explaining why something went wrong or why something can't get fixed. But what I'm always looking for is, no matter how small the problem or how big it is, somebody who says, “Let me take care of that.” If you project an attitude of, whatever it is that's needed I can handle it, then whoever's running that organization will notice.” #getstuffdone

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If, like me, you spend time screaming at the TV or shrugging your shoulders during a commercial break this may be why. Well said John: Sir John Hegarty  I no longer work in advertising. Even so, I take a keen interest in the industry’s output. I find a somewhat grim experience. One that is sadly shared by my many friends who – similarly – are no longer in the business, and are asking the question: “what’s happened?” We can talk about the many reasons, the growth of globally-produced work that neither offends, nor appeals. The fragmentation of audiences through social media. The obsession with data and the over reliance on promotion versus persuasion.  Of course all of these have had a somewhat negative impact on the big idea. But just at the time we need one to stitch all these disparate opportunities together, we’ve retreated to the edges of culture, shouting for attention only to be switched off. Nearly a billion people now employ ad blockers on their smart phones. There’s no question adverting has lost its voice: its power to persuade. Advertising is listened to when it has a point of view And this is my point, you don’t do that by creating work where someone has an absurd haircut, does a stupid dance, or employs the latest CGI trick. Our new idea to get noticed is to be whacky. Whacky is not an idea: it is a device. Advertising was listened to when it had a point of view. When it had a philosophical thought. The great Bill Bernbach, co-founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach taught us that the truth – whatever your truth is – is the most powerful strategy you can employ. Just make it interesting. Make it fun.  From that simple belief an advertising revolution occurred that turned it into a vaunted and startlingly effective communication tool. Building brand value and sales performance. But today I’m not sure what adverting believes in anymore. What’s at the heart of its message, how is it trying to influence and where? Revolutions happen because people yearn for something better. They value authenticity, courage and integrity. They admire daring. A daft haircut, weird casting or a stupid dance do not add up to an industry that knows how to be taken seriously.

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👉 'FFS' more coverage with ChargeGuru ⚡ 🪫 Great to see the continued media support for our FFS campaign with ChargeGuru. Two new articles have gone live; I had the opportunity to speak with MediaCat Magazine and Creativepool, together we dug more into the campaign; the background and the creative process. *** With Media Cat, we discussed how 'Marketing and the media are essential in accelerating EV adoption'. Snippet: Marketing and the media are essential in accelerating EV adoption by making it relatable and addressing misconceptions head-on. This is where smart marketing can step in. We need to educate the public about the cost-efficiency and sustainability of electric vehicles (EVs). By showcasing advances in EV technology and infrastructure, we can alleviate concerns and anxieties about going green. Providing accurate information that can empower potential drivers to make informed decisions. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eZXSwkzi In Creative Pool, we explored the creative process behind the campaign in the article titled 'Inside ChargeGuru’s Groundbreaking Campaign'. Snippet: What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production? Using a guerrilla-style projection tactic, we set up quickly, projected, and moved on, generating public excitement and candid reactions for the campaign video. At one location, we were asked to leave, with the police even called. Fortunately, we captured all necessary footage before needing to pack up—no laws were broken! Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ewueD2iQ #EV #Marketing #MediaSupport #ChargeGuru #Campaign #ElectricVehicles #Sustainability #CreativeProcess The PHA Group Denis Watling Elizabeth Davidson

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