WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERFECT AGENCY (IF YOU COULD CREATE IT FROM SCRATCH)?
A place that brings out the best in you. A place that gives you the confidence to fail.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANGES THAT PLANNERS AND STRATEGISTS SHOULD BE GRAPPLING WITH?
The age of personalisation of goods and services is just beginning, which is going to present significant challenges, as well as opportunities. At the moment it seems as though brands are engaging with personalised messaging, however, delivering personalised experiences is where the real value is added.
WHO OR WHAT IS THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR CAREER AND WHY?
Shekhar Deshpande, Director of Planning at JWT, gave me a piece of advice I find useful every day - that you only need to be "tight" in one area of your thinking for every creative strategy. Having a solid foundation of the facts around your brief ensures that you only need one creative twist to produce a new way of seeing the task at hand.
In terms of wider inspiration, I saw Andy Cavatorta - the man responsible for creating bespoke instruments for Bjork and the Chalice Symphony for Stella - speak about his career. His devotion to curiosity and understanding exactly why he loves what he does is incredible - his ideas have liberated him from having a "job".
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
How hard can it be to get me one of these?
WHICH BOOKS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU AND WHY?
This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin. An eccentric work which explores music from its consistency with particle physics to it's anthropological role in civilization. A brilliant riposte to Steven Pinker's assertion that "music is auditory cheesecake" - nice but essentially unnecessary.
YOUR FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN?
My favourite piece of current public dialogue has to be the wall around Trump's Hollywood Star by Plastic Jesus
It encapsulates every ounce of Trump's pettiness.
In terms of brands, the McWhopper campaign still does it for me. It's effective because it completely shatters the rules of How Big Corporations Do Business, and consequently, shatters what the public can expect from them.
It's human and kind of vulnerable, because something more important than either brand is at stake - the success of World Peace Day.
What were McDonald's thinking, turning them down?
Check out more from our Planners Unmasked series