I’m a founding partner of Essential. I got here via a couple of acronyms – DDB and BBC – and a chance encounter with an ex-colleague.
I joined DDB as a planner in early 1994 when computers belonged to secretaries, TV dominated media plans and lunches really were long. Account planning really is a brilliant discipline: I learnt the ins and outs of marketing and advertising theory, received thorough grounding in quantitative and qualitative research practice, argued constantly with creatives, and had a lot of fun in the process.
One of the most important things ad agencies teach you is to go the extra mile to maintain close client relationships. Perhaps it was in this spirit that I recently proposed to a marketing manager at the BBC – 12 miles into a half-marathon (she said yes).
I joined the BBC in late 1998, starting as research head for Radio 3 (I love the music) and moved next to Radio 1 and my glamour days of youth research, much of it spent with a video camera frequenting outdoor festivals and impossibly cool club nights. Two years later my youth research role was extended to launching new digital channel BBC Three, along with the title ‘Youth Insight Head’.
So what (if you’re asking) are my pearls of research wisdom about the UK’s youth? Well, I’d say 1) most of them want to be happy, and 2) if you want to know what makes them tick, you can’t do much worse than just asking them nicely.
I left the BBC in 2003 to take an extended alpine break in Chamonix. On my return I got involved in some marketing consultancy work with an ex-BBC research colleague, Alex Charlton. One day we got chatting about how the research agencies we used to commission as clients never quite hit the spot for us, and how there must be a great opportunity for a new agency that combined rigorous thought with compelling output.
The rest, as they say, is history…
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