CAREERS: Cozens aims to give HSBC consistency

Red has signed up London adland heavy-hitter Mike Cozens as its

executive creative director. The 29-year veteran of the London ad scene

took up his new post at the Hong Kong-based Bates subsidiary, which is

dedicated to the HSBC account, in mid-May, and will head its 10-strong

creative team.

Before joining Red, Cozens spent six years at Young & Rubicam's London

office, first of all as creative director for London, and latterly for

the whole of Europe. He was also the agency's deputy worldwide creative

director.

Cozens, who comes from a copy writing background, said that the biggest

attraction of coming to work for Red was the chance to devote himself to

a single account and have a personal impact on the creative

strategy.

"When you're a creative director, you work a bit on this and a bit on

that, but you don't really get the opportunity to focus, and to really

make a difference on one account," he commented. "You tend to pick your

favourites. This is a chance to really concentrate on the HSBC business.

It's also a chance to get back to actually writing stuff."

He said that the opportunity to be based in a single office, rather than

roaming around a region, as he did in Europe, was also a factor. "The

trouble is that you get to know the check-in staff at Heathrow Airport

better than you know the ads," he joked.

In addition to Y&R, Cozens has also worked at BBH, where he was one of

the founding partners in 1982. His other previous jobs include

commercials director for Ian Single Films and deputy creative director

for TBWA.

At Y&R, he created major campaigns for Ford and Pirelli, among others,

and has also worked for other financial services companies including

Barclays and NatWest. He is a Cannes Grand Prix award winner, and has

also scooped two D&AD Golds and three British television advertising

awards Grand Prix.

Cozens said that his main aim at Red was to bring more consistency to

HSBC's advertising. "HSBC has been a series of one-offs, and I'm trying

to make it so that we do more campaignable ideas," he commented.

"I know HSBC do a lot of different products, but I'll be trying to get

some consistency on the account."

He added that he was responsible for a similar exercise when he worked

on the Ford account at Y&R London.

Before moving to Hong Kong, Cozens had been intending to take a

six-month break from advertising after leaving Y&R to write a novel, but

cut it short by two months to join Red.