Creative Minds: 'I guilted my way into advertising with a birthday party'

Publicis Groupe, ANZ, chief creative officer, May 2023 – Still there…
Google, APAC, APAC creative chief, 2017 to 2023
Special Group, Australia, founding partner, 2014 to 2017
TBWA Australia, executive creative director, 2010 to 2014
Saatchi & Saatchi, Australia, creative director, 2007 to 2010
Droga5, New York, senior creative, 2006 to 2007
Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, creative group head, 2004 to 2006
The Glue Society, Australia, Copywriter, 2002 to 2004
TBWA Australia, Copywriter, 1998 to 2002.

1. How did you end up being a creative?

Almost completely by accident. I was studying communications (BA Comm) at the University of Technology, Sydney, and had to do a subject called Professional Attachment, which was essentially work experience for a fortnight. I managed to get an unpaid placement at the hot shop, Whybin Lawrence TBWA and basically refused to leave.

I kept coming in every day and, after a few months, finally guilted the creative director and founder into employing me by inviting him to my 21^st birthday party. In his weird struggle to figure out what to get me for my birthday, he discovered that his company had not been paying me. So, he wrote the words “You can have a job” on a with compliments slip. It was a real victory.

2. What's your favourite piece of work in your portfolio?
 

Ooh, that’s a tough one. I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with some amazingly talented people in my career and have been able to work on some really fun stuff over the years. So, on different days, I may well have a different answer to that question. But, today, I’d say it would be a project called Woolaroo I was able to work on developing in partnership with UNESCO and their Language Technology For All conference. It came off the back of an app called Kupu, which we’d built with Spark (New Zealand’s biggest telco), that allowed users to take a photo of anything and learn the word for it in Te Reo Maori.

Woolaroo is the open-source version of it that is still being used around the world today. Randomly, I was in Louisiana last year and met some folks who were using it to learn Louisiana Creole. It was great to see it landing in the real world and making a positive contribution to culture.

3. What's the one piece of work you most wish you'd done?

Ha. So many things. Damn!

We are in such a wonderful industry for envy. There’s always something I wish I’d done. One example from ages ago that I still absolutely adore, from the golden era of Crispin Porter Bogusky, would be Counterfeit Mini. That was so radically different when it launched. It was just insane. I love ideas that pursue a really silly premise with genuine seriousness. I can’t get enough of that stuff.

4. Who’s on your dream dinner guest list (alive or dead)?

Well, I think whilst part of me would love to sit down with my favourite musicians and talk music all night, I’ve always thought it would be cool to get my great grandparents, my grandparents, my parents, my wife and my kids, all around a dinner table, but all at the age I am now. So, I suppose that would be a weird middle-aged person's dinner party. But I think it would be interesting to see a direct counterpoint to myself at that same exact point in time. Failing that, James Brown, the Meters, Mickey and the Soul Generation and Willie Tee.

5. What really motivates you?

Well, I should say creativity. But actually, the truth is people. I love working with people who are determined to be their best and do their best. I’ll take someone with less talent and more drive any day of the week, mainly because I put myself in that bucket. If you can unlock yourself at your best, it’s really hard to beat that. It also makes it fun. For me, if I’m enjoying myself, the work gets better too. And it feels less like work, too. I’m very happy to say I’m working with some very fun and motivated people these days who inspire me to try harder every day.

6.  What would you do on your perfect day?

I would say a mix of spending time with my family, cooking something delicious one-handed (because I have a glass of red in the other one) and listening to a few records. I love a day without an agenda. Where you can go where it takes you. As I’m writing this, I’m about to hop on a plane to Japan with my family, so tomorrow could, in fact, be that day. Let’s see.

7. What’s your favourite music/film/TV show/book of the past year, and why?

I can’t narrow it down to one. But I can do three. First up, I found a funk 45 I’ve been looking for 25 years, by a band called Mickey and the Soul Generation, so that is an absolute highlight and something I’ve been in pursuit of for a large part of my life. But, as a more accessible counterpoint, secondly, I’ve been loving everything Surprise Chef is putting out. They’re a killer cinematic soul outfit from Melbourne who are putting out some of the best music right now, in my opinion. And the last stop on that trip would be the Bamboos. This is another reason Melbourne has the best music scene in the country right now. They have yet to put something out that I don’t love!

8.  iPhone or Android?

Both.

I love the iPhone, and that’s my always-with-me phone. But with Android making up most of the world’s smartphone users, I’ve always been interested in that operating system, too. After spending the last six years using both, I’ve got equal love there.

9. What app could you absolutely not live without? What app do you wish you could delete?

Sadly, it’s Discogs. Terrible for my bank balance, amazing for my soul. Literally. It’s an app that ties together record sellers across the globe. And then they work together to ruin my financial stability through a delicate game of carrot dangling. The pre-internet version was mail order, which was far less effective and far more time-consuming.
 

Well, if I had to delete an app, it would be the same app. It’s terrible. It’s ruining my life. Maybe I will delete it, but just for a bit. Actually, no! I’m going to keep it. I will keep it, but just check it less. Like only in the morning and last thing at night. And if I’m on a bus. Or waiting for them to turn on the “fasten your seatbelts” sign on a plane. Yeah, just in those situations. Feels more under control already.

10. What makes you really angry?

People who squander opportunity. We are really lucky in our business to be able to do something artful for commercial gain. Along the way, we get to learn a lot, work with some amazing people and generally have fun. It bugs me when people find ways to see the glass half empty in that sense. Also, I’ve been lucky to work with some people who can pull opportunities out of thin air. That is pure magic to me. I love that. It’s incredibly inspiring.

11. Analog or digital?

I love both and am firmly committed to both, too. I have collected vinyl for 25 years, but also love technology and what it represents. So, whilst working in the AI and product development space the last few years, I have been equally prone to listening to a 45s (for those who were born post-iPod, these are small black discs that have grooves in them and used to live in things called “jukeboxes” that people used to put coins in (coins were a form of analogue currency), and it would drop a small needle into the groove and music would come out. ) So, that’s a firm “both” from me. Without either, the world would be a lesser place.