Introducing a senior copywriter who does all the things. Including telling terribly silly jokes and less silly stories.
Me, I’m talking about me.
Intro
I’m a nerd, a dork and many of types of geek. And I know the difference between the three. I’m a lover of stories, both the ones we’re told (in all their many shapes and sizes) and the ones we tell ourselves. Plus, as cliched as it is for a copywriter, I like telling my own.
Work
I like solving problems. And in my day job, that means working out the best way to sell that thing to those people, without drama, and make everyone – from client to customer – feel good about it. Collected below are some of the pieces which I feel best about.
Hugh Masekela Tribute
In response to news of the death of legendary South African jazz musician, Hugh Masekela, we created this tribute for Universal Music. It transformed the sadness of traditional Last Post into something joyful, just like Bra Hugh always did. Oh, and it picked up a silver Cannes Lion, a Loerie and an ad of the month award.
Land Rover Destination Billboards
Three of six billboards created for Land Rover to help push the brand identity of “Go Beyond”. The informational billboards each showed an adventure destination that was directly ahead from where they were placed. It grabbed an Ad of the Month and a Bronze Cannes Lion.
Transact Daydreams
We were asked to create a pair of tv spots to move Transact from a sports-focused world, to a more general painkilling space. Our response was to show the ridiculous ways you could hurt your back, and how Transact is the solution to any back injury.
Apartheid Museum 13%
Every now and then the Apartheid Museum would come to our agency and go “we’ve been given space in the Sunday Times this week, do you have anything for us” and we’d scramble like mad to create something worthwhile from the opportunity. This one ended up grabbing a bronze lion and a few more local awards.
ABSA/Barclays Selldown
This enormous Absa campaign ate up six months of my life, involving incredible attention to detail, handling of different client stakeholders in 15 odd countries across Africa, all while preparing for many unknown outcomes.
It was also deeply unusual, as the goal was to make people not care about something. And it worked.
Jaguar Dreams
A proactively pitched radio spot for Jaguar’s then new XF supercar: “the car of your dreams”. The many hours of fiddling sound effects in studio paid off with a sound design craft award.
JIK Germs
This spot is a very feature dense ad which we were able to give a little bit of joy and life with a visual concept.
You can find older work in the archive.
My CV
I’ve been doing the copywriting thing now for over 15 years travelling from traditional, big above-the-line agencies, through internal, through-the-line, boutique, social, digital, direct and back. About five years ago, I took the scary step of going freelance, contracting out to whoever needed me.
I’ve won awards, pitches, and the confidence of both clients and agencies.
I am based in the UK, but work everywhere.
PS. If you want to see that actual CV with all the details and stuff, just give me a yell.
Also
Nothing made here could have been done without collaboration with hundreds of other people. Remember, we’re never the lonely geniuses we think we are.