Agency - PublicisPoke

On St Patricks day 2023 we launched Tourism Irrelands biggest campaign to date. ‘What fills my heart? ’ showcasing the unrivalled warmth of the people and culture of Ireland. Two long-form films hero the campaign , one focussing on Sharon Horgan, the other spotlighting Saoirse - Monica Jackson and Jamie - Lee O’Donnell from The Derry Girls. In both films, the Irish actors walk us through their favourite locations from historical locations, landscapes and history to unique cultural experiences.

The campaign is brought to life with an all-Irish cast,crew and director - ensuring those who created the campaign all understood what it is about Ireland that fills people’s hearts.

My role. Concept creator and Creative Director

Agency - PublicisPoke

We launched P&O Ferries new ad campaign, enticing people to travel via ferry over planes and trains, contextually positioning themselves in and around train stations and airports where travellers will be using these other forms of transport.

The campaign positions P&O Ferries as a challenger brand and a travel alternative in a category full of frustrations.

My role. Creative Director

Agency - PublicisPoke

We launched a new campaign platform for BUXTON water, in partnership with mental health charity MIND, stimulation the nation to priortise mental and physical wellbeing through hydration, ahead of the London Marathon.

Through ‘Sweat and Tears’, Buxton aims to encourage the nation to join the movement to prioritise exercise, hydration and taking care of our mental health. This campaign shines light on the positive role hydration can play in looking after mental and physical wellbeing.

Hydration helps normal cognitive functions, which has a positive impact on mood and coping with anxiety.

My role. Creative Director

In 2019 P&O Ferries repositioned its brand in the travel and leisure sector with the launch of 'To the Sea' - aiming to reconnect people with ferry travel and deliver a promise of what travelling in a post-pandemic world could, and should, feel like and mean for people.

The Covid-19 crisis shocked the travel market and rapidly changed consumer behaviour, with people looking for alternative travel options for economic, safety and logistic reasons. In a world that is adapting to this new normality, particularly when it comes to travel, P&O Ferries is repositioning with a renewed strength, focus, and commitment to present ferry travel as the most liberating form of transport in a post-Covid world.

The first phase of the brand vision launched with ‘A Calling’, six social films created by Publicis•Poke, featuring people finding ingenious and at times, unsuccessful ways to try and recreate that feeling of being out on the water, from standing in buckets, to painting waves on walls, and even sculpting the sea out of mashed potato. The films end on the line: "when the time comes, you know where to find us."

At the same time as our TV ad for P&O was running we produced a series of long form films that created a more in depth consideration of travelling with P&O. The mini films showcase the unexpected adventures that P&O Ferries makes possible, like cycling from Edinburgh to Munich and taking friends on a surf tour of Northern Ireland and Scotland.

My role. Concept creator and Creative Director

Agency - Lowe

Me and my then partner Simon Brotherson got the brief to relaunch an old brand from the Stella Artois family. Artois Bock. We visited the town of Leuven in Belguim to research it and soak up the Belgian vibe.

After reading about the brew master Edmund Willems who invented the beer it was apparent that this man was a sort of a punk of brewing. He’s broken lots of brewing rules to create this beer. Back in London we wrote a campaign telling the story of this real maverick brewer. We thought it would be good to cast an actor to appear in the ads as the Edmund and shoot some portraits of him. I commissioned Nadav Kander and went for a chat with him. He showed me some reference of the kind of photography that was happening at the same time in Europe. It was the futurist movement who experimented with multiple exposures and superimposed negatives. Nadav shot a series of beautiful portraits in this style, and I set about art directing the ads. I had always envisaged full bleed images to show off Nadav’s work but I couldn’t get the layouts to work with the headlines and the copy. In the end I made the shots smaller. There was also a similar movement experimenting with typography at the same time too and it seemed a logical to use this style.

The two different typefaces clashing together represented the two different yeasts the brewer used that was not the normal thing to do. It’s the campaign I use when I lecture students about art direction because it’s an art direction idea on top of the advertising idea.

My role. Concept Creator and Art Director

Agency - PublicisPoke

After a visit to Buxton and a chat with a geologist who explained how the water travels up through the earth navigating its way around obstacles before bursting our of the ground I landed on the idea of comparing that to the similar journey people make when trying to achieve something great. We cast three up and coming people in various fields who had overcome something to get where they where.

We also enlisted three young Rattling Stick directors to shoot the individual long form films of each person.

Pepe Jeans - Leagas Delaney

Adidas - Leagas Delaney

Stella Artois - Lowe - Ringan Ledwidge

Freesat - Now - James Rouse

BA - M&C Saatchi

Two Dogs - M&C Saatchi

Fosters Lager - M&C Saatchi - Daniel Kleinman, Ringan Ledwidge

Ruddles Bitter - Bainsfair Sharkey Trott

Agency - M&C Saatchi

When Maurice Saatchi was shown around the Uk’s very first Currys Pc world Megastore it blew him away so much that he told us that whatever the Launch film was it had to take place in the store. People needed to see the scale of these places.

TV ad shot by Sam Brown

Photographs shot by David Bailey

My role. Concept creator, Writer and Art Director