It all started with a retro Adidas trackie top, a pair of Adidas Superstars, and an out-of-town Mancunian accent in the affluent Cheshire town of Knutsford on a rainy Monday morning in August 2005.
My first words to the others were, “How long did it take you’s to get here? Took me ages, traffic’s sh*t.” And that was it – the first day. I walked around the rooms of the newly refurbished second-floor office like a dog searching for a place to claim as its own, and walked into one of the empty rooms and said, “Yep, I’ll take this one,” then sat down at an empty desk with no computer, just a pen and a pad. My first brief was literally scribbled on a scrap of paper that floated across the empty desk, and that was it; we were off.
The viral spark: VIP vapes and unexpected fame
One of my proudest creative highlights over the last 20 years has been the work we created for VIP e-cigs. It all began with an impromptu meeting on a petrol station forecourt when I bumped into a mate who said, “I need a poster done, mate.” I can still remember the headline: “There’s no fire with our smoke.” From there began a two-year whirlwind of exploring the then-new world of electronic cigarettes. We used iconic film and fashion heroes and created the now-famous “I want to put it in my mouth” campaign, a rather risqué TV ad that went viral practically overnight. I can quite honestly say that it did exactly what the client needed: it made his brand the most recognised in the market. It’s not very often we can say you’ve created something that went viral and got national press coverage; you just can’t pay or plan for that kind of PR. When it catches the attention of Howard Stern in the USA, and overnight gets 250k hits on YouTube and a mention on his show, you know you’re doing something pretty special.
Two decades on, what’s next?
While we might never have quite managed to hit those heady heights of publicity again, we’ve been consistent in producing great work for some big-name global clients. From four of us rattling around in an office, we’re now a 30-strong agency with an impressive list of clients that any large agency would be proud of. The three remaining board members – myself, Keeno, and Whitters – along with our newly appointed MD, Hods, who’s completely revamped the agency, are enjoying the best period of success we’ve ever had. I also want to acknowledge the dearly missed Mike, who shared the role of creative leadership with me, and had known for over 37 years from my very first job in the industry at BDH/TBWA. Who knows what the next 20 years holds for us? But I know one thing: the traffics still sh*t.