Wish upon a star
The marketing industry is often described as a young person’s game, but it is the Scottish industry’s ability to continue to nurture a wide collection of talent that keeps it fresh and spritely, despite the sometimes, shall we say, maturing years of its stalwarts.
There is no better stomping ground than Scotland to gain the right experience. It wasn’t all that long ago that two young creatives, honed in Scotland, were offered the chance of a lifetime to move to Amsterdam to have a go at the global Adidas advertising account.
Chances like that aren’t offered on a whim. The creative director of the Dutch agency in question said that the portfolio offered by the pair was more representative of ten years work, than the five that they had been at the agency for.
Scotland’s bright young things are brighter than most. The pressure heaped on their shoulders right from the start is enough to make or break most.
Therefore it can be a difficult task when trying to single out just a few for special praise. But that is the job that is presented. So, in finding Scotland’s 30 under 30, managing and creative directors all over Scotland were polled and asked to nominate their rising stars as well as their already established bright young things. The results represent a wide range of ability and stature. Yet there is one common theme – quality.
Having trawled through the scores of entries submitted by bosses and peers alike, the nominations testament in themselves to the youthful quality on offer, 30, under the age of 30 came to the fore.
Name: Mark Harrison.
Date and place of birth: 07 Feb 1981, Durham.
Job Title: Art director.
Company: Newhaven.
Career to date: The Union.
What job did you want when you were young: Fluffer.
Biggest professional achievement: Getting a job.
Professional goals: To make an ad that features Gordon Ramsey eating s**t.
Describe yourself in five words: Lazy.
Professional role model: Don Smith.
What do you bring to the company: Panache.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Queuing in a wig shop.
Professional pet hates: Egos.
Name: Adam Smith.
Date and place of birth: 31 Jan 1976 (dragon).
Job Title: Copywriter.
Company: The Leith Agency.
Career to date: It's skatty - lots of places you've never heard of, then Mother, BMP, HHCL, Union, and eventually Leith.
What job did you want when you were young: Rally driver.
Biggest personal achievement: Oh, how I have wasted my life.
Professional goals: Work less and do more.
Describe yourself in five words: Not good at answering questionnaires, at all. Bugger.
Professional role model: Tibor Kalman.
What do you bring to your company: A packed lunch.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: In a mirror.
Professional pet hates: Mondays.
Name: Julie Rigmand.
Date and place of birth: 7 June 1977, Glasgow.
Job Title: Designer.
Company: Framec.
Career to date: Framec (You can’t help but like it).
What job did you want when you were young: Definitely a pop star, Madonna stylie.
Biggest professional achievement: Picking up numerous design awards (okay, two).
Professional goals: Just to help make Framec great.
Describe yourself in five words: Very very very very lovely.
Professional role model: Jonathan Glazier.
What do you bring to your company: A Frosties cereal bar and 2 cans of Diet Coke.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Working late/getting excited about fonts.
Professional pet hates: People who use the wastebasket to file.
Name: Alan Buttar.
Date and place of birth: 08 Dec 1974, Paisley.
Job Title: Graphic designer.
Company: d8.
Career to date: Map Reference, Irwin Stuart and Third Eye Design before joining d8.
What job did you want when you were young: Fighter Pilot.
Biggest professional achievement: Working on award winning self-promotional brochures for d8.
Professional goals: To preserve and expand my exceptional selection of stationery items.
Describe yourself in five words: Professional, dedicated, enthusiastic, humourous and eh... humble.
Professional role model: David Coyle.
What do you bring to your company: A sandwich, a banana, a book and house keys.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Ideally d8’s Sydney studio.
Professional pet hates: Where do I start? Being supplied tiny Jpeg logos from the internet, orphans, centred text, clients with there own digital cameras, Comic Sans, I’ll leave the rest for 30 under 31.
Name: Alison Stewart.
Date and place of birth: 10 June 1976.
Job Title: Senior designer.
Company: Freight.
Career to date: Placement at Newell & Sorrell, London; Pointsize; Freight.
What job did you want when you were young: To be a nurse? I've taken a bit of a detour!
Biggest professional achievement: Being nominated twice as Young Designer of the Year...always the bridesmaid Professional goals: To keep enjoying my job.
Describe yourself in five words: Feisty, accurate, humourous, driven, workaholic.
Professional role model: Nicky Regan at Pointsize. She taught me everything I know.
What do you bring to your company: Three members of staff rolled into one.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: I hate this question...
Professional pet hates: Plagiarism, laziness and clients who think they know your job better than you do. Bless them.
Name: Andy Sams.
Date and place of birth: 27 Dec 1979, Co Durham.
Job Title: Copywriter.
Company: WWAV Rapp Collins Scotland.
Career to date: Stacking shelves at Kwik Save, which got me through college. After I finished college I came straight into WWAV.
What job did you want when you were young: I wanted a paper round, but the man at the corner shop didn’t like me.
Biggest professional achievement: Winning my first award. It wasn’t the size of the award that pleased me but the size of the weight it lifted off my shoulders.
Professional goals: I want to keep improving my book, winning awards and gain more experience on above-the-line work.
Describe yourself in five words: Are you an art director?
Professional role model: George W Bush. He’s gives hope to so many people who think they’re too stupid to get a job.
What do you bring to your company: An ability to develop powerful insights and help others reach their potential.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: With a portfolio full of “I wish I did that” ads and a big stash of awards.
Professional pet hates: Just when you know you’ve cracked it someone pipes up with “Oh, I wasn’t thinking. Silly me. What we really wanted to say was...”.
Name: Anna MacLean.
Place of birth: Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Job Title: Senior brand manager.
Company: Tennent's (Interbrew UK).
Career to date: The Leith Agency; The Bridge; BD-Scotland/Tank; Tennent's Lager.
What job did you want when you were young: I always wanted to be an actress (or to work in a Post Office because I thought it'd be great fun stamping things & signing your name all day).
Biggest professional achievement: Helping develop the Tennent's Lager football programme including our Not At The World Cup & whatthefaro.com campaigns.
Professional goals: To make a difference and hopefully to help inspire others to do the same.
Describe yourself in five words: Passionate, fiery, quirky, determined, loving.
Professional role model: I find the story of how Andy Law started St Luke's pretty inspirational.
What do you bring to your company: Coffee (when I'm late).
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Maybe lecturing or getting more involved in the academic side of Marketing.
Professional pet hates: Sloppiness, lack of attention to detail, acceptance of mediocrity, & lethargy (God - I sound like a right b*tch when you read them).
Name: Caroline Jessop.
Date and place of birth: 11 July in hospital. I’m 26.
Job Title: Consultant.
Company: Porter Novelli.
Career to date: After a brief stint at another PR agency, Porter Novelli.
What job did you want to have when you were young: A princess.
Biggest professional achievement: Being responsible for the press office when we helped to bring Concorde to Scotland.
Professional goals: Never to wake up and not want to come to work.
Describe yourself in five words: Teamie, hardworking, fun, ethical & loyal.
Professional role model: The professionalism and precision Jonny Wilkinson puts into practice on and off the rugby pitch is admirable!
What do you bring to your company: Enthusiasm, a creative approach to spelling and good tea making skills.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: A director, but I hope I won’t have to wait until then!
Professional pet hates: Long sentences, woolly chat with no substance and people who don’t return calls.
Name: Christopher Sanderson
Date and place of birth: 09 Feb 1979, Glasgow.
Job Title: Creative copywriter
Company: Clayton Graham Communications
Career to date: Clayton Graham Communications, Levy McCallum, Glasgow Science Centre, TMS Productions, Odeon Cinemas.
What job did you want when you were young: I always waned to be an underwater photographer or a stunt man - a job with a bit of risk. Clearly advertising delivers.
Biggest professional achievement: As a movie geek I can say without doubt, directing the original Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox in a Herald commercial.
Professional goals: I am part of the strange breed who actually wants to remain a copywriter. I have no delusions of writing a novel, becoming a creative director or running my own agency.
Describe yourself in five words: Quality, choice, convenience, value & service.
Professional role model: Hugh Hefner. Enjoy your work and you'll do it for life.
What do you bring to your company: Revenue.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Working half the hours for double the money.
Professional pet hates: I despise briefs where the company's USP is listed as quality, choice, convenience, value and service. If companies realised how often I read this collection of nouns, they might want to reconsider the phrase unique selling point.
Name: Emma Esslemont.
Date and place of birth: 3 September 1976 Aberdeen.
Job Title: Account manager.
Company: Union.
Career to date: Union; Faulds.
What job did you want when you were young: A pick ‘n’ mix co-ordinator, or a check-out girl at finefare before bar-codes were introduced.
Biggest professional achievement: Wangling my way into the MD's office (luckily there was a temp on reception who I managed to bypass) and persuading him to give me my 1st job in advertising.
Professional goals: To continue to progress in the advertising industry, gain more experience through working on a varied range of accounts.
Describe yourself in five words: Intelligent but hides it well.
Professional role model: Those who take the time to listen & help you improve.
What do you bring to your company: Positive attitude, willingness to learn to tackle new challenges, a smile (forced if necessary), banter and a cheese/salad sandwich.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Nearer the top of the food chain, with maybe some sunshine added in for effect.
Professional pet hates: People who don't work as a team, those who think shouting is a good way of communicating & when the client biscuits aren't handed out after meetings
Name: Fraser MacDougall.
Date and place of birth: 8 April 1977, Glasgow.
Job Title: Head of Nu Media.
Company: Union Advertising Agency.
Career to date: Suretas Ltd, Nexus BPA, Crombie Anderson, Union.
What job did you want when you were young: I wanted to be in the RAF flying fast jets, a true disciple of Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis.
Biggest professional achievement: An extremely difficult question. Probably seeing our team and business evolve over 3 years to a point where we were working intuitively together with our clients.
Professional goals: Build business into leading UK new media agency. Help establish industry regulation.
Describe yourself in five words: Sometimes serious but very fair.
Professional role model: I have worked with many individuals worthy of being role models, however, I look towards people like Steven Leach and Gerry McCusker as people that have had a vision, taken it to market and shown that the industry in Scotland can compete with the very best.
What do you bring to your company: Enthusiasm and sense of humour.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: At the forefront of innovation within our industry, working with people passionate about what we do.
Professional pet hates: “We just want a website, brochure online please.” “Alarm didn’t go off” “Who has got the brief?”
Name: Gary Wise.
Date and place of birth: 30 May 1977 - Southend-on-sea.
Job Title: Account director.
Company: Feather Brooksbank - Edinburgh.
Career to date: BLM Media in London, Feather Brooksbank.
What job did you want when you were young: Zoo keeper.
Biggest professional achievement: Winning Peroni Lager and Fopp Records from major London agencies within 2 weeks of each other.
Professional goals: Making it even more obvious to everyone that Feather Brooksbank is the best agency in Scotland (and the rest of the UK), then......Wise Media.
Describe yourself in five words: Very bad at describing myself
Professional role model: Amanda Lamb - a professional widow with a place in the sun.
What do you bring to your company: Jumbo cords, stripes, random ideas and a nice briefcase.
Where do you see yourself in five years time: Getting drunk in a small house with big windows.
Professional pet hates: Cliches. Especially: Giving it 110 per cent, drilling down, thinking outside the box, level playing fields and singing from the same hymn sheet.