When The World Zigs, Zag - Sir John Hegarty, BBH

It's 40 years since the founding of one of the most famous and iconic advertising agencies; BBH or Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty. Today I speak with founder, Sir John Hegarty to find out what it's been like to be at the helm of one of the world's most successful ad agencies for 4 decades.

We take a look back over a long history of advertising to see what's changed, what we can learn and maybe what new techniques today are worth investing in. We touch on many of the great campaigns that come out to BBH, two of my favourites in particular being Levi's from the early eighties and more recently, Audi, which was in fact, one of their founding clients and spanned the entire 40 year history of the agency. As you would expect an amazing storyteller full of wit and wisdom and lots of great advice.

Here's what we covered:

How Sir John got into advertisingWhat advice he would give after 5 decades in AdvertisingWhy you should entertain rather than informHow advertising followed cultural trendsWhy advertising appears to be making worse creative but expect better resultsThe lack of evidence for brand building via social mediaHow BBH turned Levi’s around and inspired their own agency positioningThe making of Levi’s iconic Laundrette advertWhy the model ended up wearing Boxer shortsHow Levi’s ad revitalised famous music tracksThe longest running BBH clientHow the ‘factory visit’ inspired one of the most famous taglinesWhy being illogical can be the right thing to doBeing defined by your workThe importance of creative people at the top of the companyHow creativity helps solve business problemsAdvice to clients for how to get the best out of their agencyHow the audience ended up coming last in our prioritiesWhy we are all making creative decisions and how to be more creativeThe importance of being Fearless and not being afraid to failAdvice for selling in creative ideas to clientsThe one piece of creative work John is most proud ofWhy purpose gets you on the pitch but doesn’t win you the gameAdvice to a 20 year old John

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