We wish we were able to welcome you into the agency, have a cuppa and meet you properly, but for now Zoom and Hangouts will have to do!
To give you a clearer idea of whose (hopefully not too glitchy) face is whose in the upcoming meetings, there is a bit of background on your core team of Generals below.
Of course there are many, many more Generals who will no doubt be queuing up to work on your mission should we be fortunate enough to progress to the next stage of the process.
HELEN CALCRAFT, FOUNDER
Helen is one of British advertising's most high-profile leaders. She has achieved the rare feat of founding 2 successful agencies: MCBD (the IPA's Effectiveness Agency of the Year in 2005, 2007 and 2010) and Lucky Generals. In 2016, Campaign magazine named her the Number 1 suit in the business and Business Insider listed her in the top 5 most creative people in advertising, worldwide. As well as a stellar agency career, she has a great understanding of what makes marketers tick: she has an MBA (with distinction) from the London Business School and has been a trustee of Cancer Research UK for 4 years. Helen is a proud member and ex-President of female-focused networking organisation WACL, and is currently their representative on a cross-industry initiative, timeTo, to address sexual harassment in advertising.
Walkers crisps of choice:
Always Salt & Vinegar
ANDY NAIRN, FOUNDER (STRATEGY)
In March, Campaign named Andy the Number 1 strategist in the UK for the second year in a row (it’s also previously named him one of the world’s top 10). He has won more IPA Effectiveness Awards than any other planner, including the 2005, 2007 and 2010 IPA Grands Prix. In particular, he has developed several highly effective food campaigns, for the likes of Hovis, Waitrose and Pot Noodle. This led to him writing the IPA's definitive guide to food advertising, in 2014 (click here to read it). As well as marshalling the strategy on key accounts like the Co-op, he is one of the industry's leading thinkers and has been especially vocal on the subject of brand purpose. But he's no intellectual noodler: really, what he still likes to do best is work closely with creative people to bring strategies to life in popular culture.
Walkers crisps of choice:
Cheese & Onion (despite Helen's complaints)
DANNY BROOKE-TAYLOR, FOUNDER (CREATIVE)
Danny is currently listed as one of the UK’s top Creative Directors – not least because he has been responsible for the most watched ad in the world, as measured by YouTube, for the last 2 years running. Both spots were Super Bowl blockbusters for Amazon's Alexa and helped Lucky Generals become the first British agency to win the prestigious USA Today trophy for the American public's favourite campaign. The fact that Danny has achieved a similar feat in the UK (where his Hovis campaign was voted the Ad of the Decade by the British people) shows his love of populist work, that captures the national mood.
He hates writing show-offy cvs like this (so someone else is doing it for him) but loves getting his sleeves rolled up with clients, as lengthy relationships with the likes of Yorkshire Tea and Amazon testify.
Walkers crisps of choice:
As co-founder of the LGs Nando’s club, it has to be Peri-Peri Chicken Taste Icons
VICKIE RIDLEY, BUSINESS DIRECTOR
Having stupidly chosen a joint degree in Maths & English that provides no clear career path whatsoever, Vickie luckily found her way into advertising through a graduate scheme at RKCR. The maths did actually come in handy as she learnt the ropes working on Lloyds Bank, before swapping banking fees for licence fees on the BBC business. She joined the Generals almost five years ago and has spent her time creating mischief with Paddy Power, making Budweiser the most talked about brand of the FIFA World Cup, and drinking numerous proper brews and hanging out with the likes of Sean Bean and Parky whilst leading the Yorkshire Tea business and helping them to achieve their ambitious mission to take overtake Tetley & PG Tips to become the number one tea in the UK.
Walkers crisps of choice:
Roast Beef Monster Munch (especially when hungover)
LOZ HORNER, STRATEGIST
Loz started his career at the media agency Carat in the late 90s, but he was a terrible negotiator and kept paying ratecard for everything so they moved him into planning. He was much better at that and soon jumped the fence to creative agencies. He then worked at Leo Burnett London, Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam and Mother London, where he was joint head of strategy. in 2014 he saw what Lucky Generals were up to and begged Andy to let him come and join the fun. Loz has developed strategies for many beloved brands ranging from global icons like Coca-Cola and Stella Artois to British gems like Pot Noodle, Yorkshire Tea and Pop Chips. He eats A LOT of crisps. Probably too many to be honest.
Walkers crisps of choice:
Can't choose. Quavers. Cheese & Onion. Bugles when I can find them.
PURPOSE: A COUPLE OF ARTICLES
We found the first question about brand purpose on your Chemistry brief really interesting and we look forward to talking in more detail about this much debated topic in a few weeks time.
In that session we’d love to share some case studies of how we driven results for other brands by bringing their purpose to life, but in the mean time, we thought we’d share two articles that may be interesting; the first was written by Andy last summer for Campaign entitled, ‘The power and pitfalls of purpose’.
The second article does toot our horn a little - please forgive us for that - but we wanted to share it to show that we don't just deliver purpose driven marketing for our clients, we recognise how important it is for us as an agency too. This is a piece written about Lucky Generals following a new free accommodation initiative we launched to tackle lack of the socioeconomic diversity in our industry entitled,
’Lucky Generals doesn’t talk purpose. It’s purposeful.’
We hope you find them interesting and relevant reads.
AND FINALLY
Our name comes from a Napoleon quote. When asked what he needed to win a war,
the great commander famously said “Bring me your Lucky Generals”. In other words, he
wanted people with a track record who would roll their sleeves up, go into battle and win.
We love that mentality but, like Napoleon, we know that in reality, there is no such thing as luck.
So we will do whatever it takes to get results for you. We will work our socks off for you, in the
belief that the harder we work, the luckier we will all get.
THANK YOU.
WE SALUTE YOU.