Mark Black - Creative Director.
Hello.
I’m a Creative Director based in London. With a career that has allowed me to work across many areas. From what would be classed as the more ‘traditional’ agencies to both digital and creative technology shops as well as a time spent client side.
My formative years found me in agencies that asked me to look for ways to help brands connect with consumers. TBWA for example had ‘Disruption’ which was massively liberating from a creative point of view. It allowed me to use different media, different technologies, different ways of thinking. From changing the uniforms in every McDonald’s in Ireland, turning beer mats into pub games for PaddyPower or creating online games to help school children see the benefit of eating more fish for Bord Bia. There was no wrong answer in helping a brand tell its story.
The same applied when I worked in the likes of Dare or +rehabstudio - I brought the things I’d learned about how consumers and brands connect and applied that to how they interact with technology and digital platforms. I never saw “digital” as a lesser medium, I saw it as a massive opportunity to try new things, build things, make things, push things. From making chatbots to letting kids talk to a T-Rex (National Geographic), to using 360 video to get fans closer to F1 (YouTube). These projects reinforced my belief we’ve just scratched the surface of how brands can connect with people.
I’ve also been lucky enough to work for people who always reminded me to not just be a creative. Be strategic. Be business minded. Don’t be afraid to look past the client brief and to try to find what their real problem is, if you can find an answer to that you can make work that’s more interesting and that makes an impact on a clients business. Which after all is why we do what we do.
Most recently I’ve spent some time client side (I was Global CD at DiDi), a very different experience, working with external partners and agencies, internal creatives and marketing teams to help grow the brand as it expanded around the globe. A fascinating opportunity to not just grow a brand, but also be part of it, rather than working on it.
These experiences have allowed me to become what I feel a creative needs to be today to answer the needs of clients and brands in what feels like challenging times to reach consumers.
All that said I like to think my work gives an example of how I think, some of it is live work, some of it thinking, but all geared towards solving a problem.
I’m always interested in opportunities to do more of the above if you think I can help then please say hello.
History:
Global Creative Director at DiDi
Highlights:
Developing global brand positioning and VI evolution.
Establishing a Global Studio in partnership with OLIVER for all markets. Launch campaigns in Russia, Egypt, South Africa.
Development of UK launch campaign (on hold till 2023)
Launching DiDi sub brand Linkee in Africa.
Previously:
Havas London - CD
Highlights:
CD on the Huawei account working with both the European and Chinese HQ’s.
CD on Huawei’s 1+8+N campaign - their most successful global campaign to date. Successfully pitching for the Huawei MATE launch three years in a row (CD) Development of tone of voice and launch of Pravha for Molson Coors (CD)
+rehab studio - ECD
A creative technology studio with oces in London and New York. Historically a digital production company I oversaw the creative output of both it’s direct to client and production briefs.
Highlights:
Helping develop a direct to client offering to sit alongside the production side of the business. Working in partnership with Google Media Labs (US) to produce a series of new product prototypes. Developing a series of chatbot experiences for Facebook.
DHM-CD
A start up agency founded by Dave Dye. I joined DHM for both an opportunity to try and help grow the agency and work with one of the world's great art directors.
Highlights:
CD on Adnam’s, Rightmove, Penhalighon’s and Google.
Created and launched Adnam’s first craft beer brand - Jack Brand. Creative lead on Cockburn’s, WHICH? and Adidas Originals pitches.
DARE - ACD
I joined DARE just as it was crowned ‘digital agency of the decade’ - Flo Heiss had a simple request: “ bring some advertising experience to digital”. I joined forces with Fergus Jackson and we were the agency's goto pitch team for two years. We won more than our fair share, but it did limit our opportunities to work on live briefs.
Highlights:
ACD on BMW, EA Games, Barclays, Barclay Card and Nescafe. Creative lead on successful pitches for EA Games, BMW and Nescafe.
TheHive-CD/HeadofArt
I joined The Hive when it was only a few months old to be Head of Art and CD. The start up experience was fascinating and frustrating in equal measures. Looking back we punched above our weight - We were the wild card on some of Dublin's biggest pitches even though we were four people in U2’s storage room.
Highlights:
CD & Head of Art across all the agency's clients.
Successfully launched Adidas Originals into the Irish market in 2008 with Ireland’s first truly UGC campaign.
Being invited to pitch for Absolut Vodka, Paddy Power and Jameson Whiskey.
TBWA Dublin - CD
TBWA Dublin was the agency everyone wanted to work in when I arrived in Dublin - most successful, most awarded. I was lucky enough to join just as TBWA launched ‘Disruption’ , a way of thinking that was all about creative thinking and how effective it could be. It certainly helped form the way I think today.
Highlights:
CD on Paddy Power, Jameson, entertianment.ie O2 and Playstation Entertaiment.ie - awarded Irish campaign of the year.
Part of the Global TBWA pitch team for Heniken.
Defined and Launched the Jameson Dublin international film festival.
AV Browne - Art Director
I joined AV Browne straight out of Art Collage. I was lucky enough to have a great boss who gave me every opportunity that was going. It was Belfast's most successful agency by a long way, an unorthodox place to start out yes, but a great one.
Highlights:
Created the launch campaign for the new Police Service of Northern Ireland Creative lead on successful pitches for the PSNI, Blackstar, DOE amongst others. Helped make AV Browne the most awarded agency in Ireland.
Freelance:
I’ve always enjoyed freelancing, and I’ve been lucky enough to freelance in some nice places, for some nice people, on nice briefs.
Mother, Mr. President, Fabula, Rapier (acting CD), Naked (acting ECD), Hello People, Inferno, Pretty Green, Harriman Steele TH_NK among others.
Here's what some of the people I've worked for think:
'Freelancers. What a nightmare. You hand over the cash with absolutely no guarantee you’ll get anything back. Sure you’ll get paper, some bad drawing and an assortment of words written down, but nothing remotely useful, nothing to justify to the Finance Director or Client the cost of this extra resource. My approach has always been get the cheapest or most expensive Creatives. Cheapest: Very inexperienced but guaranteed to produce a big pile of paper. Most expensive, (sometimes crazy expensive): Ex-ECD’s or Agency Founders should guarantee a good solution that matches the brief, produced quickly. Mark is an anomaly. Big piles of of paper, on brief, mostly good, not 'crazy expensive’. ' If anyone would like to know more about Mark, my number is 0771 406 8974.'
Dave Dye (Founder - DHM, Hello People & CDD)
'Mark is an exceptional creative. He is a hugely talented art director, an equally capable Creative Director and a highly original thinker. He has a brilliant advertising mind, which always conceives of fresh new ideas that are always much bigger than the media they are intended for. He is also one of the most likeable and unpretentious people in advertising. Mark was a huge asset when he was at Dare, and was always everyone's first choice of creative to work on briefs. He would without question be my first port of call for any freelance.'
Brian Cooper (Ex-Creative Partner at Dare)
'Mark is like a shot in the arm for your brief/Creative development. If you need to get things moving and have lots to think about Mark Black is always a good idea.'
Luke Williamson (Founding Partner at Fabula London, ECD WCRS, one half of Yan & Luke)
'Mark is one of advertising's nice guys, which some people might argue isn't a strong point for a creative director, but I very much think it is. Especially when the rest of the package is of such high quality. Mark brings great ideas, a solid approach to craft and a willingness to work f@@king hard to the table - he's a pleasure to work with and an asset to any creative business. I'd hire him, work with him or go to the pub with him in a shot - each option being as equally low risk and enjoyable as the other.'
Paul Ward (Chief creative operation officer - Naked (former) / Havas)
Some of the clients I’ve work with:
Google, The Sun, BT, Jameson, Nike, OVO, Adidas, entertianment.ie, eBay, PaddyPower, Nescafe, PSNI, Facebook, BMW, Danone, Virgin Atlantic, PlayStation, EA Games, Bacardi, Martini, McDonald’s, Sainsbury's, Barclays, Barclaycard, Adnams, Blackstar.co.uk, Hastings Hotels, EA Games, Huawei, GSK, Molson Coors, Honor, Durex.
Some of the pitches I’ve worked on:
Huawei, PSNI, Blackstar.co.uk, Regus, Nescafe, BMW, Heineken, Pure Leaf, Learn Direct, OVO, Good Energy, Beagle Street, Which?, Adidas, Smithwicks, Kopparberg, entertainment.ie, Bacardi, PAX, H&M, Fab.com, BBC, Ronseal, eBay, Nike, Absolut Vodka, Warner Music, Google, Coke, PaddyPower, Listerine, Jacobs, Lanson, EA Games, Premier Cruises, Facebook, Dewars, Feel Unique, Virgin, Vodafone, Honor.