Guy Moore, founding partner at Creative Coalition, talks creativity, Stannah, and the evolution of advertising

Creative Moment's Tom Hall speaks to industry luminary Guy Moore about where his advertising journey began, his recent work for Stannah with partner Pete Bracegirdle, and how they have changed the perception of the over-50s market.

Tom Hall (TH): Guy, let’s start with your background. Can you give us a quick overview of your journey in the industry and some key campaigns you’ve worked on?

Guy Moore (GM): Sure. I started in advertising when I was about 19. I left college in Doncaster and landed my first job at J. Walter Thompson as an art director. Not that I really knew what an art director was at the time! But I quickly found myself working with some of the biggest names in the industry, including photographer Terence Donovan, who used to give me a lift in his open-top Rolls-Royce.

From there, I was headhunted by Leagas Delaney when I was about 22, which is where I really started to learn my craft. Then I moved to Still Price Court, a hot agency at the time, followed by Yellow Hammer, which was probably before your time, Tom.

Eventually, I ended up at Simons Palmer, working with Mark Denton and Chris Palmer. That was a phenomenal agency, and it’s where we created some of the best work of my career, including the famous 'Parklife' campaign for Nike Football featuring Eric Cantona.

TH: I am old enough to remember that one.

GM: It was a great time! Later, I ran my own agency, which was doing well until 9/11 hit, and we, like many others, suffered. We were bought out, and I moved to Leo Burnett, where my other big piece of work was for McDonald's. At the time, it was struggling after the backlash from Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Super Size Me’.

It was being hammered over obesity and unhealthy eating, and its sales had plummeted. My writing partner, Tony Malcolm, and I created the 'Just Passing By' campaign, which led to a 500% increase in sales. It was so successful that McDonald's Canada called me up, and I spent 18 months in Toronto working on its version of the campaign.

Since then, I’ve freelanced at various agencies, including VCCP, and eventually co-founded Creative Coalition, which has been running successfully for four and a half years now.

TH: And how long has Stannah been a client of yours?

GM: A few years now. When we first started working with them, we wanted to change the way stairlifts were advertised. A lot of the old ads were condescending, treating older people as if they were fragile or helpless.

My mother-in-law, who’s 85, lives with us, and she was a big help in understanding the audience. She told me she’d rather have a stairlift than move to a bungalow because she sees the upstairs of her house as her escape, a space for peace and quiet. That insight shaped our entire approach.

The first poster we did featured an elderly lady giving a bit of a stern look when her son-in-law casually mentions that bungalows are nice. It’s about being honest and relatable and treating the audience with respect. Stannah had been the butt of a lot of jokes online, with memes showing stairlifts crashing through attic windows and all sorts of nonsense. We wanted to change that perception.

TH: Do you think advertising for the older demographic has improved over the years?

GM: It’s getting better, but there’s still a lot of condescension in ads aimed at older people. With Stannah, we recognised that the audience isn’t just the person using the stairlift but also their family members who might be purchasing it for them. That’s why our ads aim to resonate with both groups.

TH: Looking at the wider market, are there any recent adverts that have impressed you?

GM: The Apple AirPods ad, the five-minute video with Pedro Pascal. It’s beautifully done, directed by Spike Jonze, and has great choreography, colours, and storytelling. We live in a world where people say attention spans are short, but this ad proves that if something is engaging, people will stick with it.

I read an article recently that put it well: "People don’t have short attention spans. It’s your marketing that has a short interest span." Clients always worry about keeping things short, getting their logo in within three seconds—but if you just make something entertaining, people will watch.

TH: That’s a great point. With the rise of social media, have you had to adapt your creative approach?

GM: Within reason. You still need a strong idea—just front-loading a logo isn’t the answer. I resist formulas that say you must structure things a certain way. If the idea is strong, it will work.

TH: There’s been a shift in how brands present themselves over the years. In the ’90s, there was a lot of brashness and more of a ‘worship’ of brands and celebrities, who were more untouchable at the time. Do you think that’s changed?

GM: Yes and no. People still like nice things, but they don’t necessarily shout about them. In the ’90s, brands were more aspirational. Now, advertising is more about relatability. Back then, we had agency giants like Collett Dickenson Pearce making ads better than the TV shows themselves, people actually looked forward to ad breaks. That’s not the case anymore because a lot of ads today just aren’t entertaining.

TH: Why do you think that is?

GM: A mix of factors. Clients have become more involved in the creative process, sometimes to the detriment of the work. Back in the day, they trusted agencies to deliver. Now, they want to tweak every frame, which often kills creativity. Also, the industry is so focused on short-term results and bottom-of-the-funnel marketing that it forgets about brand-building. We need to bring back risk-taking and creativity.

TH: Who is getting it right?

GM: That Twix ad with the two bears talking about twins made me laugh. It’s rare to see genuinely funny ads these days.