'Creativity Matters' Podcast: Mark Perkins, Creative Director at W

Welcome to the first ever Creative Moment podcast. Hope you enjoy it, if you do please do leave us a decent review and subscribe on iTunes.

We’re going to be interviewing some of the UK's most successful Creative Directors over the next few months - so welcome to the show.

This week I'm thrilled to be catching up with Mark Perkins, creative director of W Communications. If you look at the most famous consumer PR campaigns in the UK over the last 10 years or so, most of them (not all) have come from a very small number of PR creatives, (probably less than 10) and Mark is undoubtedly a member of this pretty unique club.

Here is a summary of what Mark and I discuss:

  • How Mark showed the power of creative persuasion at a young age by getting his parents to buy a dog!
  • Why Mark learnt how to be shouted at when he worked at The Sun as Kelvin Mackenzie's runner
  • How Mark turned away from a career in journalism to a career in public relations
  • Mark tells us about his first PR job - in a windowless office, with a boss who was having a breakdown and smoked 80 a day!
  • How he managed to get a job at The Red Consultancy despite a car crash interview by writing an assessment of his interview performance to the then ceo
  • Why Mark almost left public relations in search of greater creative freedom
  • How his time at Cow PR shaped the rest of his career
  • Why Mark believes he sees things through a different lens
  • How his time at a startup has changed his approach to work
  • Why Mark left creative shop Cow to go to the more corporate MHP
  • Why Mark, while he was at MHP, wanted to “knock Mischief off their perch.”
  • How the multiple award winning Christmas Tinners campaign almost didn't get included in the pitch for the Game account
  • Mark talks us through the genesis of The NHS Missing Type campaign
  • Mark tells us why he believes the potential for creative public relations is so huge
  • What 2 questions all creatives need to ask when they come up with a campaign
  • Why speed and agility of the idea is now critical
  • Mark asks whether the story has become more important than the art in creativity
  • Why clients now want more ideas for spend
  • How modern technology has made it easier to bring an idea to life
  • Where Mark gets his creative ideas from
  • What Mark believes is the role of a creative director
  • Why brainstorms don’t normally result in high quality ideas
  • Why creatives must forget about the brand and think about the audience
  • Why Mark links entrepreneurship and creativity
  • How to apply discipline and rigour to creativity, not jazz hands and wacky ideas!
  • Mark identifies his top 2 favourite creative campaigns that he’s worked on - and the worst campaign he’s ever worked on
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