News
Client Services Director, Vicky Janaway, on stepping into the mystery and enjoying the ride
Those big career decisions; how do we overcome the sense of wanting to make the right choice and avoid that negative self-talk?
Our Client Services Director, Vicky Janaway, talked to Little Black Book about how inspiration can come from anywhere regarding your profession. She discusses how we can truly own our non-linear career stories. All via her source of inspiration, Madonna The Queen of Reinvention.
Read it here
SMARTY shortlisted at Gerety Awards 2023
Our campaign for SMARTY Mobile 'Less Malarkey, More SMARTY’ has been shortlisted in the The Humour Cut : TV/CINEMA, at the The Gerety Awards 2023.
Creative, Bryn Walters featured in ‘Creatives taking London by a storm’
‘London has always been, and will remain for the foreseeable future, one of the knots of the creative world.’
Our creative, Bryn Walters, features in a recent Little Black Book piece, exploring uprising creatives that are making the agency world of London their own.
Read the full article here
Replens and Anusol Shortlisted at APG Awards 2023
We are pleased to announce our campaign for Replens 'Sex Never Gets Old' has been shortlisted in the Creative Strategy category and our campaign for Anusol 'Bum's The Word' has been shortlisted the Long Term Thinking category at the APG Awards 2023.
‘Hacking human nature’ at The Gate of Inspiration
Richard Shotton author and founder of Astroten, visited us at our Gate of Inspiration for ‘Hacking human nature: how applying behavioural science can make your marketing more effective’.
It was a fantastic session exploring how consumer behaviour is shaped by psychological shortcuts. We discussed some of the intriguing ideas from Richard's most recent book, 'The Illusion of Choice'. This looks at both classic behavioural science studies and more recent, lesser-known findings - most of which can easily be applied to your marketing to make it more effective.
CEO Jamie Elliott, on ‘Agency turnaround: don't over think it, just do it’
‘Turning around a business is, in many ways harder than a start-up.’
Our CEO, Jamie Elliott, wrote an insightful article for Campaign about the renaissance of The Gate London and his six -year journey to turn the agency around.
Read the full article via Campaign
Kit Altin, CSO, Global Strategic Planner of the Year 2022
Kit Alitn, CSO was named Global Strategic Planner of the Year at Campaign Global Agency of the Year Awards 2022.
Creative, Hannah Bituin on her ‘Creative Hero’
Our Creative, Hannah Bituin, spoke to Little Black Book about her creative hero aYinka Illori, and the impact of sensing his culture in his work and advocating for better representation.
Read the interview here
CCO, Lucas Peon giving his ‘View from’ for Campaign Magazine
Our Chief Creative Officer, Lucas Peon spoke to Campaign Magazine to introduce the five shortlisted TV spots for this Spring's Thinkbox TV Awards.
Read the article here
Creative, Becky Reynolds on her ‘Creative Hero(es)’
Our Creative, Becky Reynolds, spoke to Little Black Book about her creative hero(es) and the impact the Spice Girls had on her life with unstoppable girl power, body diversity representation, and women supporting women.
Read the interview here
‘Less talk, more action’ at The Gate of Inspiration
Our first Gate of Inspiration of the year 'Less talk, more action. Do away with the diversity BS and truly engage different groups' was such an insightful and important one, with guest speaker Hannah Campbell, Co-founder and MD of One Twelve Agency.
She discussed how important it is for brands and agencies to truly understand their target audiences (with an emphasis on Gen Z), to meet them where they are and how to go about authentically representing different groups to cut through.
MD, Charlotte Wolfenden at the Gerety Managing Directors Talk
Our Managing Director, Charlotte Wolfenden was part of 'The Gerety Awards Talks: Managing Directors'.
She was joined by fellow Managing Directors Susanne Plümecke and Patritia Pahladsingh to discuss their journey into advertising, some of the challenges they are facing in their current roles, the future of the industry and more...
The Gate hires Creative Team
The Gate has hired creative team Hannah Bituin and Becky Reynolds to work across their growing portfolio of clients. Ex-Ogilvy, Iris, and Virtue, they have worked on the Dove Self Esteem Project, tackled food waste with Hellmann’s and promoted sustainable fashion with Comfort. They worked for a variety of brands such as Unilever, Starbucks, Samsung, Diageo and many more.
As a team, they love creating work that are firsts like Dove’s first-ever political work celebrating the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as Dove Deodorant’s first illustration campaign. In-between briefs they are pushing industry boundaries like the Big Taboo that ensures there is a real and fair representation of plus-size women in the industry as well as shining a light on the 200% increase of Asian Hate with a proactive social campaign. In her spare time, Hannah makes fashion inspiration TikToks and is an active member within the East and South-East Asian community, while Becky is a YouTube influencer, creating content from fashion and beauty.
Lucas Peon, CCO of The Gate, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Hannah and Becky to the team. They are two outstanding creatives, hugely talented and ambitious, with a unique perspective. Their style and their incredible drive to generate great ideas is exciting. We can't wait to see their influence on our creative product and the impact they will have on our projects.”
Hannah and Becky said: “We have seen The Gate grow and win some incredible accounts over the past couple of years, such as their recent Less Malarkey, More Smarty campaign, and Nobody is Normal. Not only do they push the boundaries with their campaigns, but they also create beautifully insightful and meaningful work. On a personal level, Becky’s late grandmother took part in their Colourful Life project a few years ago, a personalised colouring book to help dementia patients relive treasured memories. We look forward to continuing the great creative work coming out of The Gate.”
Read more here
CEO Jamie Elliot on a defence of adland's appeal to young talent
Our CEO, Jamie Elliott, took part in a debate at The IPA's Talent and Diversity conference 2023.
He was opposing the motion "This house believes that adland is in danger of losing its mojo to young people.’
This is the argument he made .
(A reminder that this is a debating argument not an entirely personal view: although here is plenty in here he does agree with, there is also plenty that the industry needs to do better to attract and retain young talent.)
One evening after school, eating beans on toast in front of the telly in the sleepy Lancashire seaside town of my teenage years … I had a revelation:
A young man stripped to his boxer shorts in a packed launderette to Marvin Gaye’s ‘I heard it through the grapevine’ - it was an ad for Levis 501s. The shrink to fit jeans.
Ludicrously cool, it became famous, talked about … and I knew, right then, that that was the industry for me. Its mojo was clear, it was cool and glamorous – cool people, images, films, brands.
Despite being desperately uncool, that’s the industry that I joined in 1998. And, it looks nothing like the industry we’re debating now. Massive technological change has seen to that. What was simple is now complex and in constant flux:
- A telly in every sitting room has become a 4G phone in every hand;
- 6 analogue channels has become 100s of digital ones;
- Output that was static, broadcast is now dynamic, immersive and ever more personalised
What used to be creative, media, PR and direct agencies, is now also comms planning, performance, social, influencer, deep digital and tech companies, purpose agencies, digital transformation shops, shopper, CX and UX specialists and studios for this, that and the other.
Where the industry was one thing. It now contains multitudes … and attracts them too, contrary to the motion.
Despite uncompetitive pay and sporadic recruitment drives, this industry has never attracted more young people. Fact.
What was once the preserve of English Lit and Art School grads, now houses a diverse gang of mathematicians, data and computer scientists, tech geeks, folk with marketing or advertising degrees, designers skilled in all sorts of media as well as the liberal and fine artists.
This expanding industry has never appealed to more young people. Fact. And, why won’t that change … why is there no danger of it losing its mojo to young people?
Well, one evening after work last week, eating beans on toast with – this is 20 years of progress, a dash of tabasco sauce - I had a revelation (seemz beanz meanz revelationz).
Two things about this industry – it struck me - endure through all the change and drive its timeless appeal.
The first is the magical, wonderful space it occupies at the intersection of culture and commerce.
This magical space constantly morphs, reflecting the culture of the day and its interplay with the ever-changing commercial entities that want to be a part of it – what was the concept of cool - film, image and music - for one generation becomes Tik Tok influenced video, AR, tackling societies taboos and finding purpose for another.
The intersection of culture and commerce will always be a place of thrilling variety and involvement in the big conversations of the time.
The second enduring quality is that this is unequivocally a young person’s industry. Though it has nearly doubled in size in the past 15 years, it has remained steadfastly young in profile, consistently just 6% are - like me - over 50 and a whopping 40% are under 30.
This means that what young people want is what this industry becomes, much more quickly than in other industries. And, as long as young people, the dominant force within this industry, keep driving change in line with their generation’s values and as long as it keeps its place at the intersection of culture and commerce, there is no danger of this industry losing that appeal; that all important mojo.
CD Rob Bovington part of the Film Gold jury at Creative Circle Awards.
Rob Bovington, Creative Director, has been selected to be part of the film gold jury for Creative Circle Awards 2023, a global advertising & marketing awards show run by creative people for creative people to recognise work that works.
The Gate hires Senior Copywriter
The Gate London has hired award-winning Senior Copywriter / Creative Director Daniel Headey to work on their blossoming portfolio, with his main emphasis to be on their financial and B2B roster.
Ex-Saatchi, Ogilvy and ELVIS, he brings a wealth of experience from every creative sector. In addition to this, for the last 10 years Dan has been successfully helping a plethora of agencies on freelance basis, including AnalogFolk, IRIS, M&C Saatchi, and direct clients such as Rolls Royce. Among many other projects, he has created a Google Street View game for Virgin Trains; the first OOH campaign for LinkedIn Sales Navigator; a Halloween App for Sainsbury’s and, more recently, naming and launching a sports data platform for the Microsoft Group.
Lucas Peon, CCO of The Gate, said: “Dan is an extremely gifted and unique copywriter with a special talent for conceptual creativity. I can't wait to see him elevate our work and help us take our creative product to new heights. We're thrilled to have Dan join our team.”
Dan Headey said, “The Gate has inspired me to rip the ‘Balaclava of Freelance’ off and belong to something again. They are doing excellent work, winning clients left, right and centre and are all nice people. What’s not to like? I’m ready to walk through walls…and build something.”
The Gate climbs at the top of the Annual School Report by Campaign Magazine
The Gate scores a 7 at Campaign Magazine UK’s Annual School Report.
Read the report
CSO Kit Altin shortlisted Global strategy Leader of the Year 2022
Kit Altin, Chief Strategy Officer, has been shortlisted for the second year in a row as Strategic Leader of the Year by Campaign Magazine, at the Campaign Global Agency of the Year 2022 Awards.
Jamie Elliot, CEO on ‘View of the Unimaginable Future (Amongst Other Things)’
Our CEO, Jamie Elliott , wrote an insightful article for LBB on his recent SXSW 2023 experience.
His article ‘View of the Unimaginable Future (Amongst Other Things)’ reports on the key trends worth pondering from his future-gazing trip to Austin.
Read the full article via LBB
The Gate x MSQ SXSW 2023 Takeover
The Gate powered by MSQ took over SXSW 2023, to soak up in the latest trends. Throughout the week Jamie Elliott, CEO and Kit Altin, CSO, reported on the hottest topics and on the inspiring sessions that caught their eye and surprised them during the festival.
Jamie Elliott, CEO at The Gate SXSW Takeaways
This year Jamie particularly enjoyed listening to both sides of the argument regarding AI. The good, the bad, the utopian and…the dystopian.
He loved seeing Jonah Peretti from BuzzFeed talking on ‘The AI-Powered Future of Creativity’ and Nick Chatrath discussing ‘How to Think – and Lead – in Ways AI Can’t’.
Kit Altin, CSO at The Gate: SXSW Takeaways
For Kit the trend that really caught her eye was the power of active collaboration. Completely different talents, disciplines and types of people coming together to create amazing developments: such as creative and scientists, bacteria and governments, authors of novels and TV show-runners, or artists working together with AI to create magic.
The Gate x MSQ at SXSW