The Strategy of Subtraction
I've spent 20 years watching smart people make marketing more complicated than it needs to be. Big agencies. Big briefs. Big teams. Lots of meetings. Occasionally, great work.
More often, a lot of expensive noise.
I started my career in South Africa, worked across five continents, and ended up Creative Director at some of the world's best agencies working with some of the best clients: Samsung, Google, BMW, NZTA, Amnesty International, UNICEF. Over 100 international awards. Gold at Cannes. D&AD Yellow Pencil. Then I joined Google as QA Lead on Bard, the precursor to Gemini. My job was binary: yes or no. Is this good enough or isn't it? That question, it turns out, applies to everything.
I left because I got tired of watching clients get oversold. Agencies are structurally incentivised to inflate the brief — more deliverables, longer retainers, junior teams doing the work while the senior person shows up for the pitch. I work directly with my clients: no agency layer, no markup, no noise. The first client I approached said "We couldn't possibly afford you." They were wrong. And they're still a client.
Get in touch: