THE RICK BRIM SCHOOL OF CREATIVITY

Adam & EVE/DDB’S Richard Brim, despite being at the creative helm of the world’s most-awarded agency, dislikes the limelight and believes ‘all teams should hate advertising’. Brittaney Kiefer investigates

Why all creatives should hate advertising and how Christmas is now his ‘thing’

When he looks at his career, Richard Brim considers his Christmas advertising to be his proudest achievement. The irony of this is not lost on the Adam & EVE/DDB chief creative officer, who describes himself as a “nice Jewish boy from Manchester”.

“Christmas has become my thing,” Brim says and, in a way, the festive ad is also what made A&E/DDB. The agency that turned John Lewis’ Christmas campaign into a cornerstone of the season has kept its own winning streak going into 2017. It was named Agency of the Year at the British Arrows last week and was the second-most-awarded agency globally at D&AD in April. In 2016, it was crowned Campaign’s Advertising Agency of the Year for the third consecutive time and was the world’s most-awarded agency, according to The Gunn Report, with a prize haul including two Cannes Grands Prix.

But the agency and Brim, who took over the creative helm from co-founder Ben Priest last year, are entering a new phase. Brim is among A&E/DDB’S next generation of leaders, promoted alongside Tammy Einav, Mat Goff and Alex Hesz when three of the founders took group roles to grow the shop into a micronetwork. The agency opened in New York last year to serve new client Samsung and, since then, Brim has spent a lot of time travelling between London and the new office in Lower Manhattan, which has about 20 employees.

Now that the shop has planted one foot outside the UK, the pressure is on him to continue stoking the creative fire that has made A&E/ DDB the country’s hottest agency. Brim claims the “shape of the work we’re doing is different now” and he is determined to keep pushing the envelope.

Writing in Campaign earlier this year, A&E/ DDB group chief strategy officer David Golding said the industry was splitting in two, with the companies that create culture separating from those that make marketing collateral driven by data. He placed their agency in the former category and Brim agrees: “Advertising at its best should be part of culture. People who are just waking up and saying that – it’s bullshit. It has been like that from day one – we just have more tools now.”

He points to examples such as A&E/DDB’S H&M 2016 Christmas ad, which was directed by Wes Anderson. This year, Danny Boyle’s

T2 Trainspotting repurposed footage from A&E/DDB’S award-winning “Shoplifters” ad for Harvey Nichols. Tesco recently ordered three million white Skittles packets, which the agency created last year for a Pride in London campaign. “Everyone is whinging on about entertainment but we actually do it,” Brim says. “I’m as proud of that – if not prouder – than I am of [John Lewis’ 2016 Christmas ad] ‘Buster’ because it’s much harder to do.”

Brim leads a 60-strong creative department, which comprises more traditional teams as well as those who “hate advertising”, he says. “All teams should hate advertising. That breed of people who love a 30-second TV ad – I never meet people like that any more. You’re not born loving advertising, you’re born loving ideas or solving problems. My job is to make sure people have fun doing it.”

Einav, the joint chief executive, describes Brim as “a force of energy” who never sits still and encourages teams by using his favourite adjective – “ace”. “He’s really involved in the work but has a nice lightness of touch,” she says. “There’s no ego.”

Daniel Fisher, Brim’s former creative partner, who is now executive creative director at The Martin Agency London, calls his old colleague “a people’s creative director”. “He’s very anti the whole big-cheese ECD thing, with the big office and his awards displayed on the shelf,” Fisher says. “He’s a genuine human being and always finds time for people, treating everyone – from placement teams to star creatives – the same.”

Brim’s leadership philosophy is to give teams autonomy and “take away problems”. His goal is for every creative to end the year with at least one piece of work they’re proud of. “Awards are brilliant but we can’t take them too seriously,” he says. “Protecting the department from that anxiety is my job.” Despite all of A&E/DDB’S accolades, Brim “hates the limelight”. He shies away from the image of a creative leader revered as a demigod. “We sell stuff, we’re not rock stars,” he says. “That’s liberating as a creative. It’s not a bad thing, selling stuff – it’s a basic human behaviour. It’s only advertising, so let’s just do it the best way we can.”