Stuart Wilson
Creative Director, JWT London...
Website: jwt.co.uk
Twitter: @JWT_London
Facebook: facebook.com/JWT-London
Twitter: @stuwilson
JWT London is an integrated creative agency of international imagination. Our heritage of innovation, our scale and experience of the world, along with the quality of our people, defines who we are.
When and why did you join?
I joined JWT London in January 2009 after spending the previous six months as a freelancer. My opportunity came about through a digital resource gap within the Shell team.
What do you actually do?
My time is split 50/50 as a main agency senior creative resource and creatively managing the employer branding and recruitment advertising space for clients such as Shell and HSBC.
How did you get started in the industry?
I left formal education at the first opportunity and at 16 years old took one of Margaret Thatcher's YTS scheme apprenticeships with a Lakeland Sign Maker for £27.50 a week. The Lake District was beautiful but the weather was equally brutal and within a year I was back indoors as a Junior Artworker at the in-house design studio of a Windermere construction company. One day in 1989, the MD's PA - Christine, took me to one side and single-handedly inspired me to go back into formal education. That one conversation pointed me in this direction.
What would you be doing if you weren't in the industry?
I think I would enjoy helping other people as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.
What's your current favourite piece of creative work?
Redbull Stratos.
What do you love about your job?
Because of the proliferation of high-speed distribution networking such as Facebook and Twitter (generally labelled social media), we as creative professionals are living in a golden era of real-time, or at least near real-time creativity. For example, in the morning I can have an idea sat on my train into work and give or take a client's sign-off within a single working day, something fresh and relevant is shared amongst many people with enough motivation attributed for them to enjoy it and maybe encourage them to pay it forward.
If you could give one piece of advice for someone starting out, what would it be?
Nothing in this world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not. Genius will not. Education will not. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge 1872-1933.
If you have one Super power what would it be?
To see ahead.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Fulfilled.
What was your worst job and what did you learn from it?
In the last few years, changing my children's nappies has reinforced the adage; you really cannot polish a turd.
You have already worked with some amazing brands, who would you like to work with next?
I genuinely cannot wait for the internet of things. I want to work on something completely new and emerging which is entirely of it's own volition. The new category, the new brands, the entire human service. I have a suspicion whatever it is, it'll become the new traditional advertising one day.
Your favourite app or website?
From what I've read and understand, apps are supposed to be 'useful, useable and delightful' by doing one thing well (as opposed to doing many things combined somewhat less well). I think context plays a role when apps are in transit so it's difficult to tell you my out-and-out favourite. I love my desktop apps and websites when I'm on my desktop and I love the apps on my mobile when I'm out running, walking or on public transport. I love the apps and utilities on my tablet when I'm lounging in front of the TV. I especially love my TV apps when my wife and children have occupied my laptop, my mobile and the tablet. But if I could tell you my favourite i-destination, the one I have always returned to irrespective of platform or channel, I would say bbc.co.uk/news.
Pinterest or Twitter?
Twitter. Good for a chat. Good for a broadcast. Good for all manner of emergencies. It's not often the human race develops a new carriage for communicating on this scale of adoption. Telephone (and telephone lines) were the last such step change #IMHO.
