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A few weeks back I swapped a 10-year career at Paddy Power (the Irish betting company that’s prone to a bit of mischief) for a chance to roll the dice as head of special ops at Lucky Generals (the London creative company that’s prone to a bit of… similar).
In fact, Paddy Power was Lucky Generals’ first client, way back in 2013 when they jointly hatched a mission to tackle homophobia in British football with the first Rainbow Laces campaign, put together on a shoe-string but jointly bound by fearless ambition, a-shoulder-to-the-wheel attitude and, of course, the agency’s trademark killer creative.
Much of my job at Paddy Power – whether as head of brand or head of mischief – was about corralling, persuading, cajoling (upwards and downwards) and working with diverse groups of people – from LGBT+ representatives to media powerhouses.
Some of these skills I’ll be hoping to bring over the Irish Sea to Luckies’ client base (along with stocks of Tayto crisps) and with a laser-focus on getting work out the door for the audience – because that’s really what matters.
With that in mind, here are five learning from the floor of Paddy Power, not necessarily a peep behind the curtain, but lessons about boldness and how sparks can fly, no matter what your industry:
If you chase consensus, you’ll get mediocrity. This is a line from one-time Benetton director Olivier Toscani from a talk he gave in Dublin. That’s not suggesting you go on rogue missions, but much of PP’s best work came from a select few people making well-informed decisions based on strong insight. It’s so easy to talk an idea into submission going round the houses.
Being a ballsy brand takes a truckload of diligence. At last check, Paddy Power’s parent company Flutter had a turnover of a few billion quid. So to make mischief fly took no short amount of trust, compliance hoops jumped through and, of course, a well-defined vision. But whether you’re a brand big or small, commercial sensitivities always grapple with creativity.
Grow your own. Paddy Power has a super-strong internal creative talent and that continued investment has kept the brand pumping out the hits since 1988. It also tends to collaborate closely with agencies on the creative, rather than just "brief". The magic happens when the agency brings the outside perspective and shreds bias, alongside a savvy in-house team that’s tonally all over the brand.
You’re going to piss off somebody. As long as the legal team, the boss and your customers are happy you’re halfway there. But in an era where one complaint being upheld by the ASA can derail an expensive campaign, then you’re best off making peace with the fact that if you’re chasing fame, you’re going to face criticism. And fame is a mistress worth chasing. 北京赛车pk10s specifically designed to create fame for a brand outperform other campaigns on all business metrics (Effectiveness in Context, Les Binet and Peter Field). Also, psst… from experience, landing a bit of coverage tends to unlock more marketing budget.
Panic slowly. One of Lucky Generals’ best bits of work with Paddy Power was a 2014 World Cup stunt called "Shave the rainforest". Planned to perfection (another big Luckies strength) it wasn’t really kicking off as nature intended. Eventually, it caught fire and became a bit of a classic. Often you need luck, mostly you need a good plan. Trying not to lose your shit when everyone else is flappier than Jordan Pickford is something to work on.
Paul Mallon is a former head of brand marketing at Paddy Power and the current head of special ops at Lucky Generals