Co-founder, Lucky Generals聽
For the second year in a row, Andy Nairn has been named 北京赛车pk10鈥檚 Strategic Planner of the Year. He continues to speak out on a range of vital issues facing the industry, such as diversity, start-up culture and effectiveness.
He advised brands of the need to put action before words, demonstrating this with #BuyYourPubARound, a campaign aimed at saving people鈥檚 locals during the pandemic by encouraging punters to put money behind the bar for some much-needed cashflow. The campaign received national press coverage and inspired a more formal AB InBev campaign.
Judges described Nairn as 鈥渙utstanding鈥. They were particularly impressed by how his creative and strategy work has focused on charitable initiatives, most noticeably for the Co-op, which features emotive campaigns highlighting food poverty and the plight of hungry children. These contributed to the client鈥檚 phenomenal growth, with Co-op鈥檚 market share reaching its highest level in almost two decades.聽
There was other meaningful pro bono work, including for script writer, film director and philanthropist Richard Curtis, aimed at getting people to question where their pensions are invested, and the development of a new brand identity, positioning and advertising for environmental research charity Earthwatch.聽
Nairn made his mark on the diversity front, too, launching recruitment initiative 鈥淭he Barracks鈥, which is aimed at combating a lack of socioeconomic diversity within the industry.聽
Finalists
Martin Beverley, chief strategy officer, Adam & Eve/DDB
Beverley strategically led 15 new business wins across 8 new sectors in 2020 as well as helping to deliver the agency's largest number of campaigns in a year ever. But his influence on the agency in 2020 went above and beyond awards and business wins. He put people鈥檚 wellbeing first and embedded D&I into the heart of the strategy department, while overseeing a team of 33 working from home.聽
Richard Huntington, chief strategy officer, Saatchi & Saatchi
Huntington made some bold strategic moves over 2020, helping Direct Line retire its most effective campaign and replacing it with one that is already outperforming it within six months of launch. This was tempered by more reactive strategic choices, helping the likes of BT and Marie Curie respond to lockdown challenges. Huntington鈥檚 expertise also brought in some major new business.聽
Gen Kobayashi, chief strategy officer, Engine Creative聽
Kobayashi joined Engine Creative at the start of the pandemic. In that time, he has made his mark, bringing together a team of strategists across a broad range of backgrounds including CRM, brand, communications strategy and content. His broader contribution to the industry has included a focus on promoting greater diversity within the strategy discipline.
Michael Lee, chief strategy officer, VCCP
Lee鈥檚 focus on providing escapism, optimism and entertainment during the most challenging months of 2020 led to several highly successful and memorable campaigns, including Meerkat Music鈥檚 Take That virtual reunion and Domino鈥檚 Staycation Domination campaign. He also bolstered the agency鈥檚 performance marketing expertise, hiring the agency鈥檚 first-ever chief data officer.
Dylan Williams, chief strategy officer, Droga5 London聽
Williams helped guide Droga5 London to its strongest-ever annual growth, building on the agency鈥檚 reputation for thought leadership, cutting-edge creativity and commercial effectiveness. There was growth from new business wins and an expansion of work from existing clients including Barclaycard and Amazon, with campaign highlights including the agency鈥檚 first Super Bowl spot 鈥淏efore Alexa鈥 for Amazon.