In this adobo exclusive, Angel Guerrero talks to Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s Sir John Hegarty in Cannes and traces the living legend’s stellar ad career.
UK advertising in the late 1990s and into the 2000s was exemplified by work done by BBH, AMV BDDO, Mother, and Lowe. I recall standouts at the Cannes screenings, when TV and print lorded the advertising medium: the understated humor of the Bachelor’s Supernoodles TV spots by Mother, Guinness “Surfer” by AMV BBDO, BBH’s body twisting Levi’s Engineered Jeans commercial, and Stella Artois’ “Reassuringly Expensive” campaign by Lowe London. I particularly loved the “Red Shoes” spot. Inspiring stuff.
Meanwhile, year after year, the Levi’s work brought the jeans to a new level of cool. The same went for category-breaking ads for Boddingtons beer and a love potion in Lynx with Jennifer Aniston as the house-sitting wife. And who could forget the Microsoft X-box commercial where a woman screamed at childbirth, and the baby sped through life, screaming until he landed as an old man in a grave? Each year was marked by a pool of ads that broke the mold and moved the brands to sell-out status. Put them altogether and you’ll get Bartle Bogle and Hegarty (BBH), the trio of black sheep that couldn’t help but stand out.
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Top: John Bartle and Nigel Bogle flank John Hegarty
Above: Hegarty at his vineyard
BBH in advertising were likened to the Rolling Stones in music. And dare I say it, John Hegarty is its Mick Jagger. He might not agree with me, but like Jagger’s passion for music and performance, Hegarty in his essence, is tireless.
Cool, handsome, and stylish, Hegarty looks comfortable in cigarette-slim pants, a printed shirt and a vest when I met him. He even looked better in his winning style at Cannes this year, when he wore an incredibly attractive blue suit to receive his Lion of St. Mark. Already knighted by the Queen of England in 2007, the award was given to Hegarty in Cannes to celebrate and honor his long and outstanding contribution to creativity in communications.
On receiving the award, Hegarty told adobo, “It is a great honor, and I’m proud of the fact that it’s BBH. Nigel, my partner says, none of us are as good as all of us. So this award is for all of us.”
And where Jagger has groupies, Hegarty has ad men. Multi-award winning ad men and women, to be exact. Among them, David Droga, who deemed Hegarty (and Dan Wieden) as the Ogilvys and Bernbachs of this generation.
An era of start-ups
Hegarty started in Benton & Bowles as an assistant art director where he worked with Charles Saatchi and Ross Cramer. He then moved to Cramer Saatchi in 1967, which later became Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970.
In our interview at the Carlton lobby in Cannes, Hegarty shared of his experiences with Charles Saatchi. After igniting a friendship fueled with respect, the two soon walked towards greater heights when they partnered in an upstart agency. “Actually there are a lot of things wrong with Charles but I’ll tell you something that’s fantastic about him. He made people feel they could do better.”
In 1973 Hegarty moved to TBWA’s new London office to help build the agency, officially cementing his status as co-pioneer to two of the greatest creative firms the world has ever seen. “It’s very different establishing a European agency at a time when the UK had no interest whatsoever in Continental Europe. It was very interesting because at that moment my career went backwards,” he explains.
Not one to give up, Hegarty soldiered on. Soon, he won his first Grand Prix in 1980, as TBWA was voted as Campaign magazine’s Agency of the Year. What’s more the then upstart agency became home to one of the ad agency’s greatest trinities: Nigel Bogle, John Bartle, and of course, Hegarty.
When the world zigs, they zag
In 1982 Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty formed BBH. The agency’s daring business strategy of no pitching made them stand out. The agency’s logo, the Black Sheep was used in the first Levi’s ad for the new black jeans. In the layout the lone black sheep stood out amidst a dense flock of white sheep.
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Levi’s "Black Sheep" (top) and "Laundrette" (above)
Hegarty shared, “It’s turning intelligence into magic (which form the basis for his recently launched book, “Hegarty on Advertising”). It is the foundation of what we’re supposed to do and what we at BBH set down to do in 1982. Get the strategy right and the strategy would liberate the creative process. It is very important. That’s the foundation of everything that we believe in. And that is why is BBH so successful.”
Johnnie Walker was one of BBH’s most iconic works in developing the global brand idea “Keep Walking”. The campaign was adopted by 120 countries, has seen Johnnie Walker’s value and volume sales rise up 48% and 94% respectively and helped deliver over $2.2 billion retail sales.
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Axe "Angel" (top) and Johnny Walker "The Man Who Walked Around the World" (above)
Still, it was Levi’s that stood out to be Hegarty’s crown jewel – a crown BBH had to relinquish after 25 years. Asked about how he felt when this once of powerful brand lost its branding sparkle, Hegarty says, “I think it’s a shadow of the brand it was. I think they’ve lost faith in themselves and who they are and I don’t think they’re finding their voice but I love the brand dearly.”
To date, BBH has won 14 Agency of the Year titles since 2000 and is the only ad agency to win Campaign magazine’s Agency of the Year three years in a row. It has won 34 IPA Effectiveness Awards and has contributed to their clients’ business growth in every case since 1993.
It is also comforting to see BBH founder Nigel Bogle as Group Chairman, while Hegarty remains as Worldwide Creative Director. When asked about the new generation of managers in BBH, Hegarty proudly states, “They are brilliant, they carry the torch on. I think you find these people by having personal, distinctive cultures. They get attracted to the culture. You have to constantly invest in your culture, ensure that it’s protected, ensure that it’s always being looked after. And in that way, you hold on to people.”
This thinking has helped shape his attitude when it comes to sourcing creative talent, opting for people who are excited about new ideas, rather than those who just seek glory or achievement. “Great ideas actually migrate to whatever media there is out there,” he says.
The agency also has a product division called ZAG, their brand invention business which has developed software for the interactive business. “You know in our industry, you have to come in everyday and have a new idea. And we thought we have all this wonderful ideas, should we not develop our own idea so that we can free that revenue stream into the agency, and also experience engaging people?” he rationalizes. And with that Hegarty, together with the rest of BBH, experienced how it was to be in the client’s shoes.
Micro-network after 40 years
BBH has expended into seven offices worldwide – London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, São Paulo, Shanghai and Mumbai – and employs more than 800 staff globally. It is through this network that Hegarty met the most interesting crowds of all, the different consumer cliques. “I think that there is a similar awareness and appreciation of seduction rather than selling. People want to buy rather than just sell things. And I think that has to do with very long cultures, cultures that are quite deeply rooted in tradition”
On the expansion, Hegarty believed in doing work across borders. Their journey started east with Singapore, contrary to many success stories which originated in New York, or some western business center. “We wanted to go to places that have a certain mass. Singapore dealt with the region, and had an element of creative excellence.”
Shortly after learning how to build an office in Singapore, the Asian crash came along. It became the ultimate test of patience for BBH, which stayed true to its long-term goals. They weathered the storm, and soon journeyed to the west – opening offices in America and São Paulo in the process. “We even have an office in Mumbai now, and we’re very excited about whats happening in India. Again, very interesting rich culture, wonderful storytellers, great art and history. It is a very interesting market for us to be in.”
For the love of ads
After 45 years, he still goes to work every day, relishing every moment of it. Often described as an incorrigible optimist, the almost legendary Hegarty still goes to the BBH office in Soho everyday – 8:15 am sharp!
“Day to day, he still has a tremendous passion for what BBH does. He’s not a figurehead, he’s not just the name on the door, he’s not just the ‘ad legend’ …well I suppose he is all those things but along with Nigel Bogle, they are the living, breathing heart and soul of the company,” says Steve Elrick, regional executive creative director of BBH in Asia.
So what keeps the fire burning? For Hegarty, the fuel comes from being surrounded by great creative work, the kind that validates what the past decades have always been about for him. “We have a black sheep as our logo and the world thinks. We put it up everywhere, we make people look at it all the time and say that’s what we’re about. We don’t always get it right; we sometimes get it hideously wrong. We’re constantly look at the work and sometimes it is just not good enough,” he declares.
Needless to say, Hegarty encourages creatives to strive to be different, use talent as a business tool, and understand how to utilize it effectively. He also firmly believes that the thrill of seeing great creative work has a positive effect on a brand’s value, further stating that there is empirical evidence to show the great creative ideas deliver over and above commercial value.
With the metals on his mantle, and the creative world in awe, Hegarty walks forward in search of new adventures. One of them happens in his 125-acre vineyard in Languedoc, South of France. The legendary ad man even quips in his book, that advertising, finally drove him to drink. But just when you thought that the vineyard is his first steps away from the crazy world of ads, he goes full circle to reveal his undying love for brands, and the people he builds it for. “There is regionality. Think of a region and its people, you begin to understand their wine. That’s why an ‘industrial’ wine with no heart is a dead product,” he says.
The same goes for ads, and his undying passion. “Creativity is not an occupation, it’s a preoccupation. You’re on. You’re creative all the time. It’s not a job, it is something you live with, and that’s what makes the difference.”
