Behind The Billboard Dan Dawson, Hugh Todd

Episode #72 features Rachel Miles, BAFTA award-winning creative and Creative Director at Meanwhile Campaign Start-up Agency of the Year 2024.

Podcast episode #71 features the super talented Steve Hudson.

Not only is Steve one of the industry’s most awarded creatives, he’s a brilliant director and also the founder of The Power of Advertising (TPOA) platform.

Can you project the two moons from Mars into the night sky? Can you sell over 1,000,000 lights in the world’s tallest building? Can you build an underwater mobile phone store to sell a waterproof phone?

These are just some of the questions, answered by MullenLowe MENA CCO Paul Banham on episode #70, where we take a deep dive into life as a creative in Dubai.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-69-paul-brazier

Episode #69 features Paul Brazier and his brilliant billboards. The Economist, Guinness, Think!, Aer Lingus, Wrangler, Museum of Childhood, Walkers, Cancer Research…every one of them a banger. Paul has created and presided over some of the greatest work of the past 30 years. And he’s spent the best part of these years at @amvbbdo, as Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, CCO and Chairman. During this time, Paul and his partners (@psouter and @Nick Worthington) and his creative department have amassed a mountain of awards, including an incredible 239 entries into D&AD, which must have gone some way to him becoming D&AD President in 2010. We hear Paul’s side of the ‘Industrial Secrets for Sale’ billboard for The Economist. It’s a real lesson in craft, never giving up, ending up with a jaw-dropping piece of work. Then there are the celebrity tales from the Aer Lingus campaign - Roy Keane and Vinnie Jones don’t disappoint. The Think! campaign saw Paul & Nick go on a police patrol to witness the harsh reality of how drink driving ruins lives. We also heard about Paul’s favourite posters - ‘It’s Frothy man’ and the entire portfolio of Mark Denton @mdentonesq which Paul lovingly brought to life in his own homage. Thank you Paul for your generosity in telling these amazing stories.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-68-dan-and-hugh

Episode #68 features two titans of the industry, huge characters with oodles of charm, awards and humility. Yep, we’re talking to ourselves, finding out what’s going on in each of our worlds.

We covered the following:

Watch advertising in Geneva Airport
Three dimensional screen mapping in Barcelona and New York
The delayed launch of Hugh’s novel
The billboards at the end of our streets
News of upcoming guests including Rachel Miles and the billboards hidden within her brilliant BBC Olympics promo
Digital ads on the subway
The 280ft billboard in the Oculus NYC
Flapjacks
And of course Jeremy Allen White’s pants (which Dan spotted will soon be usurped by Idris Elba’s suit)

We do hope this isn’t the equivalent of The Fly episode from Breaking Bad. Or worse still the finale of Beef. We’re just two blokes trying our best. Normal service will resume next week.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-67-matt-lever

We’re back folks. Dry BtB Jan is over. And we’re starting the year with a belter in Matt Lever.

Multi talented.
Multi awarded.
Funny.
Charming.
Loves a big idea.
Loves a gag.
And loves the in-house BtB flapjacks.

We spent a leisurely hour with Matt chatting billboards, from his very first one for Macallan that he bizarrely spotted while on holiday in New York…to DOH anti-smoking, Tfl, Trident Gum, Gym Box and closing on Breast Cancer Now and the perfectly pitched topical work that ran during the Women’s World Cup.

Listen out too for Matt talking about The Chat - the UK’s first drama series to play out on a messaging app group chat on WhatsApp. An audacious idea which not only garnered many awards and much PR, but more importantly has helped women cope with the disease.

Matt, thanks so much again for coming in and sharing, it was a real pleasure.

And for those after extra content, we’re also posting on the website Matt’s good copywriting doc, which is basically a reminder of what great work looks like.