2012 in Review with... Paul Tullo

TMW's creative partner Paul Tullo talks about creating mischief for April Fools and longing for that Caribbean shoot.

How would you describe the past year, creatively speaking?

For TMW, diverse! As well as creating apps, microsites, websites, games, digital advertising campaigns, eCRM and rich social content, we’ve also developed a cookbook, done some pretty impressive packaging design, developed magazines, made a film about a boxer and even indulged in some traditional direct mail. To succeed these days, you need to be a jack of all trades and a master of all!

What have been your creative highlights of the last 12 months?

Every year we try to do something good and entertaining for April Fool’s Day. It’s a good opportunity to flex our creative muscle. This year we produced a really stunning film for Lynx in which we show a guy trying to get the girl by spraying her with Lynx from his mobile phone, followed by a call to action to download the app. It still surprises me how many people fell for it!

What’s been your own greatest achievement over the last year?

Staying sane, I guess. But sticking with Lynx, we got our Facebook fan base here in the UK up to a million. To celebrate we created a film featuring a Rube Goldberg machine which is activated by a fictional one millionth fan. The chain reaction features a number of iconic references from past Lynx campaigns. The machine and set took three weeks to build and the one-day shoot consisted of 58 takes.

I’m also very proud of our internship programme for young creatives. We’re trying to get more talent into the industry by giving them an organised programme of training and experience of a creative department. We benefit from the ideas of young talented people, and in exchange we pay them for their time. Something I think all agencies should do, after all, we were all there once!

What was your favourite place you visited through work in 2012 and why?

Sadly, I don’t get let out too much. Paris, Geneva and Cannes are the only three cities I visited for work and the latter provided most of the entertainment. It’s been a while since I got to go to a Caribbean shoot….. ah!

What excites you most about working in advertising at the moment?

The thing that I enjoy most is learning new things. There has never been a time in my career when you've needed to be so on top of so much new stuff. Read, listen, attend, absorb and recount. If you’re not up to speed, you’re out of the picture.

Will the economy continue to play a pivotal role in advertising output?

We all like to whinge about the economy, then we phone up to book a table at our favourite restaurant only to be told that it’s completely full. I know that agencies in Madrid and Athens are hurting bad, but here in London we’re pretty lucky; there’s still a lot of work to be had and there are lots of busy agencies doing amazing work. In fact, finding talent is harder than ever with some really talented creatives being poached by other agencies.

If you could give one piece of advice to the creative industry as a whole for 2013, what would it be?

Assume nothing. New things come along like waves on an Atlantic beach. If you drop your guard, you’ll get knocked over by the next wave, however much of a digital native you think you are.

What’s your New Year’s resolution for 2013?

Eat less. Stay focused and keep learning. 

How will you be spending the Christmas break?

Hopefully eating less than I did last year. Then my usual January diet will be less painful.