Scott Bedford

1.0 | Latest news

Jul 08 | Mercedes-Benz "Bend" a finalist at Cannes Lions

Great to get some work shortlisted at the world's premier advertising festival.
View "Bend" banner

Mar 08 | Mazda2 "Close-up" a finalist at New York Festivals

International recognition for a nicely executed expandable skyscraper.
View "Close-up" banner

Jan 08 | Mercedes-Benz "Bend" wins NMA Campaign of the month

A nice way to start the year. A deceptively simple expandable banner for Mercedes-Benz vans is chosen as New Media Age's Campaign of the Month.
View "Bend" banner Download PDF of the NMA review (5mb)

2.0 | Profile

Introduction

I describe myself as a conceptually driven online creative, with senior management experience, and an advertising background gained at some of the world’s largest networks. I'm also a self-starter who is motivated by big ideas and the desire to push the boundaries of online advertising.

And as an aside, I spent 10 years working in Cape Town, but am not South African, despite constantly being confused for one (apparently I have a slight accent, but I don't believe it).

2005 - present | Syzygy London - Creative Director

At present I am the Creative Director of Syzygy London where I am reponsible for the creative output of the agency. I am also responsble for raising the profile of Syzygy within the industry and successfully competing for new business.

With this comes all the normal management responsibilities, including forming part of the senior management team and looking after the creative department.

However, my main focus is the development of the agency’s comms (advertising) offering across its prestigous brands; Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Citroen, Channel 4, Harvey Nichols and the Design Council.

One of my key achievements was winning Syzygy its first international creative award - a medal at the New York Festivals.

2004 | Agency.com London - Creative Lead

Initially tasked with creatively leading the massive BT online advertising account, and later Dulux, my remit expanded to that of Creative Director up until the iTraffic merger in December 2004. My responsibilities involved ensuring a high quality conceptual product was delivered, managing the creative team and working with senior management to improve processes.

After the merger of Agency.com’s high profile sister agency iTraffic, I continued working as both a manager and creative lead across a whole range of high profile accounts that also included Ladbrokes, BA, NSPCC and Cahoot.

Most notable successes included key contributions (conceptually, proactively and persuasively) to the Dulux ‘Colour Chemistry’ and NSPCC ‘Help us stop it’ campaigns which won at Cannes, One Show and the New York Festivals.

2003 | Proximity London - Senior Online Designer

Working on some of the UK’s largest brands such as Royal Mail, Shell, Panasonic, Whiskas and Department of Transport, my main responsibility was to generate distinctive online design and advertising solutions.

Notably, I encouraged clients to push the boundaries and embrace the use of interactivity, the online launch campaign for Panasonic’s X-70 mobile phone and some of my work for Whiskas Kitten being successful examples of this.

2001 | Carlton Interactive - Senior Online Designer

As lead designer I managed a four person design team while overseeing the design of jamba.co.uk and a number of large TV media brands such as ‘Survivor’ and ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’.

Key achievements included helping Global E-missions win one of the broadcast industry's most prestigous awards - a 2001 Broadcast Award for the Best Use of New Media (beating Big Brother to second place). My last project, a website for ITV’s Starfinder, a reality show for kids, picked up a 2004 BAFTA Interactive award for best TV/Film website.

2000 | Forward Slash - Senior Online Designer

My main task was to create engaging and compelling online advertising that stood apart from other advertising in the industry sector.

1999 | Publicis Cape Town - Senior Art Director

As part of a senior team I was responsible for some of South Africa’s largest brands, Pro-Nutro and Viceroy Brandy amongst others. Working in all areas of advertising from BTL promotions to television and print, I later became involved in trying to set up a web design department with the aim of developing ATL concepts online.

1997 | FCB Cape Town - Art Director

At this creatively driven agency I produced innovative thinking for brand leaders such asGordons Gin, Bacardi, Hard Rock Cafe Rothmans cigarettes, Vodacom and Sun Air.

Other positions

3.0 | Creative philosophy

The importance of creativity

Creative advertising is effective advertising - they are not mutually exclusive (despite what many clients and account managers may think). Equally, one could say a creative experience (coining a popular term at the moment) is an effective experience - the priciple remains the same.

An ECD once told me that the most important thing to have in your portfolio was effective work - I was amused by this, as it seemed to indicate that even he believed there was a distinction between what is creative and what is effective.

Clearly this attitude stems from people's mis-understanding of the word creative. I get the distinct impression that many people in our industry believe "creative" implies whacky, quirky, off-brief, endulgent, irrelevant and so on. In some ways this is not a surprise, as this word that has so many meanings and uses, for example it's possible to construct a sentence like this: The creatives in creative create creative creative.

So what does "creative" mean? Well firstly, it has absolutely nothing to do with "fairy-dust" (a past colleague's description of "creative"). It simply means relevant and unexpected.

A communication has to be on-brief, on-brand and on-target (relevant). However, for it to be truly effective, it also has to be unexpected. It needs to be able to cut-through all the clutter and noise, and it won't do that by being the same, it needs to be different (unexpected) and the more unexpected the greater the impact and cut-through.

If you look at the image above (a copy of a slide from the creative induction I give to new recruits) you can see I also highly value single-mindedness and craft excellence.

A great idea, however relevant and unexpected, will benefit massively from being single-minded. Consumers are time poor, with the attention span of a gold fish, therefore the more focussed and simple (single-minded) your communication is the better chance they will "get it". In the same way, poor "craft" can ruin what otherwise might be great work, so there are no excuses for bad design, poor interaction and weak copy.

4.0 | Portfolio

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Introduction

Below you'll find examples of my work grouped into convenient categories. I'd suggest working through the Campaigns section first as it contains most (although not all) of the material from the other sections.

4.1 | Campaigns

Go your own way - Mazda6
Online extension of the underwater themed, "Go your own way", above-the-line campaign | more
Go your own way - microsite

It's fit - Mazda2
Online extension of the music and fitness themed, "It's fit", above-the-line camapign | more
Close-up - banner Big night out - microsite

Help us stop it! - NSPCC
A purposefully hard-hitting campaign aimed at getting men to donate
Shaking - MPU Scared - MPU Punchbag - Skyscraper

Catch it - Mazda6 MPS
A simple campaign focussed on the Mazda6 MPS's superior power and torque
Torque - banner Gone - email Catch it - microsite

Industrial Espionage - Design Council
The Design Council's Fact Finder Tool is the 'legal' way for businesses to get a competitive edge...
Shredder - skyscraper Desktop - skyscraper Spy-cam - MPU Torch - banner

How smart are you? - smart
An online campaign (and competition) designed to address common misconceptions about smart cars
Nut - banner Reptile - banner Camel - banner How samrt are you? - microsite

Girl's know best - Mazda2
A spoof dating campaign (aimed at women) which continues the offline "war of the sexes" strategy
Date of the month - banner Perfect date - email Girls know best - microsite

Colour Chemistry - Dulux
A banner campaign promoting Dulux's understanding of colours
Escape - overlay Fashion - overlay Hero - skyscraper Trapeze - overlay Lost - roadblock

Make more of your home - BT Broadband
A banner campaign designed to highlight the benefits (and not just the price) of Broadband from BT
Bill - sky Jim - banner Jack - banner Ben - banner Jones - banner Pen - banner Trev - banner

Success - BT Student Broadband
An irreverent campaign aimed at advertising BT's broadband package to university students
Stairs - skyscraper Boat - overlay Bling - expandable banner Deal - expandable skyscraper

It's amazing - BT evening calls
A quirky and left-field way of promoting BT's cheap calls (5.5p)
Viral game Transvision hoarding (1.5mb)

Run Sakata - Mazda Sakata range
Depicted as trainers (sporty & affordable) in print - this theme is continued online with a gentle Nike parody
Run Sakata - email Run Sakata - microsite

4.2 | Banners

Close-up - Mazda2
A nice "simple" close-up: our reponse to the client's request to "just focus on the product"
Close-up - expandable skyscraper

Bend - Mercedes-Benz
A banner highlighting the benefits and cost-effectiveness of Mercedes-Benz vans
Bend - expandable banner

Compare - Mazda Furano
A comparative ad that uses humour to emphasise the Mazda Furano's superior array of features
Compare - expandable leaderboard

Torque - Mazda6 MPS
Making the best use of a tricky media format while advertising the Mazda6 MPS's superior power
Surprise - roadblock

Cones - Mazda MX-5
Unexpected interaction helps to get across the MX-5's great handling
Cones - expandable skyscraper

Which ever way you look at it - Citroen C6
Distinctive animation helps support the Citroen C6's "strikingly different" proposition
Spin - MPU Spin - Skyscraper Spin - Expandable

How smart are you? - smart
Part of an online campaign designed to address common misconceptions about smart cars
Nut - expandable baner Reptile -expandable banner Camel - expandable banner

Help us stop it! - NSPCC
A purposefully hard-hitting campaign aimed at getting men to donate
Shaking - MPU Scared - MPU Punchbag - Skyscraper

ICT - BT Network Solutions
The online version of St. Lukes' epic TV ad which depicted real objects as "data streams" flying around a city
Simplicity - expandable skyscraper

Colour Chemistry - Dulux
A banner campaign promoting Dulux's understanding of colours
Escape - overlay Fashion - overlay Hero - skyscraper Trapeze - overlay Lost - roadblock

Choose more - BT Anytime
A well executed idea that was comprimised by the clients changes to copy
Grease - banner Oliver - banner Elvis - banner Vindaloo - banner

Encyclopaedia - BT Broadband
A simple banner aimed at highlighting the educational benefits of getting broadband from BT
Encyclopaedia - banner

Skateboarder - BT Text
A standard banner which uses interaction to clearly demonstrate the benefits of BT Text
Skateboarder - banner

Kitten's eyes - Whiskas
Cat owners are keen to learn more about their pets - here they get to see the world through the eyes of a kitten
Kitten's eyes - overlay

Right impression - Royal Mail
The benefits of using the Royal Mail's professional "direct mail" online service are made clear
Pain - banner Cock 'n bull - banner Iffy - banner

This Way - Mother City Tours
An ad aimed at tourists visiting Cape Town
This Way - overlay

4.3 | Microsites

Go your own way - Mazda6
Online extension of the underwater themed, "Go your own way", above-the-line campaign
Go your own way - microsite

Big night out - Mazda2
Online extension of the music and fitness themed, "It's fit", above-the-line camapign
Big night out - microsite

12 second thriller - Mazda MX-5
Make your own 12 second thriller by mixing different movie genres and characters (e.g. a Musical starring Jaws)
12 second thriller - (Belgian) microsite | JPGs (English) (all the movies are in media player above)

Run Sakata - Mazda Sakata
Depicted as trainers in print (sporty & affordable) - this theme is continued online with a gentle Nike parody
Run Sakata - microsite

How smart are you? - smart
Part of an online campaign designed to address common misconceptions about smart cars
How smart are you? - microsite

Which ever way you look at it - Citroen C6
Clever use of a 360 brings-to-life the idea of "Strikingly different" which ever way you look at it
Which ever way you look at it - microsite

Girl's know best - Mazda2
Part of a spoof dating campaign (aimed at women) which continues the offline "war of the sexes" strategy
Girls know best - microsite

Evel Cownievel - BT evening calls
A quirky and left-field way of promoting BT's cheap calls (5.5p)
Evel Cownievel - microsite (game)

Starfinder - CITV
A microsite to support a kids "astronaut academy" reality TV show called Starfinder
Starfinder - microsite

Oooh Matron! - Carlton
A promotional microsite advertising the complete range of Carry On films on DVD
Oooh Matron! - microsite

The Hospital
The launch teaser site for The Hospital - an exclusive club for creative professionals
The Hospital - microsite

Neil Armstrong's Boots - Scott Bedford
A self-promotional viral game
Neil Armstrong's boots - microsite

Brick-on- the-egg - Scott Bedford
Flash portfolio site: version two
Brick-on-the-egg - microsite

Bubblemechanics - Scott Bedford
Flash portfolio site: version one
Bubblemechanics - microsite

4.4 | Email

Gone - Mazda6 MPS
This email demonstrates the Mazda6 MPS's superior power in a playfull and engaging way
Gone - email

Dilemma - Mazda Furano
Aimed a men with young famillies this email poses them an interesting moral dilemma
Dilemma - email and landing page (click on email to launch landing page)

Locked - Mazda Katano
In promoting the Mazda Katano range this email tries it's hardest to give nothing away
Locked - email and landing page (click on email to launch landing page)

Run Sakata - Mazda Sakata
Depicted as trainers (sporty & affordable) in print - this theme is continued online with a gentle Nike parody
Run Sakata - email

Insider Information - Design Council
The Design Council's Fact Finder Tool is the 'legal' way for businesses to get a competitive edge...
Insider information - email

4.5 | Graveyard

Serious fun - Mazda6 MPS
The idea: a spoof business site, that delivers on the "serious fun" proposition (click on the banner)
View

Strkingly different - Citroen C6
The idea: don't show the car, show the reaction of the public by using hidden web-cams
View

Turn the world green - smart
The idea: a mash-up where you can drag trees onto google maps and slowly turn the world green
View

Syzygy website
The idea: find out about a company by asking the people who work there
View (6mb)

5.0 | Accolades

Introduction

The accolades listed below are for campaigns that I was directly involved with, either as an art director or as creative director. I don't have space to credit all the other talented people who were involved, however, you can find detailed credits within my portfolio at a glance on Slideshare.

5.1 | International

Cannes Cyber Lions

New York Festivals

One Show Interactive

London International Awards

D&AD

In book | 2005 | Dulux - Colour Chemistry | Online advertising campaign

Internet Advertising Competition

5.2 | Local

IAB Creative Showcase

Net Imperatives Awards

Winner | 2007 | Mazda - Run Sakata | Best use of email

Revolution Awards

Finalist | 2007 | Mazda - Run Sakata | Best use of email

BAFTA Interactive Award

Winner | 2004| Carlton - Starfinder | Best TV/film website category

NMA Campaign of the month

Winner | Jan 2008 | Mercedes-Benz - Bend

Campaign magazine

Top Ten Online Camapigns of 2005: NSPCC - Help us stop it

Creative Review Annual

Broadcast Award

Winner | 2001| Global e-missions | Best use of new media category

Loerie Advertising Awards

Online creative professional

1.0 | Latest news

Jul 08 | Mercedes-Benz "Bend" a finalist at Cannes Lions

Mar 08 | Mazda2 "Close-up" a finalist at New York Festivals

Jan 08 | Mercedes-Benz "Bend" wins NMA Campaign of the month

2.0 | Profile

Introduction

2005 - present | Syzygy London - Creative Director

2004 | Agency.com London - Creative Lead

2003 | Proximity London - Senior Online Designer

2001 | Carlton Interactive - Senior Online Designer

2000 | Forward Slash - Senior Online Designer

1999 | Publicis Cape Town - Senior Art Director

1997 | FCB Cape Town - Art Director

Other positions

3.0 | Creative philosophy

The importance of creativity

4.0 | Portfolio

Introduction

4.1 | Campaigns

4.2 | Banners

4.3 | Microsites

4.4 | Email

4.5 | Graveyard

5.0 | Accolades

Introduction

5.1 | International

Cannes Cyber Lions

New York Festivals

One Show Interactive

London International Awards

D&AD

Internet Advertising Competition

5.2 | Local

IAB Creative Showcase

Net Imperatives Awards

Revolution Awards

BAFTA Interactive Award

NMA Campaign of the month

Campaign magazine

Creative Review Annual

Broadcast Award

Loerie Advertising Awards