Industrial Wisdom
“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge
DAVE TUTIN
Creative Strategist
Creative DirectION
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
– John Quincy Adams
It’s the greatest thrill. When you find yourself up against agencies you respect in a competitive pitch for an account. Every agency believes it will win. But only one can.
There is a path to success. And I like to think it’s a path I know well. I have led dozens of teams in the successful pursuit of new business.
I can coach your agency team to be better presenters, to be better meeting managers, to be, simply, a better team. I will not say I can always improve the work but I may well be able to focus it, to make it work that wins.
Sometimes, great things happen when impartial leadership comes from outside your day-to-day organizational structure.
Creative Strategy
“Victorious warriors win first then go to war. Defeated warriors go to war first then seek to win.”
– Sun Tzu
It is oddly appropriate that marketing commandeered a word born on the battlefield. Strategy was how wars were won.
Brands as diverse as Adidas and AT&T have benefitted from my strategic thinking. But so too have smaller companies and agencies who needed to temporarily boost their existing strategic capabilities.
Strategy, not just creativity, is most likely to ensure success. Only when your strategy is rock solid should you harness creativity to communicate it.
Creative Teaching
“The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.”
– A. K. Trenfor
There is nothing that gives me more pleasure than passing on what I have learned. I do this automatically through every business encounter, every strategic discussion. But I also do it more formally through teaching.
For several years I was an Adjunct Professor with Gaylord College at Oklahoma University. It offers one of the most respected advertising courses in the country and routinely places students in jobs with top agencies.
I have lectured at other schools and institutions and, among other things, I offer seminars on the use of storytelling for agencies and their clients.
Letters of Recommendation:
—Professor Debbie Yount
—Dean Ed Kelley
Creative Writing
“Aim for the company of immortals.”
– A. K. Trenfor
Starting as a copywriter in London I was mentored and trained by some great advertising minds. I ultimately followed in their footsteps to become an Executive Creative Director.
One highlight among many was helping to take what was then a staid packaged goods agency – Grey New York – into the world of tech, telecom and services through the creation of darkGrey, a bi-coastal agency-within-an-agency. Building the team from scratch, we brought in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new business.
We find ourselves in an era where razor-sharp thinking and refreshing creativity seem harder to find than they once were. Automation through digital platforms and digital media seem to have diminished the quality of communications rather than enhanced them. It doesn’t have to be this way.