Hope, Not Drama, from Ad Industry’s Rising Stars

The year that never ends has been relentless. In the highly competitive ad game in particular, things have been tougher than usual for the industry’s younger generation. So it’s absolutely great to hear from some of the creatives included in UK’s Campaign’s Faces to Watch 2020 about how they’re feeling about their chosen careers and their prospects.

“Don’t be discouraged, be excited,” said Saffron Renzullo, a junior creative at The Brooklyn Brothers and one of the fresh voices included in Campaign’s picks. “This is our chance to change the game.”

Saffron and her fellow creatives on the list aren’t necessarily young, but all have less than 10 years in the industry itself.

“This allows us to include people who have enjoyed a career change, like Uma McCluskey, an account manager from The & Partnership London who joined the industry only two years ago after more than a decade spent working as a care homes manager and magistrate,” writes Kate Magee.

“The group has shown that, collectively, they can win new business, launch products, generate sales and create award-winning work,” Magee continues. “Their achievements should be particularly praised, given they were accomplished against the backdrop of Covid-19.”

What’s striking about the faces on the list is how far the ad world has come since the monochromatic days of the Mad Men-era agencies. These are a diverse bunch of faces, no doubt, and as Magee notes, many are using their creative power to bring more inclusion into the industry itself.

“Many are proactively running initiatives to improve the diversity and inclusion within their own organisations,” Magee notes. “Others, like Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s account executive, Victoria Azubuike, are running wider initiatives.”

Many are changing their own company’s from the inside out as well, like Waste senior art director Tasmin Lobley. She created a replica of her firm’s office inside the on-trend game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in a bid to recruit an intern from outside “the usual channels.”

This industry has always thrived on innovation; it is a creative industry run by creative people, and how better to lead all of us through …  all of this. Like them, we are looking forward to the future with hope, with innovation and with determination to use our creativity to always make things better.

We wish them all much luck in their careers; they are an asset to the ad world.