Background - Director, TCP
Turner Commercial Productions (TCP) is the internal commercial creative agency of CNN International, now known as CNN Create.
In 2006, as a client-facing Director of TCP, I started, recruited new heads and lead this International creative team, working in partnership with advertising sales and brands directly.
The core team is based in London HQ with personnel in offices around the globe in Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Buenos Aires and Hong Kong.
I grew the team and its capabilities across the CNN global network with key creative and production hires with digital expertise tasked exclusively for branded content creation.
I lead all creative work across many sectors including Luxury, Travel and Tourism, Finance, Telco, Consumer Electronics, FDI, Automotive. Projects ranged from influencer marketing for mobile brands to country marketing, developing content for governmental ministries and from large corporations to NGO's.
The work garnered awards for partners, winning a Gold M&M award for South Africa Tourism plus Webby Honorees for Siemens and Gold luxury awards for both Jaguar and Gucci campaigns.
Commercial sizzle reel featuring key projects:
Czech Republic - Land of Stories Tourism campaign
Czech Republic, Land of Stories film series drove the tourism branding campaign across Europe, supported through the EU Regional Development Fund and the Czech Ministry of Regional Development. 3 films were created on location featuring 'story ambassadors' (chosen to represent key demographic groups) discovering the many experiences throughout the country. The film series was devised, produced and finished in-house.
Contact HRPR to learn more about this project.
My South Africa - global multi-platform campaign
My South Africa was a multi-year, multi-platform campaign with Ogilvy featuring a host of engaging South African brand ambassadors; Chef Reuben Riffel, Footballer Lucas Radebe, Fashion designer Nkensani Nkosi, Paralympian Oscar Pistorious, Singer Yvonne Chaka-Chaka and Kruger National Park head game keeper, Andrew Desmet. Read Campaign article here.
CNN partnered with South Africa Tourism and Ogilvy to create multiple films featuring Culture, Food and Adventure and were shot on location in Soweto, Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Franschhoek and Kruger National Park.
My South Africa kicked off with a UGC campaign to discover 'Your South Africa' and submit content to the bespoke 'My South Africa' website to win an experience of a life time - an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa - as the main prize. The campaign also featured the first ever commercial app created for a brand by CNN to coincide with the FIFA World Cup in 2010
Contact HRPR to learn more about this project.
Digital-first campaigns
I created the digital, branded content concept, 'Advertisement Feature' for CNN International clients. Each storytelling 'hub' was hosted within the CNN.com domain, with a specific cnn.com/brand. Depending on the extent of the partnership brands would also benefit from TV promotion as well as digital media to drive traffic. Click on links to view some of the campaigns in the series and contact HRPR for more information on these projects.
Fujitsu - BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
Japan Airlines - Fly into Tomorrow
Siemens - Cityworks
Russian Railways - 10 years of success
Russian Railways - 175 Years Anniversary
Suzuki - My Way of Life
Jaguar Land Rover - Jaguar Heritage
City of Nanjing - Discover Nanjing
ANZ - Think Brilliant
Philips - Livable Cities multi-platform campaign
Azerbaijan - from AtoZ - country branding campaign
Branded content
Samsung NX-1 Camera - La Tomatina
I have worked with Samsung for many years across several projects highlighting their products including the Galaxy Tab, Note and other handsets. This campaign marked the first time working on Samsung's camera products. We took cast and crew to Buñol, Spain with the new NX-1 DSLR Smart camera - still in pre-production - for a bench-test at the famous La Tomatina, venue for the world's biggest tomato fight.
