One minute with...Brave's Ash Bendelow
This week's unmasked marketer is Ash Bendelow, MD at Brave, who employs an innovative alarm system, looks forward to an internet bill of rights and credits Elon Musk as his biggest inspiration.
Everyone has dreams, aspirations and fears – so find out what happens when you give marketers seven questions and one minute (or so) to explain what inspires and motivates them.
This week’s unmasked marketer is Ash Bendelow, MD at Brave, who employs an innovative alarm system, looks forward to an internet bill of rights and credits Elon Musk as his biggest inspiration.
What do you want to be remembered for?
Helping lead and build an agency of note for ‘giant slaying’ – taking the smaller no.3 or 4’s in a market and making them no.1’s. As a marketer these are the things that turn me on – demonstrating how ‘clever’ can always beat ‘big’, and how creativity can transcend and fix so much. Or alternatively being the agency that created something better than Droga5’s – Decoded with Jay Z & Bing
What’s your favourite quote?
Can I have two? (sure can Ash)
“If I asked consumers what they want they would have said a faster horse” – Henry Ford.
This encapsulates what’s often wrong with the industry and highlights the mentality of the true and great pioneers – courage to create what doesn’t exist.
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky (former Ice Hockey superstar) brings into sharp focus the reality of how the best businesses embrace this in to their culture.
What makes you wake up in the morning?
My 3-year-old son Ernie – normally affectionately poking me in the eye. If I could package his relentless energy, humour and inappropriate timing – I’m sure I could be better at my job.
Who’s your biggest inspiration?
Elon Musk – Even though I have never met him, what I know of him truly inspires me. You hear him speak, you read his interviews, he is a man motivated by a passion to ‘do things better’ and is absolutely actions rather than words orientated. X.com & Paypal changed digital payment, Tesla is changing the automotive industry with electric and open source and then the ‘side projects’ of Space X, SolarCity and Hyperloop could change the face of space exploration, energy storage and transport infrastructure. To use a Google X quote – he is making the ’10 times better rather than 10%’ a true reality in some pretty significant areas. He earns and deserves his success.
What’s going to be big in marketing this year?
Maybe not this year but we are (I hope) fast approaching event horizon on the internet bill of rights or a global standard. Meaning how brands and businesses use data is reaching a point where it could shape or break the internet forever (or at least push back its development by a number of years) as consumer trust is significantly eroded.
The thin line and balance of privacy versus personalisation, is sometimes being recklessly explored and coupled with the continued expansion and development of the internet of things, sophistication and expansion of API’s. With the opportunities this presents to the digital communications community it is likely to get worse before it gets better.
What’s your least favourite “buzz word”?
The industry is awash with supposed thought leaders speaking in buzz word jargon theory that can seldom actually be practically applied to real commercial business. However people just seem content with nodding along agreeing rather than ask ‘How does that work?’ or calling out the big elephants in the room. However my least favourite buzzword bingo must go to ‘engagement’ – a word that has burrowed its way so deeply into the marketing vernacular a nebulas catch all without applicable meaning, purpose or value.
What was your favourite digital campaign from 2014?
Sweetie – sorry obvious I know; but I loved everything it was and stood for. Purpose, craft, innovation along with social, cultural and political impact. I loved that it came from a smaller indie agency out of Amsterdam where the power of an idea can achieve so much good.
Ash Bendelow joined Brave in 2005 as a three-man start-up and has helped build it to what it is today – an entrepreneurial, progressive and dynamic agency, with loyal client partners across the globe. Clients include John Frieda, Panasonic, EAT. Moet & Chandon, Lumix and Southern Comfort. His latest work includes campaigns for Pink Floyd, Technics and GoCoco.
