Strands of Genius: Giles Edwards + ESG and Climate Trends to Watch for 2023
featuring: an interview with our guest editor and a research report
Welcome to the Bonus edition of Strands of Genius! On Fridays, we’ll be publishing interviews from our guest editors, and sharing a research report. Thanks for being along for the ride. Oh and by the way, you look great today :)
:: STEAL THIS THINKING | RESEARCH REPORT ::
Investors are increasingly showing themselves willing to challenge board directors on their companies’ climate performance, including scrutinizing climate risk management disclosures or emissions-reduction plans in some markets. In 2023, we will be watching whether climate-focused boards help emissions-intensive companies stand up to that scrutiny
:: DIVE IN | THE INTERVIEW ::
GILES EDWARDS, FOUNDER OF ...GASP!, ISOLATED TALKS® AND HOST OF CALL TO ACTION®
>> Giles Edwards guest curated Strands on August 3rd, 2023. Read it here.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what keeps you busy. How did you end up doing what you’re doing today?
Annoyingly curious and curiously annoying 42¼ yrs old WLTM creative problems to solve.
My friends who know me, and my life, often say something along the lines of ‘they should make a movie about your family and your life; the only problem is, nobody would believe it’. So it’s hard to summarise here. It involves professional sport, money, murder, family feuds, illegal gold mining, getting lucky, getting unlucky, and a lot of learning how to fit in. That’s not said for effect either.
The less mysterious, mildly more professional answer is this. My squiggly, scenic, career path began when I allowed a real opportunity to play pro football fade. Maths and creativity were my other best cards to play, so I pursued creativity via Kingston School of Art. Ultimately obtaining a diploma in Art & Design, and then a Graphic Design degree, with a real focus on Advertising, via some game-testing jobs at EA - as a dreadlocked BMX’er with a tasty weed habit. The perfect gig; I’m still credited in the FIFA and Harry Potter franchises among other games.
Post uni I took a CELTA course to teach in Surabaya, Indonesia, but whilst there my father was murdered. So, I returned to the UK as quickly as I could, and after the trial fell (back) into advertising. Something he’d had a fairly famous career in.
The event of his death brought me closer to my older half-siblings. Two of whom were also, by coincidence, excelling in adland. One indie, one network. After a couple of years as an art director, I got frustrated with the feeling that the problems briefs were intended to solve were, perhaps, the wrong ones. Yet in my position I had no access to the thinking, research, and many months, that had informed it. Despite believing to this day that “creatives” should be among the first in the room when diagnosing problems, they rarely were.
So for this and various other reasons, I set up my own agency, ...Gasp!, with, in acronym order, Giles (me), Andrew (my first boss), Sophie and Paul. To think, we could’ve called ourselves SPAG and sprinkled parmesan on our invoices. Seems so obvious now.
For various reasons, GASP became GS, almost immediately. We had a horribly hostile previous agency do everything in their power, and financial might to prevent our success. It was grotesque in truth, and those close to the situation and dozens of staff who remained there still talk about their horrific behaviour. But, despite losing A and P in the ruckus, the name stuck. Over subsequent years we've studied, picked up diplomas in Behavioural Science, Pricing, and trained quite extensively in Marketing including taking the Mini MBAs in Marketing, Brand Management, and shortly the Business Management course, and I've/we've tried, failed, got better, and enjoyed a level of success.
What excites you most about what you do?
So many things. As a kid I was a bit of an unlikely maths (that’s math to Rosie) nerd. And did my A-level several years early. There’s an unhealthy hunger my nerdy brain has for finding an answer to a problem, so it was presented with the metaphorical all-you-can-eat buffet when it discovered commercial creativity, marketing, advertising, etc. And that will always excite me.
Finding the commercially creative answer that actually has an affect on people, on the world, on our memories, on experience, on value, future behaviour, is everything. It needn’t be for capitalist gain, it’s just as likely to be on behaviour for good. Last week we had a world-class actor (past roles include Game of Thrones, After Life, etc), effectively hijacking Ogilvy’s Nudgestock event as an air-guitar playing rock-god. That excited me. And a few hundred others. He even got people to hold his air guitar whilst he went for a wee. I mean, it doesn’t get much better than that. Does it? (No Giles, it doesn't).
What beliefs define your approach to work? How would you define your leadership style?
My 'Proper Marketing' agency uses the line ‘Creatively Memorable & Boringly Effective’. That summarises our approach to work. Informed creativity.
As for leadership style, honestly, erratic and deeply flawed. I hold everyone to unrealistically high standards, none more so than myself. Something a colleague or two like to, helpfully, remind me. And I don’t mean to sound flippant, as it’s a great question, but some people lead indirectly, maybe passively. I think I do that. I hope I at least do that. People like to be with me when we’re working on something exciting, and solving problems in an interesting and exciting way. It’s the only way I can lead. I wish I was better.
What has been the most rewarding project you’ve worked on and why?
From a creative perspective it was an early project called A Short Drive, when ...Gasp! was in its infancy. Leaving golf balls in gardens up and down the M25 motorway to communicate proximity to an up-and-coming Golf Club. Highlighting distance by drive time, not mileage.
Rewarding because we paid for and executed it ourselves after failing to convince the client. It was the first time I’d confidently said to a client, “this is too good not to do, so we’re doing it, and if it works you can pay us back”. They paid us back. And it won our first international Ads of the World award #whocares. But that’s not the point. The point is, we didn’t take no for an answer. Sometimes ideas deserve to live, and that can be in your control.
But my proper answer, for too many reasons to list, was ISOLATED Talks® which we launched during early lockdown in response to the pandemic, with the help of over 150 creative brains in the industry. And several years worth of video views. I’m not comfortable getting the credit for it that I do, as it wouldn’t have been more than an idea were it not for the collective efforts of so many. Not least Glenn Fisher, Tommy Mason and Matt Ballington who helped me launch it. But uniting the creative industries, normalising (enforced) isolation, unfiltered, and creating connection at a time of huge anxiety and fear led to a really important feeling of unity. Knowing it not only helped save lives; something we heard directly from many individuals, but raised a huge amount of money, charitable volunteers, and still to this day benefits from over £3m+ of media donations which we point towards other worthy causes is overwhelming. The talks were submitted from artists, comedians, scientists, children, BBC QI elves, and tackled topics as far and wide as you could hope for. And they live on in course syllabuses worldwide, and remain freely available to all.
We are big believers in diversity -- Not only because we believe in equality, but because we also think it’s better for business. How do you frame these kinds of conversations, both internally and with clients? Is there an emphasis on action, or are the conversations really more about communication?
I once interviewed Doug Melville, and he made a point that will forever live with me. Which was, when a company creates a Chief DE&I Office (and/or department), even with the right intentions, it can too easily be seen within that organisation as their problem to fix. Not a problem for all. There’s a horribe irony to that. And I’m all too aware of the easy platitudes and signalling that is often prioritised over the hard reality. Injustice exists, and the systems which enable it can hide too easily.
Via ISOLATED Talks®, and our ...Gasp! Books titles, we’ve been able to support incredible organisations including LEO Reader (making intimidating reading lists accessible to neurodiverse talent), Life After Prison radio, and D.I.C.E (Diversity & Inclusion at Conferences and Events), and continue to funnel efforts to create change.
Switching gears a bit, how do you find time to balance personal interests with your career? Do you believe work/life balance is possible? Anything you’ve implemented that you recommend that others try?
I’ve a few contradictory thoughts on this. First of all, I think the very articulation of “work/life balance” can be unhelpful; presenting two options can cause people to believe there should be a 50/50 split. Or a choice. One or the other.
To bring it back to work (yawn) it’s a little like some critics of the 60/40 Binet & Field work. One I’ve always taken to conclude, crucially, it’s long *and* short, not *or*. And so perhaps thinking of it as the work *and* life balance, is more healthy.
Yes, I think it’s possible. I can’t claim to have found it myself but perhaps that’s both fortunately and unfortunately because I enjoy a lot of what I do. So the lines are blurrier than they might be for others. And working with my wife only blurs the lines further, as she’s the person I spend the most time with in both contexts. Poor woman.
Something I’ve implemented recently is a hard stop of sorts, so work cannot, no matter how hard it tries, ever become 100%. Which is to commit to coaching a Football Club at my girls’ school, on Friday afternoons. I can let myself down far easier than I can let a load of kids down, so this has forced me to create a non-blurry line of sorts. Consistently. Where I’ve physically and mentally removed myself from work. I could’ve been a professional footballer if i had’t smoked so much weed, been more dedicated generally, and, well, much, much better at football. So it’s great to have it in my life, as I slowly and regrettably move away from the UK’s semi-pro leagues I inhabited for close to three decades now, and start taking my FA coaching badges.
Whether I’d recommend others try this method, I don’t know; that kind of depends how much like me you are. And if you are, you’ve probably got a few bigger problems to solve.
What’s your media diet? Where do you find inspiration?
Comedy is a big thing in my life. Particularly stand-up. I often go to see stand up, where I ironically sit down. Fortunately it comes in all manner of film, TV, podcast, flavours.
I’m a sucker for hip-hop too, and adore lyrics, wordplay; in fact I long for rappers like Method Man, and B.I.G. to be given the same attention from the wordsmith community as Hemmingway. If you set my music to shuffle you’re just as likely to hear Frank Sinatra, Sizzla, and Sian Supa Crew as you are Ugly Duckling, Erykah Badu and Dire Straits. It’s erratic but each houses inspiration of sorts. And I read. Mostly (see entirely) work-related books and blogs on creativity, behavioural science, design, advertising, pricing, business, I enjoy The Spectator more than anyone should, and Viz as much as everyone should.
Richard Huntington’s tip of picking up a random magazine from time to time and throwing yourself into an unknown subject, is a great one. It can be fascinating. Lastly, absurd to mention this, I watch Love Island. As a pop culture pulse of sorts, but also to teach myself tolerance. We often judge people too quickly. It can be a problem. And too easily dislike/hate/despise. Watching what I always thought to be trash, has taught me to realise that often, people are remarkably similar. Even if, in this instance, they’re housed in a slightly more (!) chiselled, fake tanned and toothed package.
What’s the best piece of advice/knowledge you’ve stolen, and who/where’d you steal it from?
Likewise, and I probably don’t know what the best piece was. But I know the finalists would include these two. Firstly, and mostly, from the late, great, Bill Bernbach. Bill used to carry a card around in his blazer pocket, on which was written “they might be right”. He said that whenever he found himself in a challenging situation, of conflicting views, he would take it out, and read it. And this would allow his mindset to become more exploratory and tolerant of other views. Something he credited to his success; simply taking the stance of ‘I believe I’m right, but so does this person, so let’s hear them out’.
I love it so much I started a series of Call To Action podcast spin-offs, called ‘They Might Be Right’, where we take a Twitter/Social media argument and argumentees (not a real word apparently) and invite them to have it out, in our dojo of debate, an organised, proper, structured, respectful session, to explore the greyscales that social media has always struggled to facilitate. We like or we don’t in so many social forums these days. It’s black, or it’s white. Whereas the answer is nearly always a shade of grey. And we’re at risk of forgetting that. Brexit, anyone? Too soon. Still. OK.
A special mention to one of my old lecturers at Kingston School of Art, Chris Draper, too, who taught me that you can go anywhere if you’re wearing a high-vis jacket. Try it. Responsibly. It’s quite remarkable.
Why did you make the front page of Jawa Pos (one of the largest-selling newspapers in Indonesia)?
None of your business.
You can keep in touch with Giles on Twitter and LinkedIn.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed