IMAX pinch-me moments, washing machine jingles and getting lost in New York… our Brand Futures Director, Jess MacIntyre, takes the 5 Questions hot seat to share her career highs, lows and learnings…
1. If you could go back and relive one day in your career, which would it be?
Six months after co-founding our brand consultancy Mac+Moore, we were shortlisted for a creative award. The event was hosted at the IMAX, and seeing our logo on the big screen alongside huge agencies like Saatchi’s and Havas – it was a real pinch-me moment. We were just two gals making stuff up who’d been made redundant from our roles six months earlier. All the hard work, resilience and grit we’d poured in culminated in that moment. It made me feel like anything was possible.
2. Now tell us about the day that still gives you nightmares.
I worked for a tech start-up with offices in New York – a real perk was flying over a few times a year. In typical start-up mode, the founder had rented an Airbnb for us all to stay in because budgets were tight. When my flight got in late at night, he’d fallen asleep and wasn’t picking up his phone, so he didn’t hear my desperate pleas for help. I was left wandering the streets of New York, jet-lagged and slightly freaked out. Let’s just say the Airbnb was in a pretty wild part of the city that I won’t be visiting again on my own as a female in the dead of night. The good news though? I survived to tell the tale.
3. Who gave you the piece of advice you still live by – and what was it?
Not really a person! Remember that Sunscreen song? (A bit of millennial nostalgia for you.) Well I think about this line a lot:
“Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind, the race is long and in the end it’s only with yourself.”
It’s really easy – especially in this day and age with social media – to get caught up in how well you’re doing compared to everyone else. It’s normal in life to some days feel like you’re winning and others feel like you’re struggling. Ultimately, I’ve learned it’s best to be competitive with yourself and not with other people.
4. What piece of work done by someone else are you truly jealous of?
It’s actually quite recent – the “You Are Not Alone” campaign by Norwich City FC in partnership with Samaritans. It’s such a powerful piece of storytelling about male suicide that stays with you long after you watch it.
And whoever made the jingle for “Washing machines live longer with Calgon” – because honestly, I SING that song to my son whenever I see the brand on the shopping aisle with such passion and enthusiasm it must be so deeply rooted into my psyche.
5. What’s your elevator pitch to people thinking about getting into the advertising industry for the first time?
You get to show up and be your great, weird self alongside other great, weird people.