Ben Shaw serves as Chief Strategy Officer at MullenLowe and has a rich background in strategic roles across various companies, including BBH USA and tech startups. He reflects on his career highlights, including winning the IPA Effectiveness Agency of the Year and the challenges faced during high-pressure pitches, such as the chaotic experience of rebuilding a corrupted pitch deck for EA Sports. Shaw believes that strategy should amplify creativity and emphasizes the need for collaboration among diverse teams to produce impactful work.
BBH won IPA Effectiveness Agency of the Year while I was head of strategy. My department was full of diverse planners, a body of work stuffed with interestingness, and a belief that strategy is a creative amplifier.
We were pitching for EA Sports and had spent months on the pitch deck, all of us working through the night leading up to it as we were still fitting in mock-ups and some crazy tech.
The deck was corrupted and wouldn't export in time and the clients were arriving. As the meeting started, we had to split the deck in half and rebuild the flow from memory.
We've had quite a run of creative leaders in the 10 Questions hot seat recently, so now it's time for the strategists to bite back.
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