Creative Director, Adrian Duffin, rejoins BBC.
Creative Director, Adrian Duffin, has rejoined the BBC team 15 years after starting his career there back in January, 2001. He spent a seminal 5 years working closely with Creative Partner Angelo Beck, before moving on to then Brand Activation at Ogilvy, Brand Union and subsequently co-partner at The District.
His full-circle career migration brings home a wide-ranging exposure to the disciplines of design, promotion and activation with major brand campaign development and rollout, extending across an impressive spectrum of multinational players as well niche competitors, from financial services and international hotel chains, to leading FMCG, key media groups and tech brands.
Though some simply wouldn’t ‘go back’, it is not uncommon to make a longer-term return to one’s alma mater shop. We asked Adrian the obvious questions:
You could pretty much have chosen any number of teams to move to. What prompted your career decision to consider digging back with BBC?
“With solid experience comes a steady, professional outlook. I find myself working alongside a highly achieved and talented team. Add to that the sense of mutual trust and respect. You simply could not ask for any more acknowledgement and recognition. It does feel like I’m back home.”
There must be a difference in the BBC you joined 15 years ago and the BBC you’ve rejoined 10 years later?
“There’s an intrinsic calmness which I think stems from experience. The manic excitement of the start-up I joined has found grounded confidence with sharp focus. There’s a lot to be said for partners who pull through the many challenges of an incredibly competitive environment. What remains just as intense and demanding, however, is BBC’s passion, creativity and unwavering attention to detail. The work here, in my opinion, remains of the highest, uncompromising calibre.”
BBC recently reconfigured to more of a consultancy structure, losing the traditional agency hierarchy. BBC obviously sees you as part of this new structure going forward. How do you see your role in this?
“It’s both an honour and exciting to be part of this new venture. I think by having gained experience in other disciplines of advertising over the past 11 years, and still maintaining the hugest love for design, what I bring to the table is a different insight to pushing creative excellence and ideas. Finding and exploring real creative solutions to the business challenges faced by clients is also what I look forward to sinking my teeth into. I find this new structure and way of thinking highly attractive and innovative and I foresee more agencies adopting it in the future.”