Steve Harrison (advertising)

Steve Harrison is a British copywriter, creative director and author who is regarded by Campaign Magazine as the greatest Direct Marketing Creative of his generation. ^[1] He has won more Cannes Lions awards than any other Creative Director in the World.^[2]

Career in Advertising

Born in Blackpool, Steve Harrison completed a doctoral thesis on American Society, Cinema and Television:1950-1960 at the University of Manchester. ^[3] At the age of 30 he travelled to London and secured a researcher position at Ogilvy & Mather. ^[4] After 11 months he was hired as a Copywriter at Ogilvy and Mather Direct after their Global Vice-Chairman, Drayton Bird, noticed a report that Harrison had written. ^[5] In 1989 he was made Head of Copy at the agency and by 1997 he was European Creative Director. ^[6]

In 2001 Harrison founded what is now known as Harrison Troughton Wunderman ^[7] after the Wunderman owned agency Impiric purchased Harrison's Agency, HPT Brand Response. ^[8] The Agency went on to produce a number of award-winning campaigns for brands including Xerox, IBM, Microsoft, Vodafone, Rolls Royce and the AA. ^[9]

In 2006, Harrison became the first Creative Director to head up the Direct Jury at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. ^[10]

In 2007 Steve Harrison stood down as Worldwide Creative Director of Wunderman following a management restructure of the Advertising Agency. ^[11]

Awards

As well as winning the inaugural Cannes Lions Direct Grand Prix, Harrison has won three gold, five silver and two bronze Lions for his work. ^[12]

Study of Howard Gossage

In 2012 Steve Harrison authored a book on the Advertising pioneer Howard Gossage entitled 'Changing the world is the only fit work for a grown man'. ^[13] Harrison's study of Howard Gossage began when he came across Gossage's book 'Is there any hope for Advertising' in the library of Ogilvy and Mather New York. ^[14]

Harrison started out intending to make a documentary about Howard Gossage with a friend, he wrote a treatment for this documentary which then became the outline for his book. ^[15]

Published works

In 2010 Steve Harrison authored the book 'How to do better creative work'. ^[16] In their review of the book, Campaign Magazine called it 'Essential reading for anyone looking to demystify the creative process'. ^[17] The book became the most expensive advertising book of all time when it was traded on Amazon.com at $3,000 a copy. ^[18]

References