FINANCIAL REVIEW - The man who un-sank the Titanic
A slightly ‘clickbait’ title for the Australian Financial Review business section, but a great article about digging in after a few tough years at George Patterson. Not everything goes our way in advertising, but we get a say in how we respond to rough patches.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-man-who-unsank-the-patts-titanic-20110331-1cndu.html
SHOTS Magazine - Ben Coulson, the Guts & the Glory
A feature on our work in Shots edition 149, some of what I said is just as relevant today, some is absolutely not. This article did give me a chance to update my industry profile pic.
https://www.shots.net/news/view/83777-ben-coulson-guts-graft-and-glory
Campaign Brief - Ben set to depart Clemenger
Campaign Brief is infamous for its usually negative anonymous blog comments, so when you get a few good ones it goes against the grain. Then again, we were just going into the first Covid lockdown, so people might have been feeling unusually nice. But, I was properly taken aback by the eighty or so wonderfully positive things people had to say.
LBB - 5 Minutes with Ben Coulson
This was a while back, thankfully. Definitely a reminder to check your enthusiasm in a radio interview with a trade Jurno. Not everything said here is something I’d say these days. Warning, I sounded like a bit of a twat.
https://www.lbbonline.com/news/5-minutes-with-ben-coulson
B&T - Modern day Adman
Pretty sure I managed to say something about the ‘attention economy’, or ‘transformation a pace’ here. So modern.
Sydney Morning Herald - Honesty in Advertising
Making the case for honesty in advertising. This article was a debate about the merits of being honest with our consumers, I’m pretty big on the idea of finding a truth and telling it well, so I did my best to argue that a truth is harder to find, but stickier when you do.
Business Insider - Y&R Best at Cannes
Four years after Tony Granger set up the Y&R Global Creative Board, eleven brilliant creatives (and myself had worked very hard to drag the once stone cold network back into the spotlight. And we had a rare moment when it all just fell into place.
The Age Business Review - Serious Business
We get to have a bunch of fun doing this job. Even sometimes get to make a miniature talking Statue of Tasmania’s flavory son. But you don’t often expect that sort of thing to lead the business section of the national press. This was a serious chat about a gamble that payed off big for Fosters.
The Stable - 28 reasons to feel good
A chat with the Stables editor in Chief about disruption without disaster, the best phone call I ever made and a particularly good creative year.
https://www.thestable.com.au/ben-coulson-on-getting-there-quietly-doing-it-proactively-and-making-the-best-phone-call-a-cco-ever-will/
Campaign USA - Y&R Top Agency at D&AD
https://www.campaignlive.com/article/y-r-new-zealand-top-shops-d-ad-awards/1395604
Campaign Brief - Clemenger crowned Agency of the Year
https://advertisingcouncil.org.au/news/40th-award-awards-winners-announced/
AdNews - George Patterson takes Agency of the Year Honour
https://www.adnews.com.au/news/george-patterson-yandr-melbourne-crowned-adnews-agency-of-the-year
Y&R Tops Aussie tally at Cannes
https://campaignbrief.com/george-patterson-yr-melbourne-2/
ABC The Business -
Not exactly sure how this started, but for a while my phone would ring whenever a news outlet wanted an Ad guru to talk about selling something or spin doctoring a subject, usually politics. It was fun to do something that scary, but each time I did get further from a subject I actually know anything about, so when I found myself on a panel on the hard hitting ABC 7.30 Report, talking about demand stimulus and recession proofing the economy, I discovered just how scary live TV could really be.
