Hasta La Creative!

It was a powerfully emotive film that last year won the Film Craft Grand Prix at Cannes and a Black Pencil at D&AD, and was voted a TED Ad Worth Spreading. Yet it wasn’t the work of a traditional agency or even a big network. “Meet the Super Humans” was the work of 4Creative, the in-house shop for U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, a teaser for the network’s coverage of the 2012 Paralympic Games.

Set up in 2001 to service Channel 4’s marketing team, 4Creative has a prolific output of some 900 program promotions a year, most of which isn’t seen outside the U.K., as well as promotions for the channel’s sponsors. Yet it’s responsible for some of the most original, edgy campaigns to come out of the region in the last decade.

Initially led by directors with a background in broadcast, in 2012 the Channel lured two lauded agency creative directors — Fallon London’s Chris Bovill and John Allison — to head it up. The pair said they joined 4Creative precisely because of the quality of the output. “What could be a bigger challenge than joining an agency at the top of its game?” said Mr. Bovill. It helps, Mr. Allison pointed out, that the broadcaster has a specific government remit to be innovative, experimental and distinctive: music to the ears of most creative directors. “We’re really lucky that we’re in a building full of like-minded people; even with our legal team, their default setting is never ‘No,'” said Mr. Allison.

Continue reading at AdAge.com