LONDON – The&Partnership has promoted Oliver Feldwick from Head of Digital Strategy to Global Head of Innovation, tasking him with future-proofing the £450 million network across all markets and departments as it continues to expand.
In his new role, Feldwick will focus on how The&Partnership can make better use of innovative new technologies as part of the day-to-day creative process – developing its understanding of emerging opportunities such as dynamic creative optimisation, personalisation, machine learning and AI to enhance its creative innovation credentials.
He will also work with clients to help them make the most of the opportunities afforded by the modern marketing landscape – realising the potential of their marketing stacks and current capabilities, and applying new technologies to deliver stronger creative for each client, deployed at scale.
Feldwick says: “As every other part of the marketing landscape gets disrupted, our processes for getting to new ideas, for harnessing creativity, have remained remarkably unchanged. Too often innovation is treated as a sideshow. But the only way we can properly embrace the challenges of today’s marketing landscape, and figure out how to be as creative as we want and need to be, is to apply that innovation to the core of what we do: creativity. I’m excited to figure out how we put this into practice across The&Partnership.”
Feldwick will also continue to build on his vision for ‘cyborg creativity’, exploring how humans and technology can work more effectively together, rather than competing with one another. This will involve scoping and rolling out the use of AI-powered tools for copywriting, production and editing, as well as assessing and advising clients and teams on the benefits of new technologies and platforms.
The&Partnership has driven significant marketing innovation for clients including Toyota, Lexus, News UK, RBS and Argos: from developing a bespoke tech stack for Toyota across 17 European markets; to prototyping a Hoverboard for Lexus; to bringing real-time football commentary from The Sun’s journalists to 700 digital billboards across the UK; to creating a TV first for Argos, airing 80 days’ worth of unique, topical, date-stamped adverts consecutively to promote the retailer’s market-leading same-day delivery offering.
The&Partnership London CEO Sarah Golding has launched her own ‘Magic & the Machines’ agenda as President of the IPA, challenging agencies to prepare for a future in which humans and machines will work seamlessly together.
Golding said: “When I hired Oli, I knew he would play an important role in The&Partnership’s future. This is an exciting promotion for us, and I couldn’t think of a better person than Oli to take the helm as we future-proof our ways of working across the network. We firmly believe the next generation of agencies will be those that capably bring together the holy trinity of creativity, data and tech – and Oli will play a pivotal role in helping strengthen our position at the forefront of that movement.”
The&Partnership Founder Johnny Hornby said: “Agencies are very good at dabbling in the world of innovation on behalf of their clients. However, far too few agencies are actively updating their own models and processes – and the cracks are beginning to show, with more and more clients calling out for agencies to shape up or get replaced.
“Oli has driven some real successes for us at The&Partnership, and I’ve yet to meet a strategist with more of a hunger to learn and experiment with the developments taking place daily across the tech and media landscape. We’re delighted to appoint him as Global Head of Innovation, and look forward to working with him to continue to adapt our model for a new marketing agenda.”
Feldwick joined The&Partnership in 2014 as Head of Digital Strategy. He has worked on a wide range of clients across The&Partnership London and its sister agency AllTogetherNow, including Toyota, RBS, The Sun, British Gas and Lexus. He won the Admap Prize in 2016 with his essay, ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and obtained a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma in 2017 with an ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’ paper. He has been published across titles including Admap, Campaign and LBB Online, and has contributed to the IPA ‘Fundamentals of Branding’ course.
