‘I never really had any plan other than to be good at what I did.’
I recently sat down with one of Napier’s Associate Directors, Ed Neale, to discuss his industry experience, dreams and his best advice for those in the industry. What started out as a simple Q&A interview very quickly became a conversation about life, learning, growth and a little bit of sci-fi.
Ed’s experience provides an insightful read, with advice I’m sure many will take on board, me included.
So, with a career spanning over 25 years, how did Ed wind up at Napier?
So, could you begin by telling me a bit about your time at Napier?
I’ve worked with Napier for about five years now, since they took over Armitage; I worked for Armitage from about 2002. Since Napier took over, there’s been quite a lot of changes, a very big change to the way that we do things.
The teams have increased – we’ve almost got everything, in terms of getting the teams together, expanding the clients, particularly ABB. I was working just for ABB Measurement & Analytics and Robotics and now it’s expanded to include all these other parts of the business as well.
Upon starting your agency career, what is the one piece of advice that stuck with you?
I’ve got two.
The first one, which I didn’t understand for a long time, was ‘work smarter, not harder’. And again, it’s taken me a little while to fully understand what that meant. When I started in PR, it was largely about writing press releases and attaching photographs to bits of paper, and that was it. Now you’ve got this whole multi-channel integrated approach to everything, and trying to deal with 6 plus clients really made me realise the value of delegation.
Where writing is concerned, somebody told me, ‘Don’t try to make things perfect on your first attempt; just get something down.’ The first word or paragraph is always the hardest and once you’re past that you start to get a flow – even if it is in the wrong direction at least you’ve got something. I’ve always thought that was a good piece of advice.
What was your journey to Associate Director like from your first job to now?
I started as a Junior Account Executive for a company called Ledger Bennett, in this place called Leighton Buzzard—they’ve got some amazing place names in Bedfordshire—I fell into that by accident. I was working at a local newspaper for a week. I was their oldest intern at the age of 22—or oldest work experience, anyway—and on the last day or the second-to-last day, the editor got a call from an advertising agency. She said, ‘We’ve got a position for a graduate; do you know anyone?’. And she said, ‘Well, we’ve got one here, so I’ll set up an interview’. I went for the interview not knowing anything about what this was, and it transpired that one of the clients was ABB. So, I’ve worked with ABB on and off since around 1995.
I went to work, and I was there for about a year, a year and a half. That was a good grounding because the guy who was meant to be training me was totally distracted, so I spent a lot of time learning from other people and learning things for myself.
I went on to work for Armitage, so I worked for Armitage twice, from 1996 to 2000, going to another agency, and then residential PR until I came back to Armitage in 2002. I was there until Napier took over. I took the traditional route to Associate Director, from Junior Account Executive to Junior Account Manager, Account Manager to Account Director and then I became an Associate Director when Napier took over.
I’ve done most of the key roles, but also just in terms of working across the whole thing as well, I worked for advertising agencies, writing ad copy and then PR. I like doing all of it like press releases, placements, chasing journalists, facing features.
With your many years of experience, how do you help or support new team members when they first start at Napier?
So, when people start at Napier and I start working with them, I try and explain the accounts, what we do, what the options are, and what the rules are in many respects. So that they are as familiar as possible.
One of the things I value at Napier is that everybody helps each other out. If people need help, there’s always someone with the time and the patience to help them. I’ve always tried to do that with new starters, patiently sitting with them, working through the process, and giving feedback on things.
It’s a daunting process. It’s a lot to learn and in an agency this size, there’s a lot of people to encounter as well. There’s no silly question. That’s one of the reasons I ended up knowing as much as I have done.
What is your day-to-day?
Wow. Hectic. I’ve basically got a system that I’ve had probably since my first job where I write everything down. I still have books going back 10 years.
If you don’t write things down, you’re not going to be able to keep track of it, and I’ve now started a weekly spreadsheet as well with all of the tasks and they’re organised by week for the next two months or so.
The thing I like most about my job is the problem-solving aspect of it. Every day is pretty much a problem, there’s always something – somebody will ask you to do something, and you’ve got to try and fit it in somewhere.
There’s always one more interesting thing to do. I’ll just do another interesting project and that’s what it’s like every day, every day is different. That is one of the things that I always like about the design guys, it’s like it’s Christmas, you get to give them an idea and I still get excited even now, waiting to see what they create.
In terms of day-to-day, there are fundamentals like my to-do list, I end up doing half or two-thirds of them on any given day. You write it down and something else comes in and it is almost like this is your plan for the day and then this is where you end up. But that is kind of fun in its own way.
Sometimes it can be a little bit too much fun, but for the for the most part, it just keeps you interested.
What is one piece of advice you would give to new starters?
I’ve got two, One is ABC: Always Be Curious. I think curiosity counts for a lot, it’s what makes people intelligent, wanting to find out about things, wanting to dig down and find out more. It’s very easy when you ask someone to do something for them just to take it at face value and say I’ve been asked to do this, and this is exactly what I’m going to do and not look beneath it and research it. I’ve always found that being curious and asking questions makes the experience of creating content or a campaign much more interesting, giving you the opportunity to dig deep and understand your client’s business and the trends and issues that affect the demand for their products and services. What affects them? What drives the demand for their products and how do they fit in with the bigger world as well?
The other one is: bend the rules, I think it’s easy to get constrained by things. You can very easily get locked in a box. This job is more interesting if you don’t get locked in that box; keep three sides of it. But then look at how you change the full side.
What is a project you’re most proud of and why?
I think probably my favourite is one of my most recent projects, the construction white paper that we did for ABB Robotics. It was my favourite for several reasons, one is that construction is one of my areas of interest. And two because of the way the project developed.
There was a potential case study that came in about ABB robots being used at the Venice Biennale, which is a yearly cultural event in Venice. The whole idea over the course of the event, which was a week or two weeks, was that this robot would sensitively plant this garden, and create a built environment. It was a very tangential way of showing that robotics is good for construction.
And then I was working with a guy called Nick O’Donnell, who at the time was the Marketing Communications Manager for robotics and we both sat there, and he said to me there’s a bigger story here, isn’t there? I just happened to mention to him that we had a couple of projects that I knew about where robots are being used for construction and it really took off from there. the whole thing developed into a white paper about robotics and construction. We ended up searching, writing and undertaking great interviews. I think the White Paper was 56 pages longs and that’s because of the conversation I had with Nick which commissioned a survey of 1,600 construction companies around the world asking about their attitudes toward vertical automation.
We completed the White Paper, undertook many case studies and off the back of the interviews they built the topical landing page, and we turned the construction survey results into an interactive guide. The European Union even picked up the White Paper.
What do you feel your strongest quality is?
Curiosity and empathy.
I’ve always wanted to know more. I think that was probably instilled in me by my parents, particularly my dad, not taking things at face value, questioning things and wanting to find out how things worked. One of the first books I remember having was an encyclopaedia from Woolworths or BHS and I loved it. Mine was history and it had everything in there from the Romans up to modern day. I remember that being the earliest spark, almost like I wanted to find out more about stuff and dig down research.
And I say empathy for various reasons, one is bringing new people on, you get a lot more out of it if you are empathic and sympathetic.
I think in terms of empathy, if you can empathise with the situation, you can understand it more.
What was your dream job growing up and why?
Starship captain. But it doesn’t exist.
I’ve started to think about a serious answer. My dad was a fireman. So, I went through a stage of wanting to be a fireman, but he talked me out of it. I wanted to be a Navy captain, but I was a bit concerned about my lack of mathematical prowess. God knows where we’ve ended up. So, I thought being a Starship Captain was quite safe because it doesn’t exist. One of my heroes, like most people growing up, was Captain Kirk, you always wanted to be whizzing around the universe on a big spaceship. So, if that position ever becomes available, unfortunately, I’ll be leaving Napier and taking that one.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I’m going to be 60. That is just incompatible with my brain.
It’s difficult to say because as far as I’ve got now, it’s been day-to-day. I’ve never really thought about it in terms of a long-term plan. I never really had any plan other than to be good at what I did. I think if I were to be cheesy, I’d say still working for a good team and looking for new ways to do things. That would probably be the best answer because in terms of progression I’m happy with what I’m doing. I like the fact I run this part of ABB, and I really like the way things are developing. So, I think if we keep going, this whole question of where I see myself is a question of where we see ourselves, in 10 years.
