This week, armed with the promise of sex and drugs and How Brands Grow, we’ve waded our way through gaggles of groupies to catch ex-rock star, pitch addict and award winning creative, Nick Ellis. 
 
A respected strategic thinker and pre-watershed sex toy advert pioneer, Nick is Creative Partner & Co-Founder of Halo, a Design Week UK Top 100 independent brand agency based in Bristol. He has over 20 years’ experience working on significant global projects for clients including Jack Daniel’s, SEAT, BT, Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and Diageo. 

 
He talks to us on his failed career as a rock star, running an agency, why he’s ashamed of his “womb room”, tips on creative briefing, the importance of account management, making the world’s most boring advert for a sex toy client and loads more. Tune up, plug in and enjoy.

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Follow Nick on Twitter 
And on LinkedIn 
Check out his agency Halo 
Watch Wow How Now: A Creative Pitch Technique on ISOLATED Talks 
And check out the slides from his ZeeMelt talk on Account Management
Hovering Art Directors on Tumblr
 
Nick’s book recommendations are:

How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp 

Paid Attention by Faris Yakob 

Delusions of Brandeur by Ryan Wallman 

Strategy is Your Words by Mark Pollard 

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell 

Slade House by David Mitchell 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 

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