Steve Harrison is a British

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

and author. He has won more

Cannes Lions The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

awards than any other creative director.

Career in Advertising

Born in Blackpool, Steve Harrison completed a doctoral thesis on American Society, Cinema, and Television: 1950–1960 at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. At the age of 30, he traveled to London and secured a researcher position at

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

. After 11 months, he was hired as a copywriter at Ogilvy and Mather Direct after their global vice chairman, Drayton Bird, noticed a report that Harrison had written. In 1989, he was made Head of Copy at the agency, and by 1997, he was European Creative Director. In 2001, Harrison founded Harrison Troughton Wunderman after the

Wunderman Wunderman was a New York City-based global digital agency. It was part of Young & Rubicam Brands and a member of international advertising group WPP Group (). On November 26, 2018, WPP announced it was merging Wunderman with the world's oldest ...

owned agency Impiric purchased Harrison's Agency, HPT Brand Response. The agency went on to produce a number of campaigns for brands including Xerox, IBM, Microsoft, Vodafone, and Rolls-Royce. In 2006, Harrison became the first Creative Director to head up the Direct Jury at the

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

. In 2007 Steve Harrison stood down as Worldwide Creative Director of Wunderman following a management restructure of the Advertising Agency.

Awards

Harrison has won three gold, five silver, and two bronze Lions for his work.

Study of Howard Gossage

In 2012, Steve Harrison authored a book on the advertising pioneer

Howard Gossage Howard Luck Gossage (1917–1969), frequently referred to as "The Socrates of San Francisco," was an advertising innovator and iconoclast during the "Mad Men" era. He is known for having said that, "The object of your advertising should not be to ...

entitled 'Changing the world is the only fit work for a grown man'. Harrison's study of Howard Gossage began when he came across Gossage's book 'Is there any hope for advertising' in the library of

Ogilvy and Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

New York. Harrison started out intending to make a documentary about Howard Gossage with a friend. He wrote a treatment for this documentary, which then became the outline for his book.

Published works

In 2010, Steve Harrison authored the book 'How to do better creative work'. In their review of the book, Campaign Magazine called it 'essential reading for anyone looking to demystify the creative process'. The book became the most expensive advertising book of all time when it was traded on

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

for $3,000 per copy.Details of Harrison's book trading online
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Steve British copywriters Living people Year of birth missing (living people)