This Channel 4+ campaign features two fictional daytime TV presenters who gradually descend into an existential meltdown as they realize an ad-free future will result in them losing their jobs.
To launch Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill we made a collection of on bizarre on-air ads and social posts that promoted the ‘Killer bar’ which Joe used to highlight how bad and unpoliced the protein / fitness bar industry really is.
This is a project I worked on with the acclaimed British fashion photographer Miles Aldridge.
Using my concept of ‘Get Ready For Married At First Sight’ we encouraged Miles to lean into his highly stylized, vividly saturated, and cinematic photographic style.
He did exactly that and the result was a beautiful collection of posters full of amazing little details and intricate set design.
To celebrate Channel 4 being ‘Altogether Different’ I had the idea to immortalise one of Channel 4’s most iconic moments – A Come Dine With Me contestant tying to lick chocolate off a whisk in the strangest way humanly possible.
Thus the ‘Whisk Face Filter’ was born. It was loved by all - especially Joe Lycett.
In a world ruled by algorithms the concept behind The Unalgorithmy Algorithm was to create a streaming platform that serves up what you watch in the most unhinged ways humanly possible.
This alternative to the mainstream was a fun place to find content whilst creatively it was the gift that keeps on giving.
See site here: https://www.channel4.com/collection/the-un-algorithmy-algorithm
Whilst other brands clamoured for ad space during the Superbowl I thought why don’t we promote all of Channel 4’s shows with super bowls in them instead?
So we did. And it is potentially the best (and only) Super Bowl ad ever made.
The brief on this was simple: How do we let people know The Simpsons is on E4?
My response was even simpler: Add the word E4 to the shows iconic theme tune and put E4’s everywhere on screen.
The result is an ear worm of a song that embeds in everyones heads that The Simpsons is on E4.
The Inheritance is about a group of strangers battling it out to get their hands on a glamorous benefactors Cash.
We decided for the posters it would be fitting to place The icon that is Liz Hurley in a coffin filled with cash and opulent paraphernalia.
We also shot a dark teaser to launch the show and intrigue the audience…and it was also quite creepy shooting in a graveyard in which we had dug a grave for Liz.
The concept for this creative was that Channel 4 comedy is so funny it should be illegal. That thought was then pushed as far as possible to create a criminally funny clips promo.
Channel 4's #AltogetherDifferent TikTok campaign was an award-winning (Greatest TikTok award) branded hashtag challenge created by 4creative that blended the popular "tell me without telling me" trend with diverse creators and accessibility features.
This creative say us crank up the comedy on Channel 4. Its a bizarre night out in a ropey club with some of Channel 4’s most famous faces.
The work included on air, social and some weird dancing.
This was the first AI advert ever made by Channel 4.
Whilst making it we wanted to break the AI just like the show Open House sometimes breaks couples.
The results were amazing and the visual nightmare really reflected the living nightmare that some couples have when the reality of watching their partners wander off to the bedroom with a stranger hits them.
Cricetopher is where I store my strange thoughts on Instagram. it’s basically what you’d see if you cracked my head open with a sledgehammer.
Click here to take a look.
Nothing is more fun than turning your head into a scotch egg or doughnut. This creative and insane filter created sharable content across social.
We partnered with influencers to create reach and let the nation know that Bake off was back.
The idea of 4Newswall was to convey news through animated gifs. When the project started roughly the next year of my life consisted of reading the news and making 5-8 animations a day.
The whole project was a lot of work but changed my life as it pretty much forced me to learn how to animate on the job – There is no better way to learn new skills than when under pressure…and with Jon Snow sitting in your eye line.
Falling is a show starring Keely Hawes and Paapa Essiedu about a forbidden love between a catholic Priest and Nun.
We created striking imagery of the forbidden lovers embracing in stain glass. building a real stain glass window added authenticity to the piece and the graffiti denouncing their love for each other created a fusion of old religion in the modern world.
This concept uses an absolute banger of a tune and combines it with Easter….and somehow it works.
This trail was made to highlight how funny Channel 4’s comedies are. But the concept was to take that a step further and say our content is so funny you could do yourself some real damage watching and laughing at it.
As part of this 360 campaign, we constructed a special build glory hole for the launch of Big Boys series 2.
What was also highly amusing was the fact that when viewing Big Boys through the glory holes it made you look like you were using the glory holes as God intended.
The writers cast and influencers all got involved and really did enjoy using the glory holes.
Originally Channel 4 rejected Taskmaster. Years later they recognised the error of their ways and acquired it.
This ad jokingly apologises for the "terrible mistake" Channel 4 made.
There was also a huge amount of social content created and a great OOH to create an incredible 360 campaign.
Here are some examples of ridiculous and engaging was I promoted Bake off and provided in series social support.
To launch Derry Girls, we created some school portraits that conveyed each character’s personality, there were also stings and some Teletext inspired social that lends itself well to the era of the show and more importantly is funny. This content ran across on air and social.
I created this beautiful graphic concept for the show Europe: The Final Debate with Jeremy Paxman
The print and on air campaign were seamlessly connected and really spoke to a nation completely undecided and unsure which way the vote on the eve of the referendum.
Channel 4 wanted to encourage people to adopt animals* so I made some gifs from the on air promo and wrote some funny copy to promote the show on Twitter and Instagram.
(*I adopted a Badger).
This was an internal C4 project.
The channel wanted to find out more about their staff. But as most people are uber paranoid about surveys so I thought it’d be best to confront the elephant in the room by bringing up subjects people would never want to talk about.
I was asked to gif all the best bits from the We're the Superhumans Ad for use on Channel 4’s social platforms. It sounds simple but I hate a gif that jumps. It always needs to be a seamless complete loop so take a look and let me know if I failed.
Weirdly around the time my own Dad died I started drawing workmates Dads. The rules were: Tell me a max of 5 things about your Dad and I’ll draw him. I guess I used it as therapy or as a good way to quickly stockpile a load of Dad drawings.
Contact me and I might draw your Dad.
For this 360 campaign i took inspiration from the fact that In the first series of Utopia some unlucky guy got his eye scooped out with a spoon.
So I thought why not use that eye as the ‘O’ in UTOPIA?
Then on the back of that we came up with a face swapping data stealing social experience. Watch the showreel for to get a more in depth understanding.
In series social support is vital for Bake Off and here are some examples of weird and wonderful ways I created thumb stopping content for the Great British public.
This was a quick turnaround print ad for which I had to write the copy and art direct.
The brief was to celebrate the shows success whilst also having fun with the themes of Virgin Island.
4creative wanted to send out a Christmas card and coming off the back of the ‘We are the Superhumans’ campaign I thought a sign language card would be nice. Then I realised it’s a bloody nightmare animating hands at the best of times let alone when they actually have to say something.
This was an exciting partnership between MONZO & Channel 4. It gave us the opportunity to film with Roisin Conaty and place her into scenes withing some of Channel 4’s most loved shows.
I told you this was random...
This project required design and art direction and allowed me to create bespoke social and print assets.
All 4 wanted to encourage people to feast their eyeballs on their box sets.
Anytime I can animate some of Noel Fieldings weirdness I'm happy.
This conceptual, clip based shoot for Late Night Lycett was a delight to work on. We shot in Joes favourite café in Birmingham - Bournville Café.
Funny script, amazing wardrobe and phenomenal fry up.
Channel 4’s on demand service All 4 likes to send congratulate every user on their birthday each year. I was asked to come up with the messaging creative and make it.
These animations are the first step to receiving your gift – It had a 33% open rate which is really good apparently and was seen by around 3million people.
This was a strange quiz I invented for Celebrity Bake off. It a was a bit like Catchphrase with Hollywood A-listers. Some were easy and some were tricky, either way it was fun for all and social gold with mass engagement.
Here are some Great British Bake Off pun-tastic song titles to promote GBBO for Channel 4 across various social platforms. I apologise in advance for how bad some of the puns are.
Its all about the GC. This was a bespoke shoot for Celebs Go Dating where we had them all kissing the screen, how romantic.
Channel 4 was airing the 1966 world cup (spoiler alert: We lost). So i created a classic tap and hold game that helped a new generation learn a bit about some genuine footballing legends.
Some strange work got made during covid.
Channel 4 aired an animated version of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. It was great but I’m convinced that Bear would have mauled all those kids in a heartbeat - So I made an alternate ident.
We created a 3d model render of Hollyoaks iconic sign and used it to tease the upcoming storyline in which worlds would collide across social and on-air.
The tagline of ‘You do the MAFS’ allowed us to have some fun across this 360 campaign by posing show related observations back to the audience.
This made people feel part of the conversation and encouraged them to talk about it across their socials.
These are a collection of award-winning fun radio / Spotify ad. The highlight being asking our audience if they love for skins?
Discover is a place that allows me to have fun copywriting. It’s always very quick turnaround and an opportunity to think of new ways to write about multiple show titles for DOOH around the country.
The Gathering is a British mystery thriller series for Channel 4, written by Helen Walsh.
To support its nationwide launch, we developed a targeted campaign spanning DOOH and social content. The creative direction and copywriting were rooted in the central themes, tension and mystery of the series, translating its distinctive tone into bold, engaging executions designed to capture attention across multiple platforms and build anticipation ahead of launch.
Tresspassers is about A Catholic teacher and a Protestant solicitor defending IRA members engage in a forbidden relationship amidst the tensions of 1970s Northern Ireland.
Marketing wanted a OOH that reflected the tension of the situation whilst being sure to hero the talent.
When Channel 4 first purchased Bake Off for a sizeable amount of money it fell to me to make some seriously pun based animations for Instagram and Twitter to highlight the theme of each week.
The show was a ratings success which was completely down to my copy, art direction and animation skills….or in spite of them.
Here are some social posts made to promote Formula 1 on Channel 4.
Rumour has it Lewis Hamilton loved them and still talks about them to this day.
This was Channel 4’s first ever Christmas brand campaign and helped people reflect on what a difficult and challenging year 2020 was whilst also raising a smile and encouraging everyone to be a little more accepting of each other.
What better way to Launch MAFS Australia than by having the bride and groom bursting through a poster on a Great White.
‘Down under takes over’ was also a fun line and a nod to the insight that MAFS Australia can become all-consuming for fans of the show.
To relax i draw on the train.
