Giles Etherington, Brand Satellite
- Brand, Branding & Marketing

My career can be condensed into three sections:

The Corporate Creative

I was the youngest-ever art director to join J. Walter Thompson in London (part of the world’s largest advertising network), where I spent 11 years creating famous and award-winning advertising campaigns for some of the UK’s best-loved brands, including Andrex, BT, Nestlé and Kellogg’s.

I then moved to J. Walter Thompson San Francisco for 12 months, during the height of the dot-com boom.

The Creative Nomad

In the early noughties, I freelanced across Europe, with stints in London, Amsterdam and Athens. Working with multi-national clients including Heineken, Mitsubishi, TDK and Volvo.

I was in at the start of MVBMS Fuel Europe – an advertising agency set up in Amsterdam to handle the pan-European Volvo account.

I helped set up a new advertising, design and marketing agency in Jersey, which involved acquiring another agency and temporarily becoming the Executive Creative Director.

I also became the Creative Director of an advertising and marketing agency in Edinburgh, which was part of Bob Geldof’s Ten Alps multimedia empire.

The Strategic Consultant

Pretty much every career move has been to a smaller agency, where I have been afforded greater strategic input. The ultimate culmination of that journey was to set up my own business.

Following six years of running my own advertising and design agency (which I grew to a turnover of £250,000), I set up Brand Satellite to focus on my passion for brand creation, branding and brand communication.

Today, I use all the knowledge and experience I have gained from working with some of the world’s most famous brands to help founder-led businesses to think, look and act like big brands.