How a Bit of Confidence, a Lot of Posting and a €20 Ring Light from Argos Changed Rob Mayhew's Life

On Wednesday 15th May, IAPI hosted Rob Mayhew, content creator and comedic truth-teller in a special event. 

Rob’s long career in advertising informs his hilarious and unique take on the industry. He delights thousands of ad-landers with his social media sketches that hold a mirror up to agency life.

In his performance for IAPI, Rob and his team were about to meet with a potential new client for a ‘new business chemistry meeting’ which some of the morning’s audience referred to as “equal parts funny, and embarrassingly relatable”. From a complicated check-in process, to tech issues, wrong slides and missing team members, he had the room in stitches with how accurate (and awkward) these meetings really are.

The event was MC’d by Aoife McCleary, Forsman and Bodenfors Dublin and IAPI board member. Following Rob’s performance she quizzed Rob about his journey to being ‘adlands favourite social media star’ and what we can all learn about putting funny back into the work.

When asked about his experience with TikTok, Rob shared how a few years ago, he had fallen out of love with social. He felt brands were paying big bucks for high production videos that nobody was seeing. Everything was so samey and boring. But everything changed for him with the arrival of TikTok. Loving the freedom of the platform, he became an expert, learning everything there was to know about it. Then using his comedy experience, he just started writing scripts and filming them in his home. 

One of his most viewed sketches includes his video on ‘Not knowing how to behave when you show a mood film in a pitch’. In it, he awkwardly bobs his head along to Justice's We Are Your Friends, smiles nervously, mouths the lyrics, and gives the audience a thumbs up. And more recently, his sketch on ‘Telling gen z what Fridays in the office used to be like’ has racked up hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok and LinkedIn. 

In addition to his own daily content, he’s worked with many brands, and shared why he thinks content creators are a brilliant way for them (brands) to inject a little more humour into their social presence. ‘We creators spend thousands of hours making mistakes and learning the craft. So, we truly are experts. In truth, humour doesn’t work for every brand, but once you find that unique insight, there are so many opportunities to stand out and be funny. I think brands just need to reframe their way of working, be more agile and not to be afraid of being original.’

As for tips on how to win on social, he shared three key things.

1. ‘Just go for it. I thought I was too old and too late. And this was four years ago. I had written strategies for TikTok, but like most people in strategy, I had never been on TikTok myself. What completely changed everything for me was buying a cheap €20 ring light from Argos, then picking up my phone, and just going for it. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re too late. Follow your dreams.’

2. ‘Find your voice. When I first started making my silly sketches, I was posting eight times a day. Then six months in, I did my first office sketch and that changed everything. People like relatable things, so I decided to go even more niche with agency life. And I went from hundreds of views to tens of thousands overnight.’

3. ‘Write everything down. I’m always watching and taking notes because the real world is so funny to me, and it's why my sketches are almost always true. Once you start paying attention to the world around you, you find so much inspiration in daily life.’

As for ‘what’s next’ for Rob, he will be judging at Cannes Lions this year, but also hinted that he has a YouTube content series in the works, and maybe even a book on the horizon… so watch this space. And follow him here.