Andrea Foresi’s “New Solutions to the Same Old Problems” in a Tech-Driven World
Over the years, Andrea Foresi, associate creative director and art director at Media.Monks London, has honed his conceptual and - in his own words - “tech-driven” approach, while continuously breaking new ground, with a focus on digital.
Andrea has worked for a plethora of global and independent agencies and tackled the big issues for many major brands, including Bentley Motors, Microsoft, BMW, Mini, Shell and Nokia.
But it’s not art for art’s sake or tech for tech’s sake that drives this creative. Andrea says he wants to truly get into the nitty gritty and understand each client’s problem. Then, he can get to work solving it in an original and effective way – being creative and disruptive while building brand awareness and customer satisfaction.
“Mine is a ‘what if’ approach,” he says. What brought him to this point of his career is his firm belief that a winning idea cannot, and should not, be narrowed down to a specific medium. “And digital isn’t limited to social posts or web banners,” he adds. “The concept and the opportunity are everything.”
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Andrea about what it means to be disruptive in an ever-changing industry, his latest work for BMW, his most challenging projects and more.
LBB> What were the first proper steps you took towards pursuing your current career in creativity?
Andrea> I suppose I was as creative as any other child at that age. You know, playing with Lego, drawing anything on any surface and spending hours on arcade games. I’d say the latter was a real turning point. Then I did a bit of theatre, played heavy metal with a couple of bands… I’ve never considered myself to be ‘creative’ though.
I’ve never had a clear view of what my career would be. I jumped into computer engineering as a degree, because I was into tech, but the more I studied it the more I realised that wasn’t what I wanted. So I switched to business communications and among all the topics and classes, semiotics caught my attention. A teacher then suggested to me that a career in advertising could have been a good fit.
But, you know, coming from a small suburban town I had no idea of how to approach this nor where to start. So, I moved to Milan where I followed a one year master degree about advertising at the European Institute of Design (EID). I still remember the first question they asked me on the first day: “Are you an art director or a copywriter?”. I had no idea what they were talking about.
LBB> What was the moment in your career that led to new heights? Why was it so important to your growth?
Andrea> Right at the beginning of my career, I was lucky enough to work for one of the best companies in the world, Publicis Milan. I had the chance to meet and work with some of the most awarded creatives around and understand the processes behind those gold and platinum campaigns. That period was deeply enlightening - and quite stressful as well. It set my inner bar higher and I became extremely critical towards my own ideas as well. Good wasn’t enough. That experience reset my inner compass completely.
LBB> You've worked across a few agencies since Publicis, and many brands over the years - how do you think your creative vision has changed and why? Is it ever-changing?
Andrea> Working for various agencies and brands pushes you to recalibrate your approach at every single occasion. You can’t settle on one approach. Each client has a different problem. Each brief has a different strategy. And each agency has its own DNA. So you need to be open to changes, embrace everything and make it yours. All this puts you in a state of constant learning, which is - I won’t hide it - demanding. In the end, you’re not just expanding your creative portfolio, you are training and extending your lateral thinking as well. You own more points of view, you have more choices, you make more comparisons. You see and understand which process works best, which one needs amends and which one doesn’t work at all. I’d say it’s a constant evolution.
LBB> You say you have a 'tech-driven' approach - what does that mean in the age of AI for you? You recently did a huge campaign with BMW for Sky Arts, tell us more about that as well.
Andrea> When I work on an idea, and when the brief allows it, I always question whether there’s a chance to bring it to life by using specific tech. I say ‘when the brief allows it’, because I don’t want to force tech into something if there’s no need for it. I’m tech-driven, yes (a nice way to say I’m a geek - but who isn’t nowadays?), but I’m not the tech for tech’s sake kind of creative. The risk is to produce something like one of those metaverse or NFT projects that are all similar to each other. Technology can be helpful indeed but needs to be savoured. Concept comes first, always.
And that’s why when we received the BMW’s first technology campaign brief in partnership with Sky Arts, my first goal was to find the link between art and tech, without jumping straight away into a gimmicky solution. And that link was the human touch, which opened micro-gateways to beautiful scenes. And then we developed the idea, also with the help of AI.
LBB> What are you most excited about on the new tech front?
Andrea> I see tech as a tool. It can help me to realise and facilitate whatever idea I have in mind. And this is quite exciting for me because it opens new possibilities. When talking about new technologies - or shall I say generative AI, the current buzzword - I’m not really nervous about its implementation in advertising. To me, the real problem is when creativity becomes tech-focused only. It’s a mere display of power people will easily and quickly forget.
LBB> Being disruptive while bringing brand awareness is something you value highly in your work. How does a creative remain disruptive in an ever-changing industry? Where do you find your inspiration?
Andrea> If I could have one penny for every time I read the word ‘disruptive’ in a brief… The reality is, I can’t always be disruptive. I try, though. I start by understanding the problem. What’s the issue the client is facing? Why is it a problem right now? Is there anything we can or can’t change? And then I move on and try to develop a solution. I check around to see if anybody else came up with the same result and, if it happened, I scratch the work and restart.
When I find a territory that hasn’t been explored yet, that’s where I find my originality. It’s never that easy by the way. Sometimes when I come up with ideas too easily, I tend to disregard them. If it’s that easy, it means everyone could come up with something similar. So I push myself to look elsewhere, to find that unique creative thinking whenever possible.
LBB> And where do you find your main inspirations? Have they remained the same over the years, or have they drastically changed?
Andrea> I believe you can find inspiration in everything - a new series on Netflix, a video game, an art exhibition, a cool social media post you find while doom scrolling, a chat with a friend over a beer. Those are the best occasions. I tend to save whatever I find fascinating and intriguing. So I bookmark everything, note down everything and so on.
LBB> What has your most challenging project been to date and what kind of lessons did you pick up from it that are still with you today?
Andrea> That BMW project mentioned earlier wasn’t that easy, mainly because I spent four days on set with a temperature of 39°C.
The most challenging one though was the ‘Switch Mode’ campaign we did at Keko (now McCann IPG) for Bentley in 2019. I was working on the global launch for the new Bentley Continental GT Speed, the most powerful Bentley ever. So we wanted to showcase power, energy, performance and luxury at the same time.
I came up with a precise art direction, based on strong and vivid red hues and dynamic shots through a mix of modern cities and cool landscapes. Initially we wanted to shoot two films in South Africa, but because of the covid pandemic and few other issues, we had to cut down to one film only and opt for a different location - Manchester. In winter.
The day of the recce, everything was covered in snow. Starting the following day, the weather got better - it was cloudy and rainy. So we had to go through lots of changes, last minute decisions and dramas while managing the convertible car model photo shoot as well. It was a long and stressful shoot, but it ended up being a pretty good campaign. That’s when I learnt that having a backup plan of the backup plan sometimes is not enough. You need to be constantly open to challenges and quite reactive.
LBB> You say you have what you call a ‘what if' approach - tell us more about that mentality and how it helps your creativity.
Andrea> Asking myself ‘what if’ helps me put things into perspective. It requires me to know the brief, the problem and its many facets pretty well. It forces me to consider everything in order to move to the next step, to find a solution. It’s the ‘ergo’ moment: I take everything into account, I check all the boxes and ‘therefore’ I do something. Someone could say this is a very logical process. My answer is that creativity and logic are not opposites. They simply work together. It’s one thing.
LBB> Where do you see your creativity going in the next few years? How do you challenge yourself to keep on top of everything?
Andrea> New technologies will have an impact for sure and I think we will have more and more ways to measure creative effectiveness, get better insights and directions. Creativity will be more on point, original, integrated and impactful, with a better understanding of the audience and the world we live in. Hopefully it will be more and more inclusive, truly inclusive and, above all, fun. We are seeing a return to more entertaining campaigns but there’s still quite a bit of work to do. In the meantime, I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done - try to find new solutions to the same old problems.
LBB> What are your passions and hobbies outside of work?
Andrea> I spend quite a lot of time on video games. Everytime there’s a new big title out, I’m on it. I can’t miss it. I also play lots of table games. I record my own music: I play guitar, bass guitar and piano/synth. Then I send everything to my computer and see what happens. But I’m not ready for the international stage. Not yet. Whenever I can, I help the ACDI (Italian Art Directors Club) as well, with portfolio reviews or any other event, despite the geographic distance. I know there are so many junior creatives in my home region and surrounding areas who would like a career in advertising but have no direction or unanswered questions. Those are the same problems I had years ago when I started. So I try to contribute as much as I can.
