Dream Teams: Peter Defries and Alan Wilson Bring Breakthrough Ideas to 10+ American Icons

Now both senior vice presidents and group creative directors at BBH USA, Peter Defries and Alan Wilson first crossed paths in Australia, working at SapientNitro (now Publicis Sapient). Originally from Brisbane, Alan remembers getting to know his future creative partner while playing beach volleyball on a work trip in Peter’s hometown, Sydney.

“He had a look of determination, a highly competitive vibe, and a vicious serve. You could say we clicked straight away. Thirteen years on and he still has the determination and the highly-competitive vibe… But it’s been some time since I’ve seen him serve a volleyball.” 

At the time, Peter was a junior art director, while Alan was a project manager-by-day and attending ad school at night. “I thought that was super impressive,” says Peter. “When the opportunity came up to work on a Young Lions brief together, I jumped at it knowing how driven and hard-working Alan was. Turns out I was right because we clicked like a team that had been working together for years and, more importantly, made the final.”

One based in Brisbane, the other in Sydney, the two spent hours on the phone during that project, and came away with a desire to collaborate again. “Unfortunately, it took years for that to finally happen,” says Alan.

The pair would eventually reconnect at DISCIPLE Sydney, when Alan freelanced on a sportswear project for Peter. “We came up with the pitch-winning idea, Alan was hired the next week, I had a new partner, and the rest is history.”

Peter continues, explaining how their dynamic clicked instantly and involves a lot of overlap in their roles. “Alan and I are both obsessive about ideas and always work on pen and paper first, which has meant we blur the lines between art and copy and have been on the same page from day one – quite literally. Some of our most visual ideas have come from Alan’s brain.”

Above: Jif - 'The Merger'

Alan returns the praise, saying, “Pete’s easily one of the best art directors out there, but what a lot of people don’t know is that he’s also an incredible writer. He can do it all. That makes my job a LOT easier as I trust him more than anyone else on scripts, headlines, and basically anything with words. The great thing about that, now that we’re in a more managerial position, is we can easily divide and conquer, if we have to.” 

Now elevated as GCDs at BBH USA, the pair lead creative for PSOne, bringing some Aussie flair to more than 10 iconic J.M. Smucker brands - Jif peanut butter, Folgers coffee and Milk-Bone pet snacks to name a few.

“What has excited us the most about PSOne has been working on these iconic American brands that have lived in the psyche and zeitgeist for decades, and bringing newer and younger audiences along for the ride,” says Peter. “In the beginning, PSOne set out to do something that had never been done before, creatively transforming 10 iconic but stuffy American brands, in the space of a year, into brands that would resonate with contemporary audiences. All these years later it’s hard to believe that we did it. And we’re currently doing it again with the newly acquired Hostess brand, which has been super exciting.”

“Australia doesn’t have the budgets that America has, so we had to learn how to break through without breaking the bank,” adds Alan. “As a result, it’s all about the idea. We still try to keep that philosophy even though we’re now working with American budgets, and it’s worked out for us!” 

While all the J.M. Smucker brands bring something unique, Peter admires Jif’s historic presence at the forefront of major creative breakthroughs. The peanut butter brand became the “guinea pig” for PSOne’s brand transformation endeavour with the launch of the irreverent ‘That Jif’ing Good’ platform and sci-fi epic TV spot, ‘Bunker’. “Jif now felt more tonally at home in the candy aisle than in the spreads aisle, and it set the standard for the rest of the brands to come,” explains Peter.

Above: Jif - 'Save the Celery'

“The next breakthrough came in the form of disruptive culture hacks with ‘#JifvsGif’ and ‘The Lil Jif Project’, and has since become a way that all of our brands behave. Because these brands are culture.” 

Now having looked after these classic American brands at BBH for two years, Alan shares that they were initially surprised to find a new, fulfilling passion for the management side of their role. “As much as we loved writing, creating, crafting and doing the work (and we did), mentoring the teams below us and watching them grow has added a whole new level of joy.” 

The duo has also seen personal growth as a creative partnership – a dynamic they describe as built on friendship and fun, bouncing ideas around and making each other laugh whenever possible.

“We’re fortunate enough for our partnership to have never been truly tested,” says Peter. “We’ve been hired onto accounts that were already in the process of firing the agency, moved agencies only to be boomeranged back to the previous agency with the account, moved continents with no job, and even spent six months living and working together – and we made it out all the better for it. Like every partnership in life, we certainly have our moments, but we tend to resolve any conflict as quickly as it starts (usually over a few beers).”

The closest situation to a true test came during the lockdown days of covid – when remote work began to take its toll. “It not only sucked all the fun out of what we do, we found that it took much longer to get to the right ideas than if we were in person,” says Alan. “And this went on for months and months.” 

“But this tough moment also brought one of the best moments,” he adds. “As soon as it was legal, Pete and I caught up at a bar. I think we did about 30 minutes of work and spent the next few hours catching up, laughing, and drinking beers at a record pace. It was such a fun night but the best thing was the next day we realised (with sore heads) that we cracked two briefs in the 30 minutes of work we actually did. It made us really appreciate the actual facetime (not digital) we get with each other.”

This in-person socialising is an important part of their friendship and working relationship alike. One of their daily rituals is their morning coffee walk – “and it’s not just because of our caffeine addictions”. They use these to touch base on work, but also to discuss movies, music, Australian rugby league and more. “It’s one of our routines that has really helped us keep up to date with everything going on, from a work point of view and personal.”

Milk-Bone - 'Howl You Know Trailer'

Reflecting on their journey together so far, from Australia to New York, Peter describes Alan as “the wildcard and disruptor of the partnership”, celebrating how the pair have found a long lasting balance. “Where I can sometimes be a little too methodical, strategic and logical, Alan will throw something left of field into the mix which often turns out to be brilliant,” he says, adding how Alan’s ambition and drive has also pushed him further and faster than he’d thought possible.

“Whether it’s career moves, changes in title, or moving to a different continent, the ability to just take the plunge and figure it out after is something that took me a long time to get comfortable with but something I’m grateful to have learned from Al. I remember I had been planning and putting off talking about our move to the US for almost a year, and when I finally told he was like, ‘screw it, let’s do it’. He didn’t really hesitate and that’s what I’ve always loved about him.”

Likewise, Alan shares that he learns from Peter on a daily basis – one of the most significant lessons being “the importance of being extremely buttoned up” for everything. “And not just his awesome shirts!” he jokes. “It doesn’t matter if you’re presenting to a packed-out auditorium or presenting a script to your CD; over-prepare, over-deliver, and be thorough in everything.” 

“The other thing about Pete is that he never settles and he keeps pushing the work. He’s always looking to improve, and it’s rubbed off on me. We just keep asking ourselves, ‘Is this the best idea?’, ‘Is this the best way to execute it?’, ‘What else can we do?’. It’s these questions that have led to our work going from great to incredible,” he continues. “But he also does the same thing as a leader: ‘How can we be better managers?’, ‘Is there anything we can do to move the business forward?’. 

He’s made me a better creative, a better leader, and a better person.”