The Work That Made Me: Oli Saunders
Oli Saunders is the global head of addressability and DCO at Wavemaker, where he oversees the group’s personalisation-at-scale proposition. He also sits on the Steering Committee of the Addressable Content Practise, GroupM’s joint venture with Hogarth, the production powerhouse. Prior to this, he was strategic advisor to GroupM’s DCO agency within Choreograph, before which he was the global chief product officer at Omnicom’s DCO house, Adylic. This spell in the Media industry came after 12+ years in Investment Banking, where Oli was the global head of alpha capture in Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets division (a quantitative, systematic discipline of finance), as well as spending time in Equity Advisory. He studied English Language and Literature at Nottingham University and is a photographer/videographer and jazz pianist and classical cellist when out of the office. The blend of a background in data and creative disciplines lends itself well to Addressability, and the models observed in the quantitative finance ecosystem help to inform an insight into Media’s future.
By training and practise, I am an Investment Banker focussing on the ‘Quantitative Finance’ space, who has found his way latterly into data-driven Media. I also dispatch the creative duties of a multi-award-winning lifestyle blog platform, but primarily think of myself as a Jazz Pianist before anything else. The work that formed me will be somewhat different to that which you’re accustomed to…
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
I have always had a soft spot for the evergreen Horse series from Lloyds Banking Group and remember them fondly from my youth in the 90s; I’m no equestrian, but they have evolved to be highly moving micro-epics. In a short 30 or 60 seconds, you reliably get a wave of awesome emotion that is often reserved for movie features.
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Almost certainly it was the Instagram platform. I was a latecomer to it in 2013, but as a photographer, the ability to curate a coherent narrative through the lens of their tools and features was a real draw. Inspired by the gloss of the European fashion bloggers’ content, it took me into influencer marketing as a second evenings-and-weekends job (an original Instagram Husband) whilst I worked at a Bank, and that experience almost certainly led me to the world of digital media.
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Errol Garner’s videos on YouTube. A uniquely happy style of piano, inspirational and aspirational in equal measure; whenever I need to stoke creative juices, I put on, for example, his version of Penthouse Serenade and it just sparks something… (that whole concert is exceptional, in case anyone would want to hear more!)
My first professional project…
My first project wasn’t ‘the work’, but rather the building of a data science facility, allowing the large-scale evaluation of media results against what was in the creative. Not exactly a masterpiece of advertising genius, but a critical piece of infrastructure allowing the industry to ask cheaply, quickly and easily the ‘so what’ questions of the adverts it has run in the past, and to help generate sharper results in the future.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Work, or even ‘the’ work, doesn’t tend to make me angry, or perhaps I just can’t recall it with as much ease! My system seems wired to remember the inspiring, positive content more vividly, and I draw more creative energy from those aspects.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
The VidMob explainer Sizzle video is a good piece of work – it’s not perfect, but as a video editor, I like the pace of the introductory segment. I also love the 3D-rendered pieces.
The creative project that changed my career…
Launching www.FitnessOnToast.com the multi-award winning, best-selling-book Lifestyle Blog platform with my wife; we were the first to do it in the UK. It was an outlet for me to hone my photography & videography skills, as well as develop my website capabilities. It led to a deep understanding of audience, platform, creative, copywriting, and business development.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Fatherhood sometimes feels like work, namely at 03:00. But it is also the endeavour through which I'm most fulfilled. Nothing else draws upon your creative skills, your audience-messaging, your test-and-learn strategies quite like an adorable 2-year-old.
I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
I recorded some Jazz Piano videos which I posted to YouTube in 2007; I had mumps at the time, I felt quite ill, and I was dressed in hugely unfashionable (yet quite comfortable) clothing, looking like a dishevelled mess. Those videos remain online today, are often referenced by colleagues and clients alike, and whilst I am relatively happy with the musical content, my appearance leaves much to be desired!
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
We’re currently working with a new-to-market SVOD service launching at scale in some 20+ markets, and we’re doing it in a hyper-relevant, data-driven way. The entertainment space is rich with iconic content and it’s the perfect client-led application of this approach. To me, it’s the purest expression of how to do advertising in today’s complex world.
