The Work That Made Me: Simon Hewitt

Simon is the co-founder and client partner at the Orange Panther Collective, the strategic and creative agency who make advertising that builds the next big things. Prior to the OPC Simon worked at the likes of M&C Saatchi, AMV BBDO, Leo Burnett on behemoth brands such as Guinness, Red Bull, McDonald’s and the BBC.

The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Simon> The epic milk ad with the two little Liverpool fans chatting and one being told by Ian Rush (legend – yes I’m a red) that if he didn't drink his milk he’d only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley… “Who are they???” Loved it.

Simon> You’ve been tangoed – the original from 1991. It was the first time I remember seeing an ad that totally stood out, was wonderfully whacky but also made sense. It made me want to create work like that. I got into Tango for a while after I’d seen the campaign (until the immense sugar levels just became too much and I realised why the Tango man was quite so manic).

Simon> I will break from everything being about ads for second and say either Joshua Tree (very obvious choice I know) or Van Morrison’s Moondance. Timeless, emotionally rousing brilliance.

My first professional project…

Simon> My first job in the industry was at M&C Saatchi. I was half on the grad scheme and half working live on the Dixons Stores Group account. Think there was a bit of snobbery in the building about the ‘dirty retail’ DSG account, and yes the output was pretty vanilla, but man it taught me a lot about client relationships as we made about 30 ads per week…. Also made some great friends there.

Simon> Not sure it made me so angry, but I just never got the Confused.com campaign with James Corden and then some other fella in the old Merc (was a nice car though). Just felt random, messy and very unclear as to what the point was. Made myself promise we wouldn’t make any lame work when we started the OPC.

Simon> Sorry for the cliché but I have to say Guinness Surfer. I was lucky enough to work on Guinness at AMV in the mid noughties, helping on the ‘noitulovE’ ad (Evolution backwards – aka Mudskipper). It was a great ad and I was very proud, but in all honesty everything was in the shadow of Surfer. Such an epic ad and what an amazing music choice. Oh and Good Things Come To Those Who Wait is still one of the best examples of flipping a negative into a massively valuable positive USP that has ever existed. Hats off to the strategic brains involved as always.

Simon> OK so I doubt many people will know much about this but I’d say it was the Life on Mars Season 2 campaign that I led at Red Bee (basically predecessor to BBC Creative). We turned the whole of BBC One back to the 1970's (which is when LoM is set), taking over all the idents and junctions, making all promos 1970’ified. We also made a brilliant piece of experiential ‘The Rules of Modern Policing’ booklet that we gave out at cinemas and events, and won a D&AD Wooden pencil.

Simon> Ouch, tough one to call. I should probably say one of the campaigns I’ve led for the likes of Guinness, BBC, McDonald’s, Sainsbury’s or Red Bull but I think it has to be one of the first notable campaigns we made at OPC – our work for Fentimans back in 2022. The craft in here is immense, we took a long time building this dark, mystical, slightly unnerving world in order to elevate the positioning around alchemy. Then paired that with copy that talked to a healthy self awareness and sense of playfulness hats off to the core team of Russel Weaver (v talented art director) and Nigel Roberts (OPC’s creative partner and copywriter extraordinaire) on this.

Simon> Watch here – say no more.

Simon> I’m a big fan of our recent work with the Financial Times and the most exciting point was probably when we launched our second brand film ‘Without Fear & Without Favour’ as a massive projection onto County Hall on the Southbank, opposite the Houses of Parliament on the eve of the United Nations’ National Day of Democracy. That was big. And the work is really good.

Main film.

Projection build up.