No idea is too weird or absurd for multi-award-winning advertising maven Richard – aka Rick – Brim to consider. In fact, the Chief Creative Officer of adam&eveDDB thrives on bonkers, leftfield thinking and mines the creativity of a team that’s delivered some of the most applauded ad campaigns in the world today.
It’s not hard to see why the communications agency was named Advertising Agency of the Decade by Campaign magazine – under Brim’s direction since 2013, it’s won seven Grand Prix awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and has also won loyal fans for the brave, emotional work for which it’s best known.
Campaign’s Creative Person of the Year in 2018 and Chief Creative Officer of the Year in 2019, Brim’s brilliance finds expression in a range of virtuoso campaigns.
He’s known as the ‘King of Christmas’ for his heart-hugging holiday campaigns, including ‘The Boy and the Piano’ for John Lewis & Partners, which tells the story of Sir Elton John’s first piano, and the shamelessly adorable ‘Monty the Penguin’, again for John Lewis.
He also made yuletide waves with his hilarious ‘Sorry, I Spent it on Myself’ campaign for Harvey Nichols, encouraging shoppers to put themselves at the top of their gifting lists in 2013.
He’s consistently produced stand-out work for clients ranging from H&M, PlayStation, Samsung, Virgin Media and Lloyds Bank to The National Lottery in the UK, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Cybersmile, Save the Children and the AA Charitable Trust.
Project 84 for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) saw street artist Mark Jenkins and families who have lost their loved ones to suicide creating 84 sculptures representing the number of real lives lost to suicide each week in the UK. The sculptures were positioned on the edge of rooftops in London.
With more than 20 years’ experience in the UK ad industry, Brim should have a know-it-all attitude, but conspicuously doesn’t, preferring to ask questions, try something new, step out of his comfort zone and collaborate with his teammates.
The Mancunian, who claims he entered the ad industry because he feared he wouldn’t be able to make a living as a photographer or designer, studied graphic design at Central Saint Martins arts and design college in London, then worked for a succession of agencies (Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, Leo Burnett and CHI&partners) before moving to adam&eveDDB.
Refreshingly modest and empathetic, he redefines what a traditionally hard-nosed ad man should look like and brings his unique sense of investment in making a difference to #DI2020.
Follow @aandeddb on Instagram and @brimmus on Twitter.