CAREERS: Cozens aims to give HSBC consistency

Red has signed up London adland heavy-hitter Mike Cozens as its executive creative director. The 29-year veteran of the London ad scene took up his new post at the Hong Kong-based Bates subsidiary, which is dedicated to the HSBC account, in mid-May, and will head its 10-strong creative team. Before joining Red, Cozens spent six years at Young & Rubicam's London office, first of all as creative director for London, and latterly for the whole of Europe. He was also the agency's deputy worldwide creative director. Cozens, who comes from a copy writing background, said that the biggest attraction of coming to work for Red was the chance to devote himself to a single account and have a personal impact on the creative strategy. "When you're a creative director, you work a bit on this and a bit on that, but you don't really get the opportunity to focus, and to really make a difference on one account," he commented. "You tend to pick your favourites. This is a chance to really concentrate on the HSBC business. It's also a chance to get back to actually writing stuff." He said that the opportunity to be based in a single office, rather than roaming around a region, as he did in Europe, was also a factor. "The trouble is that you get to know the check-in staff at Heathrow Airport better than you know the ads," he joked. In addition to Y&R, Cozens has also worked at BBH, where he was one of the founding partners in 1982. His other previous jobs include commercials director for Ian Single Films and deputy creative director for TBWA. At Y&R, he created major campaigns for Ford and Pirelli, among others, and has also worked for other financial services companies including Barclays and NatWest. He is a Cannes Grand Prix award winner, and has also scooped two D&AD Golds and three British television advertising awards Grand Prix. Cozens said that his main aim at Red was to bring more consistency to HSBC's advertising. "HSBC has been a series of one-offs, and I'm trying to make it so that we do more campaignable ideas," he commented. "I know HSBC do a lot of different products, but I'll be trying to get some consistency on the account." He added that he was responsible for a similar exercise when he worked on the Ford account at Y&R London. Before moving to Hong Kong, Cozens had been intending to take a six-month break from advertising after leaving Y&R to write a novel, but cut it short by two months to join Red.

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