Propaganda’s founder Julian Kynaston took to the stage at last night’s Insider 2013 Yorkshire Digital and Technology Awards. He was invited to be guest speaker and Insider magazine took the opportunity to grill him in a Q & A session, first from editor Richard Abbott, and then from the audience of Yorkshire’s marketing and digital media set.
Julian’s story, told with style and substance, had the audience listening and laughing and the questions flowed thick and fast for 30 minutes.
He told of how he started Propaganda back in 1993, sharing tales and giving insights in to the journey from YTS screen printer to multi-million pound agency boss, from marketing director of ghd to the creation of Illamasqua, which is now the world’s fastest growing make-up brand.
“You’ve got to have passion for what you do. This is a fun business, but it can be a hard business at times, and at those times it’s the passion that will give you the drive to get you through”, was Julian’s response to what it takes to succeed and he went on to talk about how the digital industry has put advertising in a state of flux.
“The only products worth promoting are outstanding ones and in a digital world there is nowhere to hide if your products are anything less, particularly when it comes to social media. You will be found out, and fast. At Illamasqua we’ve truly embraced the blogging community in a way that has left other brands behind – and it’s worked far better than any ad ever could.”
“We’ve never sold Illamasqua, the world and world famous celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Courtney Love have come to us, because we invested every pound into the product and embraced the power of social communities to share our story. The product is at the heart of what we do – it is what we are as a brand.”
One of Julian’s closing comments was in response to a question about the future of digital and advertising agencies: “An agency that will succeed in the future is one that has a creative team who can work with clients to create truly outstanding products and services, and I’m proud to say that’s what we have at Propaganda.”
You can check out some of the comments and questions from last night’s awards on Twitter under the #yorksdigi hashtag. Congratulations to all the winners and we’ll see you there next year!