Biography

Phil was born in Yorkshire, brought up in Nottingham, studied mathematics at Loughborough and spent much of his working life at J Walter Thompson and Carat.  He is known for his creativity, innovation and vision.  For example, Phil was the first person in the wordwide J Walter Thompson company to have a personal computer.  He helped re-affirm the Agency's positioning as "University of Advertising" by persuading the ad industry's science journal Admap to run an entire issue of articles written by JWT.

Phil's time at Carat began in 1992 when he joined Carat UK to run the central research division, Carat Research Ltd with a brief to develop innovative tools that increase the effectiveness of advertising.  Key successes in this area were Foretel TV Appreciation and Attention Research, The Carat Research Awareness Model and the Carat Effective Exposure study programme – which revealed how advertising works in the context of repeated exposure to a campaign.  He also created the Ad-itudes segmentation that identifies how different consumers are likely to respond to a campaign and the “Budget Bearings Model” for setting advertising budget through a risk assessment process.

When Carat Insight UK was formed in 1997 through the merger of Carat Research and Yershon Media Management, Phil became its first Managing Director.  The new company drew together some of the best brains in the Carat group and gave them a brief to provide a deeper understanding of consumers and advertising effectiveness against a background of a changing media environment.  Carat Insight UK provided marketing communication consultancy to a range of blue chip clients including Microsoft, Abbey National Bank, Coors Brewers and Unilever.

Towards the end of 2001, Phil moved over to Carat International to develop a Carat Insight offer for international clients such as Vodafone, Disney, Philips and adidas.  He was also Vice President of Carat International responsible globally for the Coca-Cola account and Product Development.  He left Carat in 2005 to enjoy life a little prior to setting up his own business, Spontinuity Ltd, in 2006.

At J Walter Thompson he was the board director responsible for both R&D and media planning.  Specific client responsibilities included Lever Bros, British Telecom and Thames Television.  He led the team that developed and implemented JWT’s worldwide media philosophy – The Thompson’s Way of Media.

Before JWT he worked in the TV Research Division of AGB.  He is a Fellow of the IPA and a former Chairman of the Media Research Group and has sat on many industry committees including the EACA Media Advisory Council and BARB Technical Advisory Group.  He has written numerous papers and articles and made many speeches at conferences.  Phil is a keen Nottingham Forest fan and is into walking, cycling, photography, boating and sailing.  He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife Susanne.