Yes, it was Electric!

This week, I had dinner with Ken Forbes, the former MD of SsangYong, a client at my old agency, Electric.

SsangYong make huge SUVs much derided by Jeremy Clarkson but actually offering insane value for money – besides which, I’m very proud of the work and really it deserves to be in the LP Greatest Hits section of this site. Any ad that invents a word – ‘bigness’ – deserves to be here!

I was caught slightly off guard. He starts to tell me how fantastic Electric was. ‘You walked in off Gresse Street and you could feel the energy in the room. It was electricity, it was electric. You felt the tangible collective zeal of all these young minds – well except yours, of course! – thinking about your brand and your challenges. "

He remembers the funky L-shaped space with the wooden floors, the banter with the receptionist, the laughter in the meetings with too many of us crammed into that tiny Board Room around the oval table that actually came from Ikea.

You know, I’ve hardly thought about Electric since I sold it in 2006 – you don’t, you live in the current challenges, you live in The Now. But hearing my friend Ken’s words as we power through a veritable banquet of Turkish food and not a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc (at Ozer in Langham Place - a great restaurant), I feel genuinely proud.

Yes Percival has a better website, a more cool identity, a more targeted offering, and has probably done as much sound work in six months as Electric did in four years. But as I sat in the taxi, zipping me home from a really fun dinner with The Scotsman, I indulged in a bit of tipsy reminscence about my long-gone offspring.

Thanks Ken. Yes, Electric was electric.