If advertising were an orchestra, then an advertising producer would be its conductor. Account directors, creatives and clients each have unique needs that must be met for campaigns to run smoothly.

When London-based advertising producer Susie Liu takes on a job, everyone involved on both sides of the production can rest assured that their needs will not only be met, but innovative and eye-catching work will be delivered as well.

Liu has managed world-class advertising and branding campaigns for some of the most successful technology and retail companies in the world such as HSBC, HTC and Nokia, and real estate landmarks and attractions such as London’s Canary Wharf, The Ark, The Shard and Abu Dhabi's Masdar City, a planned eco-city that began development in 2006 and aims to be a hub for clean tech companies in the Middle East.

When she was with worldwide communications and advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi’s, Liu corner-stoned the wildly successful rebranding of London’s now-popular urban center Canary Wharf. 

"The brand strategy was implemented,and tactical campaigns were introduced in parallel. These were to promote all aspects of the site to encourage businesses and people to relocate there. These included retail campaigns B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer), office occupier campaign, arts and culture incentives B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer), food and beverage B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer)," said Liu.

Today, bustling office buildings, fine-dining restaurants and crowded shops fill the vibrant city center, which started out as one of the world’s busiest shipping ports in the early 1800s. Canary Wharf’s rebranding transformed it from has-been to happening; but that isn’t the only London landmark Liu has reshaped.
 
When she was working with London-based design and marketing agency S-Kape, Liu worked her magic for the one-of-a-kind office building The Ark.

World-renowned Swedish architect Ralph Erskine designed the unique building, which resembles the animal-saving boat from the biblical tale Noah’s Ark. The building was given a radical redesign in 2006, which added two extra floors, an atrium and an open mezzanine to the ship-like building.

Liu’s marketing expertise helped the prominent building thrive as an office space and a tourist attraction after its major redesign was completed.

Though she’s delivered world-class marketing in the world of real estate, she hasn’t confined her immense talents to just one sector.

Liu has also brought her advertising genius to the world of finance. As a part of advertising agency Hogarth Worldwide, Liu launched the global campaign for HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, which is the largest and most widely represented international bank in the Middle East.

The majority of the work she did for this campaign was for English- and Arabic-speaking markets in the Middle East, which included Qatar, Egypt and Bahrain.

“It was my responsibility to prioritize the workflow for a team of art-workers, project managers and proofreaders; and where necessary, advise on design guidelines and file adapts,” Liu said. “It was imperative to be organized and have a structure from the start.”

Liu has used her impeccable organizational skills to earn a leading role with top creative consultancies such as London-based Radley Yeldar, where Liu lent her visionary talent to the design and marketing campaign with the Report & Accounts for Morrison’s, the fourth-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.

No matter the industry, Liu has established herself as an advertising producer superstar and is sure to continue producing stellar marketing for clients all over the world in the future. Through her work with leading creative agency Wordsearch in London, the immensely talented creative is currently working as an advertising producer for one of San Francisco's newest skyscrapers, the 181 Freemont, which is slated to be completed next year and will offer the city a mixed space that blends over 30 floors of office space with residential pent houses. 

For the last two decades creative director Jennie McGuirk has been the visionary responsible for helping a long list of brands establish competitive and innovative roles in their individual markets.

Back in the 90s McGuirk took her passion for photography to the next level when she attended Manchester Met University for Art Foundation, followed by the Edinburgh College of Art where she graduated with a Bachelor of Art's with honors in visual communication.

McGuirk's background in photography has equipped her with the tools to speak visually and reach the target audiences of a long list of high-profile publications and online outlets such as Creativebase.com, ZOO, Pictured and others.

"I was Researcher and Editor of Photography for Creativebase.com and ZOO at Will Gompertz’s publishing company, Purple House. Both creative industry publications championed international creative excellence, across a range of disciplines,” recalls McGuirk.

"ZOO was a sumptuous coffee table quarterly while Creativebase was one of the early pioneers in digital publishing. It was a hotbed of activity and I was invited to attend high-profile events and award ceremonies and interview leading figures in the creative community. "

Living in an impressive range of countries across continents over the course of her life, McGuirk has immersed herself in various cultures, something that has served as an incredible asset helping her to understand the various needs and wants of audiences around the world.

"I’ve always cast an international focus across my life and have prioritized travel as a way of learning about different cultures," explains McGuirk.

Reaching fluency in French, Italian and German, McGuirk's experience living and working across the globe has also provided her with a hard to come by knowledge and adaptability in the professional world in regards to the way different cultures approach business. In fact, one of her early career achievements in the realm of multicultural communications was working as a translator for the Intercity Festival at Teatro Della Limonaia in Italy where she liaised between German, Italian and English theater professionals and scripts.

Already equipped with a keen insight into the direction global businesses were going in, McGuirk was using her talents to bring together companies across cultures 13 years before Forbes published their findings on the invaluable impact professionals with multicultural capabilities have on the business sector in the article "The Rise of Multicultural Managers."

McGuirk's unfettered knowledge of the way audiences from different cultures can see an ad, but receive polar opposite messages, made her the perfect person to take on the role of Media Buyer for the 2005 D&AD Awards Call for Entry campaign.

As such, McGuirk recalls, "I was responsible for placing adverts and marketing material in numerous trade publications across the globe. The concept of the creative campaign referenced the English language phrase “green with envy.”

Founded in 1962, the D&AD Awards (Design and Art Direction Awards) is a globally respected charity organization that promotes and honors excellence in creative advertising and design, with an awards program that invites the world's foremost talents in the field to submit their work for consideration.

In regards to translating the "green with envy" message into a concept the Japanese audience could recognize, McGuirk explains, "On learning the intricacies of the local markets, I understood that this would not translate universally, especially for the Japanese audience. In order to communicate our message, I approached celebrated designer Issay Kitagawa and initiated the commission of a bespoke advert for the Japanese market. This resulted in a record number of Japanese entries.”

She also ran the Creative Research Department as an internal creative consultant for advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather.

While working with the agency McGuirk says, "I managed the Creative Resource Library and provided reference, inspiration and concepts for print, poster, TV, viral and interactive campaigns."

Her knowledge of the latest and greatest developments in the creative world and her awareness of the international talents driving innovations in the industry led her to create, research, edit and publish the quarterly publication Showcase magazine and showreel for Ogilvy. An internal print magazine and accompanying DVD, McGuirk's creation provided the company with invaluable resources exposing them to a collection of talents that would be useful in the creation of campaigns for the company's high profile clients like Ford, American Express, GSK, Unilever, BP, DHL, Vittel, Cancer Research, WWF and others.

"Content included cutting-edge photography, illustration, short films, music videos, interactive media, publications and international feature films," explains McGuirk.

"Executive Creative Director, Malcolm Poynton, subsequently championed Showcase at international Ogilvy and WPP Creative Directors’ meetings, resulting in an extended distribution to Ogilvy Group agencies and European offices.”

The importance of McGuirk's contributions in this area cannot be overstated. Through Showcase magazine and showreel, McGuirk took the guesswork out of the process of searching for new and innovative talents and provided Ogilvy with a streamlined source of information and inspiration on the best and brightest talents and the most important innovations in the industry.

Jennie McGuirk has always known what the next best innovation is going to be before it happens; and her unparalleled knowledge of groundbreaking developments in the creative world combined with her expertise in multicultural communication has continued to keep her at the top of the industry for the past 20 years.