‘TV isn’t the Holy Grail’: Ogilvy’s Yann-Gael Cobigo and Thibault Michal

What is an artwork director?

After commencement, he was once nonetheless undecided of his course till a pal tipped him off about an internship alternative. At the interview, when requested whether or not he was once an artwork director or a copywriter, he admitted he didn’t even know the adaptation. After a handy guide a rough rationalization, he picked the artwork director in keeping with the outline from the interviewer.

His first function was once at JWT Paris below Xavier Beauregard, who changed into a formative mentor and later went on to steer FCB Paris. Cobigo adopted him right through the early a part of his occupation in France.

In 2013, Cobigo was once poached by way of VCCP London, despite the fact that he wasn’t assured in his English or totally satisfied about leaving Paris. “I thought, if I don’t go, I’ll never know,” he says. What began as a two-month experiment changed into over a decade in another country.

That transfer proved pivotal, no longer just for his world occupation but additionally for assembly Thibault Michal in 2015, with whom he would in the end crew up. “We just kept going for lunch,” he laughs.

Discovering ‘something I was good at’

Michal’s access into adland was once simply as unplanned. “I was average at everything,” he admits. “Not bad, not good, just average.” He labored a spread of jobs, together with ready tables, sooner than stumbling into communications research. His first internship was once as an account government at Euro RSCG (now Havas), but it surely didn’t stick. “I wasn’t really good at it,” he says. One day, a copywriter spotted his eye for concepts and advised him he was once higher suited for ingenious paintings. That dialog modified the whole thing.

“For the first time, I discovered something I was good at. And that was an amazing feeling,” he displays. From that second, he started development an inventive occupation, first in Paris after which in Switzerland, the place he balanced promoting with skiing. “But after three years, my portfolio hadn’t evolved. I knew I had to go back to Paris.”

There, he joined Media Arts Paris, which he says was once an inventive “hot shop”. He recollects that its unofficial motto was once that ‘TV isn’t the Holy Grail’. This formed how he noticed promoting, past mass media, into virtual, PR, and reviews, he says.

Michal’s transfer to London got here as a result of his spouse was once presented a role within the town. Initially reluctant, he had jokingly advised her he’d believe transferring “if it was London or Amsterdam.” A month later, London changed into the couple’s truth.

Becoming ingenious companions at BBH

In London, Michal and Cobigo took on adland as artwork director and copywriter on the likes of BBH, and in 2020, the French duo changed into Harbour Collective’s first ingenious administrators. Michal explains that being in the United Kingdom was once laborious in the beginning, as his English wasn’t the most productive, however they “started from scratch” development a reputation for themselves. During the last decade that adopted, they created award-winning paintings for primary international manufacturers like Audi, Apple, Heinz, and Coca-Cola.

The duo has constructed a partnership grounded in complementarity, accept as true with, and mutual admire they are saying. Although they percentage equivalent ingenious tastes, their variations carry intensity to their paintings with each and every bringing concepts the opposite would possibly no longer have pursued, in line with Michal who says, “We don’t always think the same, and that’s what makes the work richer”.

Trust is the whole thing

They’ve labored in combination for just about a decade with out battle, all the time coming near disagreements thru open dialogue. “We always find a common ground and respect each other a lot,” Cobigo explains.

With greater than a dozen assignments working concurrently, they ceaselessly break up up, depending on deep alignment and loyal conversation. “We trust each other blindly,” Cobigo advertisements. “Even when only one of us is in the room, we both know what’s happening.”

Now, as of January this 12 months, the pair are again of their house nation after being appointed ingenious administrators at Ogilvy Paris.

Colleagues ‘suffer’ their accents

“After 10 Years of making our London colleagues suffer through our French accent, joining the most International of the Parisian advertising agencies doesn’t actually feel like such a change, except now we need to tone down our acquired British accent when speaking native French,” they mentioned in their go back to Paris.“

They both describe the next chapter as a “great step forward” following their time in London. Their function now? To create stand-out, globally resonant paintings from the French capital.

“Ogilvy Paris is a great step forward for us after learning and doing so much in London with great people and great agencies. Our passion is to keep doing stand-out work and make the agency and the group shine everywhere in the world.”

Like this tale? Read our interview with Dazed Media’s Jamie Knowles.