CEO Today United Kingdom Awards

41 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today United Kingdom Awards 2018 COMMUNICATIONS PETER CAMPBELL CEO of Chaos Design ABOUT PETER CAMPBELL I’m the Founder of Chaos - a Branding & Integrated Creative Agency. Less hands-on day to day on design projects nowadays, but very much involved in brand strategy, key branding or major campaign activity. As well as working on the business and all that it entails, I’m very much involved in new business conversations and helping to win new clients. My career has taken me from designer through to Design Director to Chief Enthusiast (CEO!) With an inbuilt entrepreneurial spirit, I have always wanted to run my own business and create a sustainable award-winning independent boutique agency that can punch well above its weight and that’s a real lifestyle working environment that we can all enjoy, and clients can benefit from. Over 15 years on, the business has steadily grown though reputation and a great portfolio to become a multimillion-pound agency – not bad considering we didn’t employ a proper new business sales person until a year or so ago. When/where did your affinity for design and marketing begin? I studied Graphic Design BA Degree, worked my way up in the industry and then waited for the right opportunity to come along to establish Chaos many years later. How do you achieve the very best for your clients and customers? We simply live by our values – we’re naturally enthusiastic people who are always responsive to a challenge and a great collaborative partner for clients and their brands seeking effective change. We’re certainly not egotistical or inflexible like some agencies, just a close community of friendly professionals who keep it real and still have fun along the way. You’ll find us passionate and energetic about all the projects we undertake - big or small. We work with our clients and not just for them and build sustainable relationships. We know it’s a chaotic world, so we’re always ready for change and prepared to adapt. We’re genuine and we don’t waffle in marketing jargon. We want to achieve great things and we don’t see why it can’t be enjoyable for ourselves and our clients along the way. After all, if nothing ever changed there’d be no butterflies. How would you describe your leadership style? Would you recommend it to others in your position? The agency is creatively managed and driven. I feel it’s an empowering style, but I must admit in the early days I was a bit of a control freak. I’ve surrounded myself with a great, talented team who I’m privileged to say share my enthusiasm for achieving great things. I try to maintain a boutique/family feel to the agency as much as possible, which leads to having very low churn. I also have a very senior heavy weight team with hardly any juniors so a relatively flat hierarchy, but equally I know when I need to step in to take control to add leadership and gravitas to an initiative. I am passionate and have an obsession with creative ideas that work, design that wows, and outcomes that deliver. I’m motivated to challenge ourselves and our clients in terms of what is possible. I also have an addiction to chaos. The older I get, the more I love to be surprised by the new, be challenged and shocked at times. Are there any developments at Chaos Design that you’re looking forward to? We have certainly become more and more strategic in our thinking and capability and our international reach outside the UK towards Europe, Asia, US, etc, has been a significant development over the last few years as clients recognise the value of British creativity. “We’re naturally enthusiastic people who are always responsive to a challenge and a great collaborative partner for clients and their brands seeking effective change who want to unsame their brand.” CONTACT 60 St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4JS T: +44 (0)203 053 9140 E: peter.c@chaosdesign.com W: chaosdesign.com