I live in Cape Town, on the slopes of Signal Hill, and work in Woodstock with the top-drawer people at HaveYouHeard. I play wherever my kids’ imagination takes us, on my guitars and piano, and with my friends online, where we pretend we’re the ultimate version of SEAL Team Six.
I’m not sure I have one, but I’m proud to have lived and worked as a creative director in Cape Town, New Delhi, London and Amsterdam, with some of the best minds at some of the best agencies in the world.
My career has been pretty unconventional and that’s made it all the more interesting. My first job was to start an agency with legends Brian Searle-Tripp and Bob Rightford, as a fledgeling art director and designer plucked out of my final year at college.
I moved on to run my own creative studio, which became the conceptual and strategic arm of both Grey Cape Town and Amperzand (which evolved into OfYT). I entered my first award show 12 years into my career, after my stint at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), when I joined King James and won a number of local and global accolades with the amazing team there.
I took my next leap to start the African office of Arcade – a global network out of Asia and moved on to join HaveYouHeard.
At HYH, I’ve been given the opportunity and challenge to bring my experience together with their innovative approach to business and count myself fortunate to be learning and growing from the talented and diverse minds in our team every day.
My wife Casey and two daughters, Leah and Sophie are my number one faves, followed closely by my dad, brother, sister and extended family. My personal passion is music, which I listen to, study and play on my guitar and piano.
I love food more than Brick Tamland loves lamp. Stuffing my face is also a large reason for my travel lust.Japan is my favourite place on the planet because it combines so much of what I love – refined food, deeply layered culture, an inspirational way of life, unparalleled sensibility and civility, wonderful people, the best in design, ancient history. Did I mention the food?
Advertising and communication is being forced to evolve and find relevance in a world-changing at a rate of knots. It’s fascinating, challenging, exciting and sometimes downright confusing to be part of this massive period of reinvention for our industry.
The best part of my career though, which will always remain constant, is getting to work with interesting and highly talented colleagues and clients, who allow me to poke my nose into so many other cool worlds, daily. Not having to wear a suit every day is a bonus!
Con-call. Waiting for a technology issue to be resolved before the con call gets going. Meeting. Head down. Mail. WhatsApp. Food. Rush to the finish line. Home. Food. Family time. Shower. Think about what I need to get done tomorrow. Sleep. Do it all over again.
My brain, a black Pentel Sign marker, an A3 pad of pristine white pages and coffee, coupled with the internet, followed by email, Word and PowerPoint. Every now and then, I head back into the land of Adobe to make something, but not as much as I’d like.
I have the utmost respect for Wieden+Kennedy as the finest independent creative network in the world. Having had the privilege of working there for four years, I learned that their real secret is having the best people, often putting the ‘wrong’ people into traditional roles and giving them every opportunity to shine.
Their unwavering ideals to always put the work first, never be afraid to fail, don’t get stuck in ‘sharp stuff’ or act big and be a partner to their clients – not just provide them a service – is why they’ve consistently managed to place the brands they work with at the centre of culture in every country they’ve opened an office in, for as long as they’ve been around.
We’re all trying to wrangle an ever-changing media landscape and communicate with an audience that is globally connected, which chooses when, how and what they want to interact with. We’ve come a long way, but we need to adapt faster in how we operate and let go of the legacy processes and approaches that get in the way of better work and better business.
We need to prove ourselves again in a tough global business environment to be an absolutely essential and integrated part of our client’s businesses.
Sometimes we can slip into our own little echo chamber, paying too much attention to what everyone else in our industry is doing and who’s winning, rather than immersing ourselves in the world out there.I believe it’s the only way we’ll give the brands we serve the opportunity to do things that really matter to people, and deliver real results.
Getting better at everything I possibly can.
Heard around the office and later mumbled to myself: Storydoing, Zillennial, Purpose.
Mumbled by myself and later heard around the office: Good Enough Isn’t.
The first three hours of the morning are ‘go time’ for my brain. The sparks usually start firing as I open my eyes, form a bit more on the drive in, and rattle out onto the page as soon as I sit at my desk.
13. What’s your secret talent/party trick?
I subconsciously spout out music trivia and sing whatever happens to be playing on my internal radio station, which usually leads to the tunes switching to something new and interesting when hanging out with friends.
A technophile with analogue tendencies.
Lots of photos. Lots of music apps. Lots of apps I don’t know why I have.
Dave Trott put it best, I think – Be (the position). Do (the work). Have (the title).
Simple as that. Follow Berkowitz on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram; and HaveYouHeard on their LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram feeds for the latest updates.
*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews.
