Alec McCrindle
Head of Interactive Advertising
Yahoo! Europe   

Your idea about the perfect working day:  When I get enough time to spend on a piece of work, it’s really what makes me the happiest in my job. It’s difficult finding the space needed for critical thinking at the right stages of a project in this industry.

Your muse best comes when: Anytime when I’m working with smart, professional folk on a project with a clear, sound strategy.  Or from deep inside, near my left kidney. 

What needs to be changed/improved in order to achieve ultimate online engagement with users?  To continue to decrease the gap between what we (creatives and advertisers) want people to do, and what people might actually want to do. There are loads of inspirational figures in our industry who are leading the way in this regard, but there is unfortunately still a lot of ineffective work out there, even in such an accountable industry. I do get the feeling that we are waking up to that, and it’s what makes for a fun filled adventure looking forwards. Don’t ask me this question again when next we’re waist-deep in JavaScript errors at 3am.

As a long standing rule in our team, ideas have to be beneficial for both users and advertisers. We find it a productive approach. I also don’t think either of us, users or creatives, know everything that is possible when we start playing and creating in the digital space, so we are learning all the time.

Favorite Brand Experience:  The Swatch Chrono campaign on Yahoo from last year – it was groovy. Okay, I mean it was a simple, well executed idea aimed at improving campaign resonance. Swatch are an important client for us, and they push creative boundaries in the best way and have done so for years. We had a behaviourally sequenced parkour inspired animation running across different pages, culminating in a short video ad. This demo is best viewed in IE (not so good on a Mac). Refresh three times for full effect. http://creativezone.eyeblaster.com/#ItemName=Swatch