About
CoEX was built on an unusual idea. That strategy and creative thinking are more powerful when they work as one.
Most consultancies separate the two. Most agencies do too. Andrew Pinkess and Paul Brazier met at AMV BBDO and decided there was a better way. Between them they covered ground that neither discipline could cover alone. Strategic clarity and creative firepower. In the same room. Without layers.
CoEX is that combination made available directly. No agency structure around it. Just two senior people who have done it at the highest level.
Paul Brazier.
Founder & Creative Lead
Paul Brazier is one of the world's most awarded creatives. He didn't arrive at advertising through the conventional route.
Straight from Wolverhampton Poly, he went to see Cogent Elliott, widely considered the best agency outside London, on the advice of someone who told him he'd never get in. He nearly didn't. He walked into the wrong department, ended up on the right floor, spread his portfolio across a pool table and found a room full of senior people gathering to look at it. They offered him a placement. He turned it down. He had a job to go to and couldn't afford not to take it. They rang his mum. They wanted her to know her son had something. And to make sure he didn't walk away from it.
Four years at Cogent Elliott. Then WCRS in London. Then, in 1991, hired personally by David Abbott to join AMV BBDO, where he would eventually lead the creative department through one of the most challenging and ultimately triumphant periods in the agency's history.
The work that followed became some of the most recognised advertising of its generation. Guinness with Anthony Minghella. Wrangler with Jonathan Glazer. BT with Tom Hooper. Sainsbury's, Dulux, Walkers, Whiskas, Snickers, Dove. Campaigns that won D&AD Pencils, Cannes Gold Lions and two Palme d'Or. Collaborations with directors and designers, among them the late Martin Lambie Nairn, who between them shaped the visual culture of the era.
That experience never left him. The person who took a chance on a young student from Tipton shaped how Paul has always worked. Tough on ideas, generous with people. Patient enough to persuade rather than instruct. Committed enough to give back, which eventually led him to found AllCreative.com, a platform supporting the next generation of creative talent.
A former President of D&AD and a voting member of BAFTA. He still believes the best idea and the most effective idea should always be the same idea.
Andrew Pinkess.
Founder & Strategy Lead
Andrew Pinkess didn't arrive at strategy through the conventional route either.
It began with curiosity. About language first. Then culture. Then people and why they do what they do. He studied in Austria, where the university was at the bottom of a ski slope. Lived in Paris. Worked in Boston, where he met his wife. Fifty countries in total before he decided it was time to come home and do something with all of it.
That something turned out to be marketing. Not because it was the obvious choice but because it was the place where language, human behaviour and business thinking converged. He began in consultancy and research, presenting to senior management early and discovering that understanding how businesses work was as important as understanding what people want. That led to an MBA at Warwick Business School.
Drawn increasingly to the creative side of marketing he moved into advertising, then to Rufus Leonard, one of the early movers in the internet boom, where a blue chip client list was built on helping brands navigate a world that was changing faster than most of them could follow. Then LBI, a digital agency specialising in using the web to deliver real business services.
With that unusual blend of linguistic instinct, strategic rigour and digital experience he was invited to join AMV BBDO as Head of Strategic Services. His brief was to bring business thinking, marketing innovation and creative ambition together in a way the agency hadn't done before. That's where he met Paul. And that's where the seeds of CoEX were first sown.
Andrew sits on the IPA Council and is an IPA Fellow.
The network
When a project calls for it, we draw on a trusted network of specialist partners. Designers, filmmakers, digital producers, researchers. People we have worked with for years and whose standards match our own. You get the best person for each job, not the person who happens to be on the payroll.
Our leadership team.
Andrew Pinkess
Founder & Strategy Lead
Andrew is a strategic problem-solver, with 25 years of experience running strategy, planning and strategic services teams. He has worked as CSO/ MD across brand, advertising, design, digital and consultancy, for agencies including AMV BBDO, and LBi. His client list covers more than 100 brands and businesses across B2C, B2B, Government and voluntary sectors.
He is a Fellow of the IPA, served on the IPA Council and co-chaired the Professional Development Group. Andrew is an Oxford grad with an MBA from Warwick Business School. He has four daughters and is a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky society.
Paul Brazier
Founder & Creative Lead
Paul is a creative problem-solver. He loves tackling creative challenges and never ceases to be amazed at the power of a good creative idea. He was formerly the Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of AMV BBDO the UK’s leading creative agency, and is one of the world’s most awarded creatives.
Throughout his career he has won Cannes Lions, pencils at D&AD and The New York One Show and numerous others. Paul is a former President of D&AD, and a voting member of BAFTA. He has a love for conceptual art and continues to create his own artwork and photography. Paul is married and has an 18 year-old daughter and a 15 year-old son, a dog and a cat.
Big agency minds without big agency overheads.
CoEX offers a better client/ agency model. You get to work directly with our top team, drawing on all our knowledge and experience.
We pull in experts from our network, only when you need them. That keeps overheads low. It also removes the need for permanent offices.
Instead, we work closely with clients as part of their extended team. Delivering top quality solutions, and better value for money.
Our clients.
SmartParc - New brand identity and creative platform for innovative food production business park.
SPHere - New logo, identity and website for food systems and automation consultancy.
TSL - Website and messaging refresh for leading technical construction company.
COFSA - New logo and communications for mindfulness organisation.
Green Commodities Community - New identity and comms for online learning platform.
Hunterlodge Advertising - A series of projects focusing on creative breakthroughs for clients in education, law, medical and investment management
BBDO Europe - Collaboration on pitches and best practice for key clients.
The Directory – Creative showcase - Social media engagement campaign working with Editor Patrick Collister.
Connor Broadley - Brand platform, identity development, and comms for investment management firm, with focus on progressive investing.
Doves for Peace – Identity development for charity fundraising initiative for UNICEF/ Save the Children.
Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) - Collaboration to support emerging green/ sustainability companies.
HeadsUp - Brand refresh, new identity, creds and website development for independent production agency.
IPA – Strategic study on the future of learning and development for the advertising and marketing profession.
Global construction company - Brand relaunch film focusing on social and environmental purpose.
Molson Coors - Building emotional connections through brands – keynote presentation at European marketing conference.
Pinwheel – Marketing and business case for new sustainability/ energy company.
Vitality Hemp - Marketing strategy and creative health check for emerging lifestyle brand in the fast-growing eco-friendly hemp market.
Young Urban Arts Foundation - Brand, identity and campaign ideas for arts, music and wellbeing charity Young Urban Arts Foundation.
Previous consulting and agency client experience includes:
Our Awards.
We’ve won awards, consistently every year for the last three decades. Literally hundreds of awards, for creativity and effectiveness. Paul is one of the world’s most awarded advertising creatives. He has sat on numerous judging panels and had the honour of becoming the President of D&AD in 2010.