Steve Stretton
founding partner
When Steve left the bright lights of Coventry behind him (someone had torched a car), little did he know that one day he’d be one of the few British creative directors to win awards across all disciplines and all media. Young Stretton might also have been amazed to hear that his older self would take his talent for art direction abroad. To New Zealand, where he creatively marketed lamb. And to America, where he developed a lifelong addiction to latté.
But the call of half-decent football was too strong. So Steve came home to
work for agencies such as Cato Johnson, Evans Hunt Scott, Chiat Day and, finally, BBH Limbo, a subsidiary of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, where he was
creative director.
His next – and best – move was to found archibald ingall stretton with the other two surnames. In the 12 years since, Steve has established its reputation as one of the UK’s most respected integrated agencies, with the awards to
prove it.
Steve recently made the management transition from creative partner to founding partner. And although he now works on a different floor from the creative team, some say his old office is still haunted by the faint aroma of
a Lantana skinny latté.
Sarah Stratford
strategy director
Sarah has worked with archibald ingall stretton for over seven years, with
only one itch. That was when she went to find herself in far-flung places where
English people sweat a lot. She left the agency as Sarah The Account Director, discovered her inner strategist somewhere in South America, and returned as Sarah The Planner. Who looks very similar, but eats fewer crisps.
Sarah has since successfully applied her dark cerebral arts to brands such as O2, Abbey, Xerox and Tesco. In particular, she was instrumental in bringing CRM to life for the O2 brand, helping to make it the success story that it is today. Her work has won an IPA effectiveness award. Enough said.
Geoff Gower
creative director
Geoff graduated with a degree in Business and Management from the heavily double-glazed University of Salford in 1997 – the year we met Dolly the Sheep, and the WinNuke source-code got Microsoft hot under the collar.
With the arrogance of youth and the appearance of middle-age, Geoff started his own digital agency and somehow managed to create a client list that included Shell and the BBC. Eventually, he got found out and sidled into the creative department at Digital Outlook, where he conceived stuff for clients Filmfour, Game and Activision. Following a brief non-digital blip developing TV formats at Talkback – such as Jimmy Carr’s ‘Distraction’ – Geoff returned to the interactive bosom working on the Orange account for Fullsix alongside Poke, before joining archibald ingall stretton in 2004 as a ‘creative technologist’. Whatever that is.
Anyway, he put both the creativity and the technology to excellent use by being partly responsible for some nice award wins – including Cannes, One Show and Creative Circle. Which probably explains why he’s now ‘creative director’.
Stephen Watford
commercial director
Stephen’s professional fate was sealed at the tender age of eight, on the
day he was given the calculator with the big buttons and the solar panel.
Train driving was out. Finance was in.
BDO, the tax and accountancy giant, was where Stephen cut his financial teeth as a chartered accountant. Then came the move to AKQA where he worked his way up through the ranks to become financial controller and take his talent well beyond number crunching. He saw the company rise to the top of the digital league tables, and played a major role in launching the brand globally.
Stephen’s next career challenge was offered by Havas Media, our parent company. There he worked with our sister agencies Cake, Havas Sports and then – eventually – us. In fact, Stephen liked us so much he joined the company in 2009. And he hasn’t looked back. Probably because his contract won’t let him.