4. Ideas Illustrated;

Why should someone in advertising buy a vineyard and become a winemaker? Probably because there’s an impulsiveness to creativity that can’t be resisted. Leaping into the unknown. Ideas excite us when they haven’t been tried before. Venturing into new territory is both challenging and energising. It feeds your creative soul.

We also spend a huge amount of time creating work that is ephemeral. It’s here today and gone tomorrow. Advertising is a relentlessly creative industry. We have to come in everyday and have a new idea and that new idea can’t look like yesterday’s. You’re working to deadlines and time tables dictated by the needs of commerce.

Creating something that takes years to make, requires patience and persistence, and can be enjoyed for years to come, has to be – for me – a brilliant counter balance to my day job. I now have God as my one of my partners. And God works to his timetable, not yours.

Wine is also a unique product. It’s really a time machine. When for instance you open a bottle of our No.1 2003, you’re opening what happened that year. The long winter, the early spring and the hottest summer for 100 years. No other product can take you back in time the way a good bottle of wine can. I love that thought.

It’s also a product that is made to be shared I think, like a brilliant piece of creative work, it brings out the best in people. It has – when made properly and treated with respect – a civilising influence. The culture of wine has to encourage thinking philosophy and friendship. It is indeed a gift. But only of course if it’s respected.

The process of making wine takes you from being a farmer. Understanding the soil, the value of organic cultivation and how farming bio-dynamically, working in harmony with nature, we can grow better grapes and replenish the health of the soil. To being a chemist, converting sugar into alcohol and finally to being a marketer. It’s all very well making a great wine but you’ve got to sell it.


All these different skill sets throw up varying problems and challenges. To be successful they all have to work in harmony. You really are now in charge.

As I said, most of us in the communications industry spend our time dispensing advice. Sometimes that advice is acted upon. But in reality we don’t make the important decisions, our clients do. By making your own product you’re now in the driving seat. I’ve always said, do interesting things and interesting things will happen to you.

Next time you open a bottle of wine think about what it represents and the value it offers. But most of all enjoy yourself. I do.

Sir John Hegarty is Chairman and Worldwide Creative Director of BBH.
Illustrations by Yann Le Bec.

This article was originally printed in the Happiness Issue of Ideas Illustrated

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