London Special: Zoe Bell

Though her first taste of success, producing Renault’s Papa, Nicole ads, led to months of fear and nausea, it gave Zoe Bell the mettle to climb ever higher in her career. Utilising her courage, cool head and relationship-building skills, she’s now reached the lofty position of head of integrated film at Saatchi & Saatchi London. Selena Schleh meets a woman on top of her game… and her shoes

Growing up, Zoe Bell wanted to be a chef, a lawyer, and a nurse – so it’s handy that the job she eventually chose combines elements of all three. “I clear up mess, wipe bottoms, have to think about legal stuff and prepare in the same way as a chef – finding the ingredients and making things look great,” laughs Saatchi & Saatchi’s head of integrated film. Perhaps most impressively, she does it all wearing her trademark towering heels.

During a career in production spanning more than 20 years, Bell has headed up the TV departments of crack UK agencies Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury and Mother, and worked with some of the biggest names in the business – but make no mistake, she’s no champagne-swilling, meeja-lunching luvvie. There’s clearly a fierce work ethic at play – she turns up to the interview with a stack of prepared answers – and she has a visible passion for creativity and clients. With her quick laugh and appealingly frank manner, it’s no surprise to find that building strong relationships is at the core of Bell’s success. 

Educated at a strict convent school in Sussex, the glitzy world of TV seemed a million miles away. “I loathed every minute of it,” she admits. After toying with the aforementioned careers, she ended up following her brother Nick (now ECD at Fallon) into adland. Starting on the bottom rung, she worked as a PA at creative agency Aspect Hill Holiday and production company Lambie Nairn, before moving to Publicis London as PA to the head of TV.

Graduating to junior producing on small-ticket studio jobs, Bell got a massive leg-up when she was asked to produce Renault Clio’s seminal Papa, Nicole campaign. Working for the first time with a big client, a big budget and a big director, Michael Seresin, made her feel “physically ill for three months”, but Bell rose to the challenge, displaying an early ability to thrive under pressure and keeping a cool head even when it transpired that actress Estelle Skornik, cast as the coquettish Nicole, couldn’t drive. “It was a fairly critical requirement for the script,” laughs Bell, “so we had to put her into intensive lessons. Watching her navigate those narrow winding streets was absolutely nerve-wracking!” 

Having a famous piece of work on her CV gave Bell the confidence to apply for a senior producer role at London’s hottest agency of the time, HHCL. In 1992, aged just 26, she became head of TV, working on seminal ads such as Blackcurrant Tango St George. Bell remembers it as “a heady time. The work ethic was day and night,” fuelled by co-founder Steve Henry’s audacious, nothing-is-impossible approach. “He taught me so much: he was so mental with ideas and there was no question they couldn’t happen.”

Hiring scary people

The epitome of that mindset was HHCL’s 2007 remake of R White’s classic ad, Secret Lemonade Drinker, featuring a celebrity cameo. Bell was handed a list that included Michael Jackson, Madonna, tennis ace John McEnroe and, incredibly, Salman Rushdie – in hiding following a fatwa.

Although she never tracked down Rushdie and letters to Madonna and Jackson went unanswered, Bell did manage to secure McEnroe for an hour during the French Open: “We flew over, recreated the set and he came straight off court in his kit. When I asked his manager why he’d agreed to do it for so little money, he said McEnroe’s dad had always loved the original R. White’s ads. So now I always tell people: just pick up the phone, because you never know what the response will be.”

‘Always hire people who you think are better than yourself and who scare you’ was another important lesson Bell learned at HHCL, courtesy of her official mentor, John Leach, and she has applied it throughout her career. “I soon realised that it reflects well on you – as the person leading it all – if you have great people around you and the jobs are being done really well,” she says.

By 1997, with HHCL preparing to sell and the culture of the agency changing, Bell had no regrets about leaving to head up TV production at a ballsy new start-up. Mother’s mould-breaking, audacious character reminded her of HHCL in its prime, and as only the sixth person through the door and sitting on the management team, Bell instantly felt part of the fabric of the agency. She recalls sharing lifts to and from work with co-founder Robert Saville and describes her colleagues as “family”.

Career curveballs and kitchen chaos

Thus began a golden era for the agency, but a challenging one too – “You never knew what curveball was coming next,” – and the lack of account managers demanded a more entrepreneurial approach from producers.

A self-confessed adrenaline junkie, Bell thrived on this increased responsibility: “I’ve always loved the briefs when a client wants a big idea made with not enough time: it means there’s no time for procrastination. I get pumped by answering difficult briefs and being part of delivering a great solution creatively.”

Highlights from her 13-year stint include working on Dougal Wilson’s early commercials such as Orange Dance; associate producing a feature film for Eurostar, Somers Town, which was garlanded at both Tribeca and Edinburgh Film Festivals; and growing a small team into an award-winning TV department. Somehow she also managed to have three children along the way (“To be honest, I probably got pregnant to have some time off from the madness,” she deadpans.)

By 2010, feeling she had done “everything [she] could do”, it was time to move on, but with the bar set so high struggled to envisage doing the same role at another agency. Instead, she took a year out to fulfil her stay-at-home mum fantasies. As with so many things in life, being barefoot in the kitchen wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and after a single, disastrous attempt at making jam, she became a creative partner at global advertising headhunters Grace Blue.

Bringing in a Motherly mingling

Reflecting on her segue into recruitment, which involved playing matchmaker to the likes of Andy Bird and Publicis, Bell admits “there was something missing from day one”. On the plus side, the job gave her a unique, bird’s-eye view of the industry and threw into clear focus exactly what she was missing: “I wanted to be back in an agency, to be involved much more closely in the creative work and to be working with creatives that I massively respected.”

That opportunity presented itself in 2014 when Saatchi & Saatchi was looking for its first head of integrated film. The challenge of turning round a big department to match the new leadership’s creative ambition for the agency, coupled with the chance to work with Pottsy [co-ECD Rob Potts] and Jexy [co-ECD Andy Jex], her old mates from Mother, was too good to pass up.

Arriving in 2014, Bell found an “agency of two halves”: compared with Mother, where producers were involved in the creative process at the start and worked directly with clients, there was little integration between the TV, creative and account handling teams: creatives sat at one end of the corridor, TV producers at the other. Given carte blanche to hire and fire, she set about creating a team of “dedicated, hard-working grown-ups who care passionately about the creative [work] and the client… It’s crucial for producers to be client-facing and valued for their role.”

As for the second part of her remit – to build Saatchi’s in-house content division, which was acquired in 2012 as part of digital agency Outline Line – Bell has seemingly nailed it, bringing in a “brilliant” head of content, Alex Hedges and attracting lots of new directors while still maintaining those all-important relationships with external production companies. “I’ve always tried to do the right thing by them,” she says carefully. “There is no doubt that things are changing; we’re a big department and there is a huge amount of work that we can be doing in-house. But we’re still supporting – and needing – all those production companies out there to make our best creative work.”   

Bells of steel and buckets of hope

Looking back on more than two decades in the industry, Bell is convinced the best is yet to come. “I’m loving the world we’re in right now,” she smiles. “Yes, budgets and timings are tighter, but the opportunities to make stuff are much greater. Now, if you’ve got a good, strong idea there’s absolutely no reason not to make it.”

With strong spots for Pampers, Rekorderlig and Mattessons under her belt, what’s next? “Continuing to grow our in-house content division and ensuring that we are making the best creative work. In the future, we’ll be cultivating producers who can do the whole 360°. I don’t think everyone can do everything at this point, but over time, with technology, they will.” What’s certain is this next wave of producers will need buckets of chutzpah, dedication and drive in order to fill Zoe Bell’s very impressive shoes.