Introducing Tayburn’s Innovation Director

Tayburn’s new Innovation Director Nathan Fulwood talks Trekkies, toys and emerging technology

Nathan, welcome to Tayburn. Tell us a bit about yourself and what attracted you to the agency.

I’m Nathan Fulwood. I’m 40 years old — just! — and I’ve been working in Digital for the last 15 years, slowly moving further and further north. I’ve been in Edinburgh for the last 10 years.

I can put joining Tayburn down to 3 things.

The first was reputation: everybody I spoke to said the same thing. Tayburn’s been around for years, yet has continued to stay fresh and deliver great brand and design work. My previous agency was purely digital, so I was really keen to apply myself to a slightly new discipline.

The second thing was the people. Everybody I met in the interview process was fantastic, and I got a sense that they would be very easy to work with. Very approachable, very passionate, very knowledgeable about what they did.

And the third thing was the plans for growth. We have ambitious plans for growth and we’re going about it in a very structured and committed way, which is very exciting.

I think Tayburn’s proposition is as relevant as ever — it’s a good fit with the way brands need to work these days, and I can see how I could support that and how I could help that be successful.

You joined our team after 9 years at the digital agency Realise, culminating in your role there as Head of Marketing Technology. What capabilities are you most excited about bringing to Tayburn?

I’m a generalist, quite proudly a generalist in terms of digital. I’m as interested — and hopefully capable — across creative strategy as technical (without being a developer), but in terms of understanding the technical landscape of the work that we do.

Tayburn has a very strong digital capability already. However, I would hope that I can bring my 15 years working in projects in all sectors and of all sizes. I’ve got the battle scars so I hope I can add to our capability and the experience that we’ve got here, in enabling us to take on bigger, more complex projects as the agency grows.

Is there a campaign you’ve worked on in the past that stands out as your most remarkable?

One that I’m very proud of is not the most glamorous: it was a global forklift truck manufacturer. I very much enjoyed that because it involved a degree of organizational change and attitudinal change internally, as well as creating some great marketing assets, such as websites and content.

The enjoyable part of that was helping them build a global team for the first time; helping them to think seriously for the first time about their brand and their relationship with their customers, and then taking that into a range of digital assets — so that was really good.

And the most remarkable? I’ve always been interested in emerging technology and I delivered some work for CBS to help them promote Star Trek. For a geek like me it was a great opportunity. So when we knew we had the meeting, we created a proof of concept using augmented reality be ‘beam’ things — to make this disappear from the world (rather than appear in it).

We showed it to the client, they loved it, and 6 weeks later we were at a Star Trek convention with 6000 people beaming themselves up to the Starship Enterprise using my idea and that technology. It went on to win a Webby award later that year as well, which is something I’m extremely proud of.

You’ve been dubbed Tayburn’s Master of Toys. What do you think has been the single most impactful tech innovation of the last few years, from a marketer’s point of view?

I do like shiny new gadgets, but I’m more interested in finding relevant ways to use them to engage, and particularly to deliver human experiences. The most impactful tech innovation of the last few years? I think it’s quite obviously mobile, but not in the most obvious way.

Mobile has changed the way we work and go about our lives, but it’s also opened up a completely new supply chain and a new ecosystem of components: screens, accelerometers, faster smaller processors, GPS. All of these components have come down in cost and size in the last 5 or so years, enabling them to be embedded in all sorts of different devices. This has enabled things like the boom in wearable tech, drones, and whatever the next innovation’s going to be.

So: mobile, but maybe not in the most obvious way. The demand for mobile has opened up a massive world of possibilities.

What do you think are the big challenges and opportunities for our clients in 2015?

The threat of disruption is the big challenge. If you’re an established company, whatever sector you’re in, your industry is liable to disruption from faster, hungrier, more agile entrepreneurs.

However it’s a great opportunity because these startups are trailblazing new, lean ways of working and innovative ways of building relationships with their audiences. There are lessons that can be learned and applied, whatever size you are and whatever industry you’re in.

So while part of my role is in technical innovation, another part of it is going to be helping our clients to embrace innovation and change, in ways of working and thinking, as much as the in tools that we use.

Is there such a thing as a typical day at Tayburn?

Not so far! One of the things I have really appreciated is the care that goes into making work enjoyable here. So far it seems like there’s been a bake sale here every other day. There’s always something to celebrate, whether it’s a win, a birthday, or even St. George’s day (a bold move in Scotland!). It’s lovely that the importance of a positive culture here is appreciated and nurtured.