Nick Barham, former global director of W+K Tomorrow, has been named to the newly created role of chief strategy officer for TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles. Barham, 41, will join the agency’s executive leadership team and will oversee strategy functions across all parts of the L.A. group. He will work across all key accounts and report to TBWAChiatDay LA’s president, Carisa Bianchi.
Barham brings with him an extensive background in global, strategic planning and technology. Most recently as global director of W+K Tomorrow in Portland, Barham led a team responsible for creating new revenue and working models, with a focus on sustainability and emerging technology. His clients included Nike, Target, the Gates Foundation and EcoDistricts.
Prior to Portland, Barham was based in Asia, where he worked for Wieden + Kennedy in Shanghai as planning director. At Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai, he was on a management team that helped grow the agency from a single client, China-focused agency to a multi-category offering with the capability to deliver regional campaigns for clients including Nike, Coca Cola and Nokia. Originally from London, Barham has also worked at Karmarama, BBC and BBH.
He rejoins the TBWA network having previously been planning director at TBWAChina. He is a regular speaker at events including PSFK, San Francisco: ad:tech Digital, Shanghai: AAAA Account Planning Conference, Miami; and Go Green, Portland. Barham is also author of Dis/connected (Random House, 2004), a book that explores the different worlds of British teenagers and their vibrant youth culture.
Barham said of his new role and roost, “Throughout my career, I’ve done my best to seek out roles that surprise and challenge me and allow me to keep learning. The unique structure of the TBWAChiatDay LA Group combines agility with scale and presents great opportunities for the work that we create with our clients.”
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More