In 1979, Michael Hemingway joined a start-up Agency owned by Michael Bungey and worked on Safeway, Wilkinson Sword, Polycell and Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. In 1981, Mike was lured to Collett Dickerson Pearce to work on Hamlet, Heineken, Cinzano, Wrangler, Barclays Bank, British Telecom and Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, again. In 1985, Mike joined the other great bastion of British advertising, Boase Massimi Pollitt. There he worked with Courage, owner of such famous brands as Fosters, Hofmeister, John Smiths and Miller Lite - all award-winning campaigns.
In 1989, Grey London asked him to join their management team as Vice Chairman and Client Service Director. After restructuring the Client Service departments, Mike took over the Bass Breweries and Lee Jeans business, as well as Grey's Procter and Gamble Health and Beauty Care business, launching Cover Girl in the UK and other parts of Europe. He also launched the Laura Biagotti, Hugo Boss and Otto Kern fragrance lines. However, the biggest success of all was the launch of Pantene – the campaign that was named “Serious Care for Healthy, Shiny Hair.” This campaign led the brand to Worldwide Market Leadership. In 1995, Mike successfully led the pitch for the Worldwide Mars business and ran the worldwide confectionery division of the $300 million account, based in London. In addition, in between 1995 and 2000, Mike developed and led a week-long advertising training seminar, “How to Create Award-Winning Effective Advertising”, sponsored by the Mars Family. This seminar was held in many cities around the world, including Tokyo, Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Paris, Barcelona, Bremen, Warsaw, Prague, Moscow, Kiev, Istanbul and Johannesburg!
In June 2000, Mike was invited to join Ogilvy & Mather in New York, to work on Kodak, as Worldwide Director, based in New York. He led the team that created the "Share Moment. Share Life" campaign, which later became a global success. In 2004, Mike took over the WW Dove business, leading the team that created the now famous campaign for Real Beauty. Mike led the worldwide team right from the first client briefing, to recommending the breakthrough strategy and selling the icon work. This now iconic campaign led to immediate sales increases, whilst pioneering new concepts in "equity innovation" and "new" mass media. He led the business for 7 years, from 2003 to 2010 and is currently retained as an advisor on the business.
With over 25 years of industry experience, Mike brings his vast knowledge to SME leading the agency in strategic planning initiatives on behalf of client brands.
