Lucy Farey-Jones

Lucy completed a degree in English literature at Oxford University and was immediately recruited by BMP DDB in London (the birthplace of account planning). During her eight years there she worked on a huge variety of accounts, most notably Volkswagen, for which she helped launch four models in as many years. In addition to helping VW deliver its best sales year ever, the work won three Gold Lions at Cannes, five Silver D&ADs and Best of Show and five Gold Pencils at the One Show. Her experience also extends to a number of English brands. But as they don’t really matter as much in America, we’ll just name the categories: tea, mineral water, margarine, skincare, footwear, banking, travel and charity. Lucy abandoned the mother country in 1999 to become Head of Planning for BBDO’s West Coast agencies (LA and SF). There she worked on EarthLink, Pioneer and Schwab, among other brands. This gave her just enough time to acclimatize (with a z), and to recognize the brilliance of the Venables Bell & Partners plan. As one of the three partners who have grown the agency from a start-up in 2001 to the 193-person agency it is today, Lucy is inextricably part of Venables Bell & Partners’ success story. Overseeing all of the agency’s strategic insights in both brand and communications planning, she has been instrumental in leading Venables Bell & Partners to victory in new business and shaping such brand positioning as Audi’s “Truth in Engineering,” Intel’s “Sponsors of Tomorrow,” the Meth Project’s “Not Even Once,” and eBay’s “When it’s on your mind, it’s on eBay.” These campaigns have all made Venables Bell & Partners not only a creative force, but also contributed to the agency’s eight Effies for marketing effectiveness.