Tas, aka Anthony Tasgal, worked for over 15 years from 1981 as an Account Planner in London ad agencies such as BBDO, DMB&B and Euro RSCG and on international blue-chips from Amex to KFC, Peugeot to Ford, Glenfiddich to Unilever.
He started his own Strategic Consultancy, POV, in 1998 specialising in applying new thinking from domains such as science, film and cultural theory and creativity into brand and communication development and training. Since then he has worked with clients and agencies of all hues and denominations on planning, NPD, innovation and what he likes to call “Insightment” (see Admap magazine December 2004). He also created and edited the Mintel Inspire product, a trends database for which he wrote in the region of 100,000 words.
In the absence of an obvious descriptor, Tas prefers the movie-industry term “Hyphenate” to cover Planner-Trainer-Consultant-Provocateur-Researcher.
He has presented at or chaired UK Market Research Society Conference sessions for the last 5 years, and has recently presented at Admap conferences on Ad research and Creativity, as well as performing at the APG Battle of Big Thinking in October 07, winning the “research” section. He also presented the keynote speech at Clear Channel’s Ideas Seminar in November 08.
Tas is also a Course Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) running courses on Insightment and Trendstorming as well as a lecturer at Bucks New University, including the MA in advertising.
His paper on the influence of different types of science on marketing and research, “The Science of the Brands-Alchemy, Advertising and Accountancy” won the Best Paper Award at the 2003 UK Market Research Society Conference.
His obsession with film culminated in becoming a Director of the Trust that runs the Phoenix Cinema in North London, which he has been doing for over 15 years, making him a “real client” into the bargain, and getting him to interview the likes of Michael Palin, Victoria Wood, Mike Leigh, Tom Wilkinson, Neil Jordan and Alan Bennett.
Other pastimes include popping into his kids’ (16, 14 and “nearly 12”) schools to bore about the Greeks and Romans, running quizzes and playing tennis harmlessly.
He has also just recovered from fulfilling a lifelong ambition of doing stand-up: a ten-minute set which did not bring shame and embarrassment upon his family as they had feared and predicted.