Marty Wright is creative director for Bell Advertising Recruitment. During his career in advertising he has worked for a number of different advertising companies and is responsible for some of the most well-known and most popular ads of all time. Wright says that he remembers having an interest in drawing and art from an early age. He was an avid viewer of RTE's Let's Draw and even won prizes for some of earlier works.
He left school after his Inter Cert to work in the printing section of the Irish Independent - like his father and brother. However, once he made up his mind about what he wanted to do, he studied for the Leaving Cert at night.
He applied for a position as a production assistant in Arks, one of the largest advertising companies at the time - known as the "university of advertising". While working there, he studied advertising in Rathmines and built up a portfolio. After a lot of pestering, the creative directors of the company appointed Wright a junior art director. He has worked for a number of different advertising companies throughout his career. One of his most memorable jobs was creative director for Middle East Advertising Network Services in Beirut. He was there at quite a dangerous time, during the civil war, and he describes his time there as his adventure in advertising - he spent his time "`doing ads and dodging bullets". Eventually Wright had to leave Beirut as the situation became too dangerous. Wright has won numerous awards for his work and has been responsible for some very famous and successful ad campaigns.
In 1985 he won seven awards from the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design at their annual exhibition, which Wright says are "the Oscars of the industry". Later, in 1992, after winning a number of awards, Wright was appointed president of the ICAD, which was "a great honour". In 1988, Wright was offered a job with his current employers, Bell, who have since been bought by Ogilvy and Mather. This is the longest period he has spent working with any company. When asked if he is happy with his current position he says: "This is my favourite place here."
He has come up with some of his best work while at this company. When asked what his favourite ad campaign was, Wright says he can't pick one. However, he mentions a Guiness campaign he was involved with: "All art directors aspire to do a Guiness ad. I was lucky, I got to do nine Guiness posters, three of which won awards."
Advertising is a career Wright says he would recommend to anyone: "It is an exciting career. There are so many courses available to students - all you need is a passion."
He has always enjoyed his job: "My career has gone through three decades and I still get a great buzz out of my work, still get a sense of fear when I sit down in front of an empty sheet and have to fill it."
He finds that, although he has been in the advertising business for a long time, he still is always learning due to developments in technology: "There is always new technology coming out, it is really exciting."
The part of his job which Wright loves most is the creativity and fun: "I'm like a 50-year-old kid. I love to play and be creative."
