Franki Goodwin: Making Ads Bigger, Bolder, and Worth Watching

If there’s anyone who can take the temperature of British advertising with both candour and optimism, it’s Franki Goodwin. As the chief creative officer of Saatchi & Saatchi and a creative force who straddles advertising and filmmaking - she's spent over ten years as company director of production company Western Edge pictures, working on titles including ‘Prevenge’, ‘Rare Beasts’ and ‘The Toll’ - she’s got a sharp eye for what’s working, what’s changing, and what the industry needs to get right. After all, she's the creative force behind Waitrose’s 'Sweet Suspicion: A Waitrose Mystery' that captivated the nation and clinched the top spot on YouTube’s Christmas Ad Leaderboard.

Last year she produced the film Timestalker - an anti-romcom which follows hapless heroine Agnes through time as she repeatedly falls for the wrong guy, dies a grim death, and gets reincarnated a century later, before meeting him again and starting the cycle anew. This year she's working on a Tom Daley documentary. Goodwin is also writing a film this year.

Chairing this year’s British Arrows jury, Goodwin had a front-row seat to the best of British film craft—and a few creative battles along the way. With a diverse jury of clients, creatives, and directors, the process was as much about the work as it was about the discussions around it. It was a reminder that great advertising doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it thrives on collective ambition, debate, and, yes, the occasional disagreement about the merits of toilet humour.

For Goodwin, TV advertising is not a relic waiting to be written off. Instead, she’s adamant that it remains a vital cultural force—if we treat it with the respect it deserves. Having graduated with a first class degree in Visual Communication from Glasgow School of Art, she started her career as a graphic designer, then art director.

As digital media evolved in the early 2000s, so did her role and her first company Franki&Jonny — a boutique brand and digital agency for independent films. Her move into advertising happened in 2013 when she joined Saatchi & Saatchi. Three years later, in 2016 Goodwin won 9 Cannes Lions for 'Sea Hero Quest' for Deutsche Telekom— the world’s first game to plug into Dementia.

Her title as chief creative officer is not something she takes lightly, she says and adds that she’s wary of one discipline owning the word “creative.” For Goodwin creativity isn’t confined to job titles, and she wants to make sure people feel empowered to contribute, regardless of where they sit. The best advertising, after all, is born from a collective creative spirit, not just a single department.

In this Q&A, Goodwin shares her takeaways from the judging room, challenges the idea that British creativity is in decline, and explains how she’s shaping the New Creator Showcase - a space where emerging filmmakers and under-the-radar talent can break into advertising with real opportunities—not just exposure. This year, she’s pushing for more raw, authentic storytelling that reflects the unpredictability of the creative process itself. By keeping the Showcase connected to both advertising and the wider world of film, she hopes to foster a new generation of creatives who can bring fresh perspectives to the industry—and, crucially, get paid for it.

Creative Salon: What were your key takeaways from chairing the British Arrows jury?

Franki Goodwin: Well first of all, I should say there was a brilliant body of work, and being able to sit with talented people and get insight and perspective on the year's output is an incredibly valuable thing to do as you kick off the year. I think we all felt that.

Having judged Cannes Lions Film category earlier in the year, I noticed the same trend—really effective work is either incredibly short (15 seconds or less) or leans into long-form or branded entertainment. We're seeing genuine innovation in how brands tell stories beyond traditional ad formats.

However, the 30-second category felt like it wasn't delivering the best work. That may be because some great 30s were entered in other categories—often as 40s or 60s. But it sparked an important discussion: The 30" TV spot is an important medium, and we mustn't stop striving for perfect 30s for our clients. There's a persistent narrative that 'no one watches TV anymore,' but that's simply ignoring mass live event TV and the return to ad models that all the streamers are making – brands and media companies still invest in "TV" as a mass medium, and it's our job to make sure it remains a powerful platform for storytelling.

CS: There's a narrative that British creativity isn't what it used to be. Do you agree?

FG: No, I think that's a bit cantankerous and outdated if I am honest. At Cannes, UK work like Channel 4's idents and Uber's 'Trains' made sure the UK punched its weight in a hugely competitive film category. Directors like Steve Rogers and Lucy Forbes are globally in demand and locally with big brand campaigns like EE—we're making work that's deeply culturally relevant. Yes, coming out of Covid was a challenge. Everyone had to rebuild their creative confidence and figure out how to collaborate in person again. But we're in a strong position.

I think we tend to romanticise 'Cool Britannia' because the nation had more confidence back then and our lives felt easier. But today, we have a thriving music scene, film industry, and a lot to be excited about creatively in the advertising sector – it's just perhaps the job feels harder, and our world feels a bit darker. It's a theory anyway, I just refuse to be too gloomy.

CS: Any surprises from the judging process?

FG: I actually discovered some work that I hadn't seen before—namely from Arsenal, Adidas and in the charity sector. It also threw up a few trends: a return to shooting on film, and we're back in love with well-crafted montages. "Vignette films" fell out of favour for a while, probably because there were lots of bad ones. Vodafone's work is a great example—you can still do vignette-driven storytelling, but it has to be extraordinarily well executed.

I was a bit surprised at how lenient my fellow jurors were on messy end frames and excessive supers. I think if a film needs to be explained at the start, supered in the middle and then recapped at the end with multiple logos, it's lost too many creative battles along the way, but I think much of the room was just focused on the quality of the film, which is fair enough! When a film is really great, no one cares about how many logos are in it… except perhaps pedantic ex-designers.

CS: How have the British Arrows inspired you?

FG: I was as inspired by the conversations in the room as I was by the work. Having so many disciplines in the room is another unique thing about the Arrows format. To have you [Sonoo Singh, founder Creative Salon was a jury member]– a journalist – alongside clients, producers, creatives and directors all explaining how they judge work is just fascinating. Rollo Jackson [director, Somesuch] talked about trying to see past a great edit to the film itself when judging direction, Kelly Engstrom [communications director at BT, Plusnet and EE] was incredibly articulate on the effectiveness of a proposition not just execution... and a number of us felt very strongly about fart jokes – it was wide ranging and fascinating! We don't have open conversations about the things that motivate us, annoy us, bore us or inspire us because we're often too preoccupied on selling to each other. So I'd definitely say that was the most inspiring part.

And being in a cinema for judging really reinforced the power of a big screen and a collective watching experience – I felt inspired to watch fewer films on planes and more in cinemas!

CS: What's your take on the future of TV advertising?

FG: As I've mentioned, the 'death of TV' narrative is nonsense. Streaming platforms are shifting back to ad-supported models, with weekly episode drops and ad breaks. That's a huge opportunity for us. We need to stop saying 'no one watches TV' and instead focus on elevating the quality of ads in those spaces.

There's an opportunity for more sequential storytelling, more episodic approaches. Our work for Waitrose, for example, used a two-parter that played with the medium itself. I'd love to see more brands embrace that kind of ambition. And it sort of says brands can be episodic, and that mass media can be used in that way. Today film is more relevant than ever, and where that film shows up is more relevant. And that's where the opportunity is. I think more sequential installations and more ambition both from brands and their ad and media agencies in terms of how we use the media.

CS: The jury room saw some very animated discussions around social and good practices around social media. Do you think social advertising be a separate category?

FG: I think so. Some awards shows already have subcategories for film—like 'Best Viral Film'—which allows you to judge it based on whether people organically shared it or if it was part of a paid campaign. The challenge with social is defining what makes a great 'social film.' – the mechanic, the engagement, the idea and the execution can really shift the conversation.

Take Burberry's work, for example. It was powerful because the moment it dropped, everyone was talking about it, but when that buzzy moment has passed and you sit down to watch Cole Palmer fishing for nine minutes, what are you judging? The idea, the entertainment factor or the duffle coat? I guess that's for the room to decide. The British Arrows is evolving its categories as the social platforms evolve, but I would always want this awards show to stay film-centric as that is part of why it's so special.

CS: The Saatchi & Saatchi New Creators' Showcase has provided a platform for up-and-coming creators, celebrating the very best in creativity. What's next for the New Creator Showcase?

FG: Great question! Kate [Stanners], Jess [Ringshall] and I are just about to launch the call for entries this year and I'm so excited. Over the last three instalments of NCS I've committed to it being an entry point into a creative career in advertising and paid work. I think it's a special place for advertising and filmmaking to meet and I think the closer we are to our TV and Film industries, the stronger the advertising creative community becomes.

I don't have a particular agenda for the work, but this year I am trying to encourage raw, authentic stories that demonstrate the non-linear 'messiness' of the creative process. My focus has been on bringing in more off-radar short filmmakers and keeping the quality and shape of the reel at the heart of it.

CS: How do you balance your role at Saatchi with your own creative projects that you always talk passionately about?

FG: I squeeze it in! Last year, I used most of my annual leave to attend film festivals with our film TimeStalker – Austin, Edinburgh, Locarno, Sitges. Right now, Western Edge Pictures has just locked picture on a Tom Daley documentary and I'm working on its graphics with some of my favourite designers. It's such a joy to think about a different medium and use it to collaborate.

I am trying to write a film this year too. There – I've put it in print so I have to finish it!

CS: You've mentioned to me about being uncomfortable with the title 'Chief Creative Officer.' Why? 



FG: Ha! I mean obviously I love being CCO and am so proud of it. But I do have an issue with one discipline in our agency owning the word "creative". It implies that people without 'creative' in their job title, well… aren't. Creativity isn't exclusive to the creative department or even the creative industries. A detective cracking a case is being creative. A teacher getting a struggling student to engage in a different way is being creative.

I hate it when someone feels they have to preface pitching an idea or suggesting a solution with "I'm not creative but… ". Firstly, yes you are, and secondly, I don't want people to censor themselves when they might have something really valuable to offer. Great ideas can come from anywhere. The job of a creative is the curation and execution of them, not ownership of the entire principle.