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The Best Gifts CEOs Have Ever Received

04/12/2024
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Priya Patel, Lee Leggett, Margie Reid, Justin Graham, and Angela Watson share the best objects and pieces of advice they鈥檝e ever received with 天美棋牌鈥檚 Brittney Rigby, from roller skates to perfume, fruit to Bill Murray
In the lead up to Christmas, 天美棋牌 AUNZ is asking , creatives, CEOs, marketers, directors, and music and sound practitioners to share the best gift they鈥檝e ever received - an object, piece of advice or training, or person they鈥檝e worked with. Here鈥檚 what CEOs shared with 天美棋牌鈥檚 Brittney Rigby.

A set of roller skates. Perfume. A Christmas movie recommendation on Netflix. A box of fruit from FINCH. These are a few of agency CEOs鈥 favourite Christmas gifts.

In the early 80s, Xanadu was big, and CHEP CEO Lee Leggett wanted to be Olivia Newton-John. When she got a pair of roller skates, The Roller Disco at Coventry swimming pool in England became the place to be on a Friday night.

鈥淲ith my crimped hair up in a pony to show off my new Benetton t-shirt, I鈥檇 glide through neon lights, too scared to talk to any of the boys I liked, waiting for the DJ to do the inevitable reverse call out where everyone changed direction and then fell over, all in the hope that the collision would spark a conversation.鈥

Lee's current skates

It wasn鈥檛 really about the roller skates, she says, 鈥渂ut the way they opened up a whole new world of dreams and adventure.鈥 She owned multiple pairs of skates over the years, 鈥渁lways quads鈥, and bought a new pair during COVID lockdowns. 

鈥淣ow, I鈥檝e passed the gift of skating on to my daughter - who was born on the 23rd of December, so she should probably be the real best gift - and with our matching skates, we鈥檝e started our own little roller disco legacy.鈥

Lee's daughter Miller and Lee skating during lockdown

Priya Patel loves scent - perfumes and candles, lotions and washes. 鈥淔or the hair, face, or feet. Oud or floral, oriental or citrusy. Am here for it all,鈥 she says.

 鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 work in advertising, I think I鈥檇 have been a 鈥榥ose鈥 for a perfumery.鈥 Every year at Christmas-time, her husband Russell Hopson - an advertising exec himself who鈥檚 formerly led adam&eve/DDB in London and M&C Saatchi in Sydney as MD - heads into local beauty retailer Mecca, ready for the staff to 鈥減itch him the latest and greatest beauty products.鈥

The result? 鈥淎n amazing stocking filled with new and wonderfully smelly things.鈥 Priya references a quote from Helen Keller: 鈥溾楽mell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived鈥, and so I鈥檓 always really excited to get my big red sock of memories and inspiration for the year ahead.鈥

Margie Reid鈥檚 agency, Thinkerbell, got a smelly gift of its own one year. Each Christmas, production company FINCH sends the agency an 鈥渁mazing box of fruit.鈥

鈥淚t's always a surprise as to what fruit it is and a delicious goodie we can all share,鈥 she says. 

鈥淭here was one year when the box arrived after the office shut for Christmas, and let's just say by the time we came back three weeks later, there were some happy fruit flies!鈥

Justin Graham, meanwhile, loves a recommendation. 鈥淭hat hidden restaurant down the hill, the live recording on vinyl from the forgotten concert in Tokyo, simply taking a back street, or an obscure podcast about cows.鈥 So when a colleague told M&C Saatchi鈥檚 APAC chief about a new Christmas movie he鈥檇 never watched, 鈥淚 was all in.鈥 

鈥淚n the office on the last day of work, wrapping up another year and debating with that colleague the merits of 鈥楾he Holiday鈥 vs 鈥楲ove Actually鈥, 鈥楬ome Alone vs 鈥楴ational Lampoons鈥, even 鈥楧ie Hard鈥 vs 鈥楧ie Harder鈥, she said, 鈥楬ave you seen 'A Very Murray Christmas' on Netflix?鈥 Being a Christmas guy in a family of Christmasy people, I thought I had seen them all. Maybe not?

鈥淚t is a doco, of sorts. Set in the city where I have had some of my best Christmases ever, New York. It features Bill Murray in a snowstorm, with Maya Rudolph, Any Poehler, Chris Rock, Michael Cera, the lead singer from the NY Dolls (playing himself, as a waiter), George Clooney, and Miley Cyrus.鈥

It鈥檚 become a late-night Christmas Eve ritual for Justin and his wife.

鈥淚t's that moment in time when the holidays begin,鈥 he says. 鈥淪o, a grumpy Bill Murray on Christmas Eve was the perfect gift. And now I am giving it to you.鈥

Angela Watson, Colenso BBDO's CEO, tells the story of a gift received not once, but twice, 44 years apart.

"Aged 11, my mother took me to a toyshop and told me I could choose anything," she remembers.

"Why she did this, I don鈥檛 know, but it was such a thrill. I chose a Lego Harley Davidson police motorcycle. Go figure. Maybe because it was the era of CHIPs and I had a crush on Erik Estrada. A couple of years ago, I rifled through the mountain of Lego acquired since then, and found every single piece, bar one, and remade it. I can鈥檛 tell you how satisfying this was and how it took me back to every detail of that day so long ago."

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