From the release:

Heckler Singapore’s new Managing Director Jonathan Gerard on the work that shaped him, why advertising takes itself too seriously, and his ambition to put storytelling back at the center of the studio.
 

We heard a rumour you started out directing music videos. True? And what did that version of Jonathan teach the MD version?

 
I have a couple of Juice TV awards (New Zealand’s version of the MTV awards) gathering dust in a wardrobe somewhere… Everything was shot on film back then, so everything was expensive. So I had to hustle. I was literally begging, stealing and borrowing short ends from production companies, sweet-talking discounts out of everyone, just to make the video.

That same hustle and drive is still needed today, especially when you’re finding creative solutions to budget, time or whatever problem you’re facing. The difference now is the experience of knowing how to get yourself out of trouble when you hack a process or system. Hustle and storytelling go together.
 

What was the first piece of work that made you think, “I want to be part of making things like this”?

 
When Windows 95 launched (in 1994, so years and years ago) they included Weezer’s Buddy Holly music video to show off its video capabilities. It was the first time I’d seen a director making something other than feature films (this was long before Being John Malkovich was released so Spike Jonze was still just a music video guy).

It was that ‘people get to do this as a job’ moment that as a 12 year old became the catalyst for studying screenwriting, making music videos, and getting into advertising.
 

You’ve worked on a lot of great campaigns. What’s the one project you still brag about when nobody asks?

 
Nike Hyper Court. We transformed street courts in Manila to provide access to coaching that wasn’t previously available.
It was a true collaboration across more than 10 production partners (including Heckler), and proof that production doesn’t have to be linear. You can hack the approach to fit the idea and still deliver something world class. It also made a meaningful difference: coaching access for more than 180,000 basketball players in the Philippines, 40% of them female.
 

What’s the best piece of work you’ve seen recently that made you a little jealous?

 
An AI test spot by Paul Middleditch (New Zealand commercial directing royalty), which I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about, or technically allowed to have seen… but it uses AI in a way people forget how it was made, and just connect with the humour and the script.
 

What’s something advertising takes far too seriously?

 
Itself.

Advertising has forgotten what made it great: That it’s a collective of different ideas coming together to tell stories for an audience. You can’t tell a story without an audience. And if everyone’s telling the same story, no one listens. So you need different points of view. Different ways of looking at the world. Different ways to tell a story.

All of the best projects I have worked across were authored as a team, everyone adding, building and crafting together. That’s where Creative Studios like Heckler fit in, as storytelling partners to brands, agencies, directors and artists.
 

What’s one creative opinion you have that you’d happily argue about over a drink?

 
That people frequently misuse the term craft frequently when it comes to production. Craft is matching the execution to the story, it’s ensuring the way you are telling the story is in service to the story. Often when people talk about craft they are talking about production value not storytelling. And storytelling is key.