Dropped out of school aged 9, left home at 15, fired by McDonalds a year later. If failure is the route to success, Will Rust got off to a good start.
After finding his actual passion, anthropology and creativity, he embarked in a 25 year relationship with the advertising agency, starting as a designer and ending with a 15 year stretch at Ogilvy & Mather as ECD in London, Prague, Kiev, Budapest, Dubai and sunny Copenhagen.
After finding his actual passion, anthropology and creativity, he embarked in a 25 year relationship with the advertising agency, starting as a designer and ending with a 15 year stretch at Ogilvy & Mather as ECD in London, Prague, Kiev, Budapest, Dubai and sunny Copenhagen.
Every agency he led in those markets topped their national creative rankings and won many 'Agency of the Year' titles. He also helped Ogilvy Ukraine become the “Most effective agency in Europe” according to the 2012 Effie Global index.
He has won accolades at every major award show including Cannes, D&AD, Clio, Red Dot & OneShow for clients as diverse as NASA, Lenovo, Commerzbank, Tuborg, Intersport, SAB Miller, Nestlé and the UNHCR.
In January 2019 he took the helm at Pandora's Global HQ as Director of Brand Design, redesigning their logo, creating a bespoke original typeface and revamping their global brand visual identity. His team fed over 100 markets with original design and creative for the legendary Danish brand.
After a brief period consulting for brands and agencies he accepted a Head of Brand role at Nordic unicorn fintech, Lunar. It was a crazy and record-breaking ride which took Lunar from low-key influencer endorsements to a strategic overhaul, complete redesign and, most recently, the capture of Will Ferrell for a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. Lunar acquired 200,000 customers from the five years before he joined, when he left they had over 500,000 and the curve continues to steepen. He joined Edisen in September 2022 to spearhead their growth with the development of original creative content for their global brands.
His abilities segue creativity with anthropology and behavioural science, as he believes that the best ideas come from a deep understanding of the human psyche and playful, surprising creativity that can spark emotions and change behaviour.
He also believe that creative people have to think like children in order to succeed. And if you don’t agree with that then you’re a big smelly elephant.
He also believe that creative people have to think like children in order to succeed. And if you don’t agree with that then you’re a big smelly elephant.