Richard Huntington

Richard Huntington is one of the UK advertising industry's most respected and outspoken strategic thinkers, widely recognised for his passionate defence of account planning, brand strategy, and the enduring power of creativity in an increasingly data-driven media landscape. He built his reputation over decades at the intersection of big ideas and commercial rigour, consistently challenging the industry to resist short-termism and the seductive but often misleading promises of purely performance-driven advertising. His writing, speaking, and public commentary have made him a touchstone figure for planners and strategists across the UK and beyond. Huntington spent the bulk of his career at Saatchi & Saatchi London, where he rose to become Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing strategic output for one of the world's most iconic agency brands. During his tenure he worked on major clients and helped shape the agency's intellectual culture, championing the role of the planner as a creative and commercial force. He was a prolific blogger and industry commentator through his long-running blog 'Adliterate,' which became required reading for strategists and helped establish him as a genuine thought leader rather than simply a senior practitioner. More recently, Huntington joined Feral, a strategic consultancy, as a Partner, continuing his mission to bring rigorous, ambitious strategic thinking to brands and organisations. His influence extends well beyond any single agency, having shaped how a generation of planners think about brand, culture, and the relationship between creativity and effectiveness. While his work sits at the brand and creative strategy end of the spectrum rather than the technical AdTech stack, his voice on the dangers of over-indexing on short-term digital performance metrics has been directly relevant to debates within the AdTech and programmatic ecosystem.

Last updated Jul 10, 2026 by ATDb automated enrichment