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Steve Whapshott
Creative Director, Experience Design at Publicis Sapient
Professional Background
Steve Whapshott is a highly regarded creative leader with extensive expertise in addressing strategic, commercial, and creative challenges through effective design execution. His impressive portfolio features collaborations with global giants such as Google, Philips, British Gas, Elekta, and LEGO, where his work has made significant impacts. Steve’s approach to creative challenges focuses on understanding the core needs of customers, advocating for transformative projects that contribute to solving real-world problems. A passionate advocate for innovation, he believes that instigating change is crucial to ensuring any creative solution remains relevant and effective in the future.
One of his most notable initiatives involved partnering with Google to expand internet accessibility in underprivileged areas around the globe. Through his engagement with members of educational and governmental institutions in advancing countries, he gained invaluable insights into the specific needs and barriers faced by these communities. This data was instrumental in shaping his creative strategies aimed at progressing educational opportunities and leveling the playing field worldwide.
Steve boasts a broad range of skills that span the entirety of the creative process, including strategic development, innovation, campaign solutions, insight gathering, workshops, proposition and product development, brand strategy, ideation, art direction, user experience design, and visual identity development. His keen interest in future trends, paired with a flair for transforming great ideas into reality, empowers his teams to push the boundaries of what is possible in creative outcomes.
Throughout his career, Steve has demonstrated an exceptional ability to elevate client solutions to impactful heights. He effectively co-creates briefs with clients through workshops and interviews, ensuring that once an idea is realized and tested, it is meticulously crafted through exceptional design, art direction, and a profound technical understanding.
In addition to his rich history in full-time creative roles, Steve has also excelled as a freelance professional. His management experience encompasses overseeing creative teams, clients, and colleagues across multiple time zones and diverse cultural landscapes. Responsibilities in his leadership roles have included hiring, managing, coaching, mentoring, and training up-and-coming creatives. His leadership skills are further complemented by his involvement in opportunity spotting, strategic leadership, and new business development.
Education and Achievements
Steve Whapshott's academic journey began with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Buckinghamshire New University, where he cultivated the foundational skills that would propel his creative career. This solid educational background paved the way for a contemporary understanding of design and creativity, allowing him to tackle various challenges head-on in the fast-paced creative industry.
His career achievements are evident in his array of senior roles held at prestigious creative firms. He currently serves as the Group Creative Director at Publicis Sapient, where he leads innovative projects and helps teams push the envelope in creative problem-solving. Before this role, he was the Creative Director at frog and Idean, two well-respected firms known for their groundbreaking design and strategy initiatives.
Notable Roles
- Creative Director at frog: Spearheaded creative projects that integrated innovative design solutions.
- Creative Director at Idean: Led cross-functional teams to deliver on strategic client initiatives and creative visions.
- Design Director at Designit: Managed the design process from conception to execution, ensuring high-quality deliverables.
- Creative Director at Toaster: Drove campaigns that resonated with the target audience and maximized engagement.
- Art Director at Uber Digital: Developed and implemented unique digital strategies that enhanced user experiences.
Steve has also served as the Design & Art Director at CHI&Partners, freelance roles at Nonsense London, HIGHBEAM, and Toaster Ltd, and as a Senior Creative at Bow & Arrow. Each of these positions contributed to his extensive skillset and broadened his creative acumen.
Achievements
Steve Whapshott's impact on the industry and his dedication to invigorating the creative landscape have made him a highly respected figure. His ability to harness technology while ensuring that human insights remain at the forefront of design has led to numerous successful projects that not only meet client needs but also resonate deeply with audiences.
His commitment to fostering collaboration between creative teams and clients highlights his belief that great work arises from shared ideas and co-creation processes. Steve’s impressive leadership philosophy centers on empowerment, encouraging innovation, and inspiring creativity among his teams. His mentorship has helped guide many aspiring creatives toward successful careers in design and strategic thinking.
Steve Whapshott continues to challenge himself and his teams, striving for excellence in every project while staying attuned to emerging trends and user needs. His proactive mindset and innovative strategies not only assure client satisfaction but also contribute to the broader discourse in the creative industry.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.