Will Francis is a writer, speaker & commentator on technology and culture. Author of Cocktails of the Movies. Founder of Vandal Creative, formerly Editor of MySpace UK and founder of Harkable.
Listed by Telegraph, Independent, NMA as a top technology and media influencer.
Will Francis moved to London in his early twenties and took up a job teaching music production. It was at this time he also joined a pop/indie band hoping for stardom. Will said they rocked London's toilet circuit by night whilst during the day Will promoted the band via the internet.
Will was obsessed with all the new technology that brought people together. One such area that particularly took Will's fancy was virtual worlds. He got quite into them and joined the team at Second Life (a free 3D virtual world where users socialize and connect). Will was now playing 'live' gigs, meeting people and eventually building a lifesize replica of Le Corbusier's 1930's Villa Savoye and turning it into a multimedia arts centre complete with screening room, performance space, fine art gallery and bar.
As the hype around Second Life started to rapidly fall apart, Will stayed on for a while but then he got bored and left.
Around the same time, MySpace opened an office in London as part of their global expansion triggered by the purchase by News International for just over half a billion dollars, a steal by today's standards. Will was already a heavy user of the site, promoting the band, conversing and collaborating with musicians, promoters and fans all over the world, it really was the best experience of social media he ever had. MySpace was an open, creative community which hadn't before or since existed on this scale. Knowing his way round the site and how to 'hack' the pages to make them look nice, Will managed to get a job in the content team, seeking out the best stuff to feature on their key pages. Will subsequently became editor of the site, overseeing the site content and relationships with labels, film studios, independents arts organisations and brands. He produced podcasts, created a series of innovative live video interviews with everyone from Ricky Gervais to Justin Bieber and everyone in between.
He launched the site's comedy channel with an online/offline X Factor for comedy type talent search, they created a feature film, at least two online TV series. The stuff they did there was phenomenal in retrospect but it was of course their attempt to bail out a sinking ship with an ice scoop, and ultimately they couldn't stop people leaving the social networking side of the product to Facebook, so it wasn't long before Will was also to move on.
Having worked in 'social media' before it had even become a term, Will went to work at a big ad agency to bring social innovation to campaigns and had a lot of fun doing that, but he realised it was time to run his own agency and founded the creative digital agency, Harkable with a couple of friends from MySpace. Harkable is now 4 years old and works with tech, entertainment and fashion brands to reach their audiences in more fun and engaging ways through digital and social media.
Will Francis is now a regular speaker at conferences, talking about the future of digital and social media. He can be seen on TV, often brought in for expert comment and he is a bit of a regular on ITV's Daybreak, talking about technology.
He presents at numerous events and as a businessman, Will is the go to guy for expert advice on the use of technology in advertising and sales. His clients include Warner Music, Net A Porter, Samsung, Spotify, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and the Nike Foundation.
As a writer, Will regularly produces reactive and opinion pieces on the subjects of technology, advertising, media and culture for outlets such as Brand Republic, The Guardian and his own blog.
Will's first book, Cocktails of the Movies, charts a century of drinks on film and celebrating some of Hollywood's greatest characters with iconic cocktails.
