Will Francis

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 life-size replica of Le Corbusier’s 1930’s Villa Savoye, turning it into a multimedia arts centre. It came complete with screening room, performance space, fine art gallery and bar. As the hype around Second Life started to rapidly fall apart. However, Will stayed on for a while but then he got bored and left.

MySpace:

Around the same time, MySpace opened an office in London as part of their global expansion. This was triggered by the purchase by News International for just over half a billion dollars. That was 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. He was now 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.

He launched the site’s comedy channel with an online/offline X Factor for comedy type talent search. They created a feature film and at least two online TV series. The stuff they did there was phenomenal in retrospect but it was of course. A bit like trying to bail out a sinking ship with an ice scoop. 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.

Social Media:

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. He 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 over 10 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.

He presents at numerous events. 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.