My Creative Career: Josh Tenser, ECD and founder of Calling
He cut his teeth at BBH and W+K, then was part of the early Uncommon team before starting his own shop over a year ago. Here, Tenser tells the twists and turns of his standout career, including how he nearly packed it all in.
Calling's Josh Tenser / Calling
Like so many creatives, Josh Tenser’s introduction to advertising was a bit of a fluke. Growing up in Leeds, he ended up unemployed, claiming benefits and playing in a few bands. Life was tough and he lived in near squalor, working cash-in-hand jobs such as washing dishes. During those formative years, it was a friend who introduced him to a free course that included Photoshop and HTML coding, which changed everything. This was back in 1996 when the internet was still in its infancy.
After the course ended, Tener’s first professional experience was at a sort of crude, early digital agency in Leeds called Sense Internet. Here, he worked on pioneering websites for brands, including British Airways and Helly Hanson. “It was a really interesting and beautiful time because the internet was brand new,” he recalls. “The way we all learned was by teaching each other, stealing things that we found and hacking them. It was just a very experimental and interesting time for brands to be taking their first foray into the internet.”
Explore frequently asked questions
From there, Tenser moved to London and, armed with his new skills, worked as a freelancer for a bit before getting his first big gig at Iris. During those years, which were still pre-Instagram and pre-iPhone, the team was doing a lot of work for Coke and Sony on bespoke websites that were “super creative.”
A stint at Work Club followed, in production roles, working on accounts including Nokia and McLaren, before a major turning point saw Tenser move to Stink Digital. This period was pivotal in Tenser’s career as he worked on many interactive film and digital projects. The work was highly experimental and innovative, reflecting the era’s larger budgets and a willingness to explore new digital frontiers.
In 2012, Tenser was hired by BBH to expand its digital capabilities. The agency was a powerhouse in traditional advertising but needed to grow its digital offerings. It would mark the first time Tenser took on the challenge of not just producing but also writing creative treatments for briefs.
This experience marked his transition from a production-focused role to a creative one, ultimately leading him to explore writing and conceptualizing campaigns more deeply. His collaboration with Nick Gill, then ECD at BBH, was instrumental in fostering his creative growth.
Advertisement
Subsequently, he dabbled in a startup agency and then later joined TBWA, where he ran the Airbnb account across EMEA and worked on brands like Nissan and Pernod Ricard. From there, stints at Wieden+Kennedy and as a freelancer paved the way for his next big move.
In 2018, Tenser joined a relatively new agency called Uncommon. It was a bit of a sliding doors moment for the creative, as a friend who was working there encouraged him to come in and meet Nils Leonard, one of the agency’s co-founders. This was about six months into the shop’s journey.
“I’ll never forget the day I met him. I was in a space where I was a bit jaded but not really working and worried about money,” explains Tenser. “My daughter had puked on my T-shirt that morning, so I didn’t look great. He sat down in front of me and gave me a funny look.”
Tenser thought he had lost the agency boss already, but Leonard proceeded to ask him what he had been up to. “At that time, Uncommon was just in one room. Loads of people were at a table next to us working.”
Tenser explains that as the conversation unfolded, he learned a valuable lesson about integrity. He explained to the Uncommon boss that he was sort of done with advertising and he wasn’t enjoying it as much any more. “Nils said, ‘Can you start tomorrow?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I can, but you’ve heard what I said?’ He didn’t ignore what I said; he heard everything. We circled back on it a year later. He said that he could tell I had an axe to grind.”
Advertisement
Tenser feels that Leonard must have considered him “worth a spin.” In those first few years of Uncommon, the team pursued work they were truly passionate about. Some of his most interesting projects during that time were for Asos on its Collusion line, which featured 100 people turning 18 in the year 2018 captured in a portrait. There was also the B&Q account, which the agency pitched for and won.
“The CMO, in his own words, said it had lost its mojo,” says Tenser. “The brand didn’t have a lot of passion about it. Nils encouraged me to write the work I wanted to make, and if we won it, then we could make that work. It was an inspiring and trusting thing to have been offered.”
Uncommon won the pitch with beautiful, human and emotional scripts within the ‘Build a Life’ platform. It was the beginning of Tenser realizing that taking a big, iconic and traditional British brand and modernizing it was extremely exciting. “It was a joyful thing. When you have a brand that is in less-than-perfect nick, you have such an opportunity to make a difference.”
Tenser also wrote ITV’s ‘Britain Get Talking’ campaign. Originally a one-time activation, it has evolved over the years to regularly encourage families to speak about mental health together.
After five years at Uncommon, he was beginning to feel a little restless. He felt that he had learned from the absolute best but was ready for a leadership role of his own. “I talked to Nils about leaving and he was like, ‘Fucking don’t,’” he laughs. “I told him that I needed my own show and he said to start something together.”
This was in 2022 and, according to Tenser, it was quite a scary conversation to have. For the three Uncommon founders to have faith in him was huge. The groundwork for his new agency, Calling, was laid.
Suggested newsletters for you
Uncommon backed Calling. “It was a blessing that we couldn’t turn down. They have a back-office involvement, which is quite tight. We share financial, operational and legal services. The involvement is like a backer as opposed to any form of creative or strategic involvement. The day-to-day running of Calling is autonomous.”
Calling officially opened its doors in January 2023, with Tenser and Rani Patel as co-founders and owners of the studio.
“We discussed at length when we launched whether to make it public that we were backed by Uncommon. We decided against it and there is a really good reason why. We were all quite adamant that Calling should stand for something new. For us, it’s a voice for progress in the industry. It had to stand on its own two feet.”
The Uncommon ‘headline’ would have overshadowed what Tenser and Patel were trying to accomplish. “We’re so proud to be part of the Uncommon family; we couldn’t have existed without them. They made this possible through financial backing.”
A year and a half later, the agency has been building a reputation for taking heritage brands and giving them a fresh spin. Standout work includes campaigns for Interflora, PG Tips and Dr Martens.
“They have all felt true to our vision of being a progressive company in advertising,” concludes Tenser. “We’re trying to create a positive impact for brands.”
Read our interview with Calling about its work on Interflora here.