The biggest brands in the world - loved, hated or even respected - I lived and breathed the brand.

I worked for Maxwell Communications Corporation, Microsoft, Vodafone and Plantronics - all well-known and perhaps somewhat notorious. I loved each and every brand, having a great deal to do with their constant brand recreations, averaging 18 months between different brand iterations.

Why were they huge brands?

Certainly the advertising spends were enormous; Vodafone is its acquisitive pomp spent £5 million a year in advertising at Heathrow Terminal One alone.

Why did they need to be constantly revamped?

Was it to do with people justifying their jobs or was it to do with creating a constant competitive edge and natural brand evolution?

The power of a brand truly lies in the relationship between the customer and the product or service, that relationship has to go beyond the logical to something more emotional or even magical. In the corporate world that is rarely a close relationship due to their channels to market and sheer size of organisation.

The corporate world is fun, is hard work and entertaining and I have made some friends for life, however they are also life pervasive, too much and ultimately draining. They say that the average shelf-life of a Marketing Director in a corporate is two years.

I left each one in turn for pastures new - perhaps for better stock options, better opportunities and fatter cheques, but herein lies the truth, if I had won the lottery I would have left them all, forever.

I have joined the world of the entrepreneur, controlling my destiny and now work as one of two Directors of Impress, a full service marketing agency based in Wiltshire.

It's hard work, it's entertaining, it's frustrating, in many ways the same as a big corporate with the exception  that they seem to have endless cash showered on them by The City, but if I win the lottery tomorrow I would stay and work at Impress. Why? Because I love it, because there is real passion for marketing, there is a real need and desire to do well and to create a difference for our clients. This inspiration is due to the indefatigable passion for marketing of the Impress creator - Andrew Pinnell.

A friend and business ally said he found the people in the corporate world frustrating (and they are his clients) because more often than not those people had reached their position of power not because they were inspirational or truly creative but because they played the corporate game.

Impress deal with a variety of clients, most of whom are entrepreneurs to the core - they have passion, belief, vision, creativity and are inspirational - that's what drives me and Andrew and Impress!