His energy levels hardly need topping up, yet David Jones, Havas Worldwide global chief executive, fairly fizzes with enthusiasm when talking about his company’s current project – David Cameron’s bid for power in the forthcoming general election.

Havas Worldwide agency Euro RSCG London handles the Conservative Party’s advertising account, with Jones at the helm. He reveals: “For me, political marketing is the single most exciting thing you can do in our business. It just moves at a speed and velocity that is like nothing else.”

It’s not as if Jones’ life appears to lack excitement or success. Not unlike Cameron’s rapid rise through the political ranks, Jones rose to become global CEO of Euro RSCG at the tender age of 38. Last year, he also added the title of global chief executive officer of Havas Worldwide, the group’s holding company.

Jones’ passion for politics may seem slightly incongruous with what seems like a charmed international life. Married to wife Karine with three small children, he hangs out with film and sports stars, such as tennis ace Yannick Noah and French Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.

But when you realise that he does business with the likes of Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof, Jones’ interest in politics starts making sense. He believes that the creative industry has an obligation to use its power to “do good” and the work for the Conservatives is just one thing that falls under this umbrella.

Like many admen who take on political clients, Jones is a believer. “This is really important to me. Cameron genuinely is a great guy. The more I’ve got to know him over the past two years the more I think: ‘Our country needs somebody like him who can come in and sort the mess out’.”

The pre-election campaigning began in earnest barely after the new year began. A poster campaign appeared in targeted areas of the UK, featuring a giant image of Cameron and the copy: “We can’t go on like this. I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”. Some observers claim the poster has backfired somewhat; Cameron’s airbrushed image has sparked an internet craze with spoofs of the poster appearing on websites and viral emails.

While he can’t have been overjoyed, it is unlikely that Jones will have been surprised by these developments. He is acutely aware that in political marketing, as with all sectors of marketing, the internet has changed everything.

He explains: “The biggest fundamental difference between this and the last election in Great Britain, and it was demonstrated in the US election, is just how important social media is today, compared to how it was previously.

“We’ve done a lot of work looking at who has done things well and we’ve also looked at the US elections to see what we can learn from there. I think the use of social media is going to be really exciting and interesting,” he says and smiles: “I’m looking forward to that game.”

The political game began for Euro RSCG two and a half years ago when the agency won the Tory account at a time when Cameron’s star looked a lot less bright than it does today. At that time, several agencies declined to pitch for the business, despite the fact that the Conservatives (unlike Labour) pays a fee to its ad agencies.

But Jones and his colleagues Chris Pinnington, Euro RSCG Worldwide chief operating officer, and Kate Robertson, Euro RSCG Worldwide UK group chairman, were keen from the start.

Pinnington explains: “We’d all grown up in the Saatchi era,” referring to the iconic work Saatchi & Saatchi did for the Conservatives during the 1979 election campaign, including the still-talked-about poster “Labour Isn’t Working”. Pinnington adds: “I think that everyone in advertising at that time wanted to get involved in a political campaign because of that work.”

It is Pinnington who is running the Tory business on a day-to-day basis, largely because he is based in London and can attend to its daily needs. He says: “The only thing you have to balance is to ensure that it doesn’t take over the agency.” Meanwhile, Jones takes care of what he calls “the bigger picture”.

The pair are extremely circumspect in what they will say about the work or strategy on the Conservative’s business. They are fearful that any comment will be taken out of context and be blown out of all proportion in the run-up to the election, so they opt to say as little as possible specifically about the campaign.

But Jones cannot mask his enthusiasm for political advertising as a discipline. He explains: “The reality behind what political advertising needs to do depends on the social context; it may be stating the obvious, but it would be dramatically different if you were sitting in a booming economy to if you were in a bust economy. It also makes a difference if you’re the ‘new person’ versus the incumbent.”

And although it might be eye-catching and heavily debated, does political advertising have a real impact on the way people vote? Some  recent Weber Shandwick research suggests that it does not.

Jones responds: “I think the best advertising, and communications in general, works at the fringes. There are people that are going to vote a certain way, no matter what you say. There are people who are going to vote for you, whatever you do. And then there are the people in the middle who are undecided. Where communication works is in the middle.”

He muses: “I think hard powerful facts resonate in today’s world. The great political advertising in the UK has had a certain wit to it.”

Many commentators predict an Obama-style political campaign in the UK with plenty of social media action. Digital was central to Obama’s campaign and while his numbers of Facebook friends may have caught media attention, this was backed up by multiple layers of online work, including carefully targeted and personalised emails to key voters.

Jones is the first to acknowledge, however, that there are major differences between the UK and the US. “There are a lot of things that are very different. The length of time for one; US elections are marathons, and UK ones are sprints. In the UK, the power and role of the press is much more important, he says.

“My personal view is the US voters tend to vote ‘for’ things where as UK voters tend to vote more ‘against’ things. But at its most simplistic, the key message from the US campaign is that a strong leader with a clear message will win.” Which is as close to discussing Cameron’s strategy as Jones is likely to come before the polls.

Jones is not alone, however, in steering Cameron in his approach to marketing. The Tories have former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as director of communications and planning, Anna-Maren Ashford as marketing director and Steve Hilton, author of Good Business, as director of strategy. Risha Saha heads up the new media operations, and digital agency LBi was appointed in September to provide the party with a range of services including tools that will help supporters campaign and raise money.

With so many helping out on Cameron’s marketing, any election victory may see multiple internal and external people claiming the glory. Jones, however, says he is not disappointed that, so far, Euro RSCG’s involvement has received limited publicity.

“Clearly, if you are part of a team that helps to get a prime minister or president elected, it is very good for the reputation of the agency but there’s no point in making a lot of noise before the event. The key thing is that you deliver for the client rather than tell everyone that you’re going to.”

His colleague Pinnington concurs: “It is inconceivable that our name won’t be associated with it in the long term, so I’m not concerned.” He adds: “I’m not that keen to be massively high-profile and risk journalists raking through the dustbins. Hopefully we produce work that everyone talks about positively and that gets him into power.”

The task of helping getting Cameron into power is just one of numerous missions that Jones has ahead of him. Currently on his agenda – alongside running his global advertising network with 15,000 employees – are the One Young World project and the recent Tck Tck Tck initiative (see One Young World and Tck Tck Tck, below).

It must be difficult to balance these projects with client work for global accounts such as Reckitt Benckiser, but Jones seems unfazed.

It doesn’t even seem clear if or when he actually sleeps as he frequently hops from one time zone to another.

Pinnington, who works closely with him says: “He is a full-on enthusiast,” and adds, not unkindly: “He is just one of those constantly ‘up’, annoying kinds of people.”

One of the reasons Jones may cope so well with this pressured lifestyle is that while he is urbane and charming in person, with a frenetic mind that leaps to a new thought before the previous one is completely articulated, he is also deeply competitive.

This streak, once expressed in his youth when he toyed with a professional tennis career, has found its outlet in new business pitches. Jones admits: “I’m massively disappointed every time we lose a pitch. We can win ten and lose one. The one we lose will annoy and bug me for months.”

At 43, this tremendous drive and focus has rewarded Jones with a life far removed from his childhood home in Goostrey, a small village in Cheshire. After a fairly straightforward and classic beginning in advertising, Jones really hit his stride at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, where he was appointed its youngest board account director. AMV BBDO chairman Cilla Snowball says she is “completely unsurprised” that Jones has reached his current position.

Jones left AMV BBDO to join Euro RSCG, first to run its Australian operation, which he restructured to incorporate an internal digital agency and “we just went zoom”, he says. The agency doubled in size (from $10m to $20m in revenue) and trebled the profits in four years. Little wonder that Havas chairman Vincent Bolloré quickly made it his mission to promote Jones.

The business model he created in Australia is one that, as group CEO, Jones is putting in place throughout the Euro RSCG network. He aims to reinvigorate the Euro RSCG Group as a “creative powerhouse” and he can claim some progress in this respect with some new business wins, including Heineken in the US and Dulux globally.

Jones himself is more concerned that his speedy rise to the top of his business means he has a responsibility to pass on what he sees as his “luck” in life. He puts his drive to get involved with massive social and political issues through Tck Tck Tck and One Young World down to this.

He explains: “I have been outrageously lucky. Almost everything I have ever done in my career has come off. I have an amazing wife, three unbelievable children and, touch wood, I have never had a serious issue or problem in my life.”

“Sometimes I think either all that has happened so that I am in the position that I can do this stuff, either that or it is the guilt factor and I feel that because all this has happened for me, I should do it.”

Having ended up in his position, he thinks that he should use his skills to improve life where he can. He adds: “Our industry has amazing power to change people’s behaviour and I believe that we not only have an opportunity, but an obligation, to use it to change people’s behaviour around some of the big issues facing the planet.”

Of course this strategy may not be entirely altruistic. Apart from wanting to do good, Jones’ drive to use marketing and advertising to change the world also makes good business sense for Euro RSCG (see opposite).

Jones also hopes that doing something worthwhile creatively will be what attracts the next generation of talent to work in advertising. The growth in digital also makes it attractive to people who might not have considered traditional advertising before, he thinks.

He says: “I think we as an industry turned into the ‘30-second-television-commercial’ industry. What is brilliant about the digital revolution is we’ve opened ourselves up to a whole bunch of talent who, ten years ago, might have said: ‘I don’t want to work in advertising and make TV commercials’.”

Bringing on board new minds who can go beyond traditional marketing thinking, may help decide which agencies are most likely to succeed in the next decade. As Jones puts it: “What this does is put the agencies who understand this world back in a position where they can be really invaluable to their clients.”

So where does this human dynamo see himself in ten years’ time? Should Cameron succeed, a knighthood or peerage does not seem out of the question. But he says: “In terms of work I see myself still doing the same or I will have launched my own agency focusing 100% in socially responsible business and creativity.”

Again, however, Jones comes back to the bigger picture in the end. “In terms of life, however, making sure I am a good dad is priority number one.” After all, he adds: “I love my job, but it is only that.”