CLOSE-UP: NEWSMAKER - Creative credence drives the man behind 118 118.

For Chris Moss, life is short and every second is a new opportunity.

Chris Moss won't ever forget the moment he pulled his car into a layby to kiss his wife-to-be for the first time. 'I remember thinking 'I have to do this',' he recalls. Not least because such moments of impetuous passion have defined his life and the way he lives it.

When he gets some spare time - which is not easy when you're driving one of the most relentless brand-building exercises of recent years, the 118 118 'got your number' campaign - he plans to write a book about taking life by the scruff of its neck.

At present, all he has is the book's title, Seize The Second. Life's so short that every fleeting opportunity must be grabbed, he says. 'Seizing the second is as true of marketing as of life itself.'

Coming from anybody with credentials less impressive than the chief executive of The Number, the company behind 118 118, this homily might sound trite.

But Moss is no junk philosopher.

On the contrary, this is the man who as the marketing director transformed Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic from a flight of fancy into a potent challenger to British Airways. He also steamrollered the lawyers who said it couldn't be done and the company chiefs who said it shouldn't be done to christen a new mobile phone network 'Orange', again as the marketing director.