For this week’s Special Report, Agency Interview: Heads of Creative Departments, SHOOT canvassed leading creatives at a cross section of ad shops to find out what they think about the state of the business and the state of creativity, as well as how to best groom the next generation of advertising talent. The questions asked were: What do you think of the state of advertising, from both a creative and business standpoint? What are some of the creative highlights—from your own agency and elsewhere—so far this year? What is the best way to groom and mentor new creative talent? Here are their answers.
Marty Cooke
Creative partner
SS+K, New York
Creatively, I can definitely feel the effect of a new generation of creative people coming of age. Hooray! I see it here at our agency, and out in the real world. The nature of a good idea is changing again. Sometimes it’s outrageous, sometimes subtle. It’s hard to say exactly what this new era is going to be, but thank God we’re moving on. I was getting bored. What doesn’t bore me: the Citibank "Identity Theft" campaign [out of Fallon, Minneapolis, and directed by Kevin Thomas of Thomas/Thomas, London] and the HBO "Watercooler" work [directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles].
Business-wise, I continue to watch big chief marketing officers bemoaning the dearth of fresh agency thinking and then read a few weeks later how those same executives have hired one of the big behemoth agencies. Curious.
I’m also bemused by articles I’ve read recently about the "death of integration." What’s really going on is that the big agencies have simply failed to figure it out. They’ve abdicated the responsibility of integration to their clients who are either trying to piece it together themselves or finding nontraditional shops (like SS+K—plug, plug) who have figured it out.
As for SS+K’s best work so far this year, we may have shot it this week. Stay tuned.
[In grooming new talent], lesson one is: Know when to teach and when to learn. Remember—your years of experience have taught you things they don’t know. But be humble. They know stuff you don’t know, and they have fewer grooves in their brains, which make them fresher than you. Take the time to really understand what might at first blush look unusable. It may be great.
Lesson two: Be brave. Embrace the scary. It’s still true that the ideas most likely to make strategic noise are the ones where your first reaction is "We can’t possibly do that!" And if your wunderkinds aren’t challenging you regularly, get rid of them. They’ll never make it. If they’re not scary now, they never will be.
Lesson three: Push them past TV spots, past print ads, past posters. Teach them what an idea really is: an ineffable, powerful thing that changes minds and behavior. Not just a cool shot or a droll line. Tell them their job is to insert their brands into the minds, souls and lives of people. A brand that’s not living in the culture is as good as dead. Their challenge is to figure out how to get it there. Anything less is just advertising.
Kathy Delaney
Managing director/executive creative director
Deutsch, New York
From a business standpoint, clients are much more interested in an integrated approach to their businesses. They’re not just coming to us to create the next big television campaign. They’re understanding the value of having a strong brand essence across all mediums, and open to approaching consumers in ways other than traditional TV if that is what will work the hardest. It’s a much more effective way to spend their dollars. The challenge to the industry is to think about clients’ businesses more like it was their own, and that will lead to them making the smarter choices. And if it’s not the sexy network route, so what? It’s going to build the business more effectively.
Our new Monster.com campaign broke in January. I’m particularly proud of that. The line "Today’s the day" is a big rallying cry for people to get off their asses and do something about their job situation and stop waiting for it to just come to them. We’ve also done some really interesting work for Revlon. Instead of playing the ‘claim game,’ we took a radically different approach and invited the consumer into these intriguing, sexy stories that leave you wanting more. As far as some other creative highlights, the "What If?" Nike stuff [out of Wieden+ Kennedy, Portland, Ore.] is brilliantly conceived and executed—a real joy to watch. The Target campaign [out of Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis] is one that I love, but how dare they use that great Roy Orbison song "You Got It" before I could.
The biggest gift you can give new creative talent is to be brutally honest about their work. People have to trust what you are saying, and soft-pedaling when something isn’t working doesn’t behoove anyone. It’s also teaching them that what we do is a craft, and whether you’re working on a coupon ad or a national TV spot, you have to treat them both with the same amount of inventiveness and pride. Never think about your clients in the "us" and "them" mentality. Great creatives know what business they are in. It’s about doing great creative together with your clients and building that trust that allows you to do amazing work. Don’t whine. Never present work you know isn’t great and pretend you think it’s great. Always be honest. Don’t imitate. Invent. Know that you are hired to solve problems, not create them.
Carolyn Hadlock
Senior VP/creative director
Young & Laramore, Indianapolis
Nationally, there seem to be more and more big companies (Volkswagen, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Citibank, Saturn, Mini Cooper) willing to invest in intelligent, consistent campaigns that make you think you understand what kind of people are running the company. That helps us because it pre-sells to smarter clients that consistent, intelligent communication is more than an indulgence or a luxury, that it is an actual business asset.
I think we’ve seen campaigns that continue to go beyond the latest funny TV ad … and begin to make you think there might actually be a different kind of leadership at those places that results in beyond-the-hype, real, positive differences in their products. [The most recent creative highlights at] our agency: hiring runway models to release a luxury faucet; picking up a One Show interactive pencil; filming non-existent sporting goods in Iceland; hiring a guy to pass out fake résumés during a busy lunch hour downtown and filming the results; flooding a kitchen; getting local hip-hop, hillbilly and Cuban acts to record a client’s phone number. Not to mention the work we’re probably proudest of, which is extending long-running campaigns with new spots that are funny and thoughtful, and also extending the brand character we’re establishing, instead of diluting it for the sake of one-offs.
I think you have to be very careful [about] who the new creative talent is. Ideally, you’ll find talented young people who are curious and ambitious and opinionated, but also willing to listen. There aren’t a lot. Interns are best to start with because you can witness their work ethic. Then begins the push-pull of getting them used to the ridiculous demands of the job, getting them accustomed to using objective strategy in both developing and defending work, and getting them to remain interested in forces outside of advertising while studying what’s great and going on within. It’s hard, no matter what level you’re at. With grooming, so much depends on the chemistry between the mentor and the mentored.
Fred Hammerquist
Executive creative director
DDB Seattle
With ever-expanding media choices, the creative arsenal expands. No longer are we shackled to the traditional means of communicating. Crispin Porter+Bogusky [CP+B], Miami, blew the doors off the ad world’s box of thinking—the rest of us better find our way through it as well. Buying a supermarket tabloid cover [as they did] and then creating a "fact or fiction?" story about a half-bat, half-boy that steals a Mini and leads police on a huge car chase—that’s insanely genius. Integrated approaches have been promised for some time, but CP+B cut the bullshit and did it.
At DDB Seattle, we are implementing a major shift, combining disciplines and aligning management in response to this new freedom. We just hired Janice Merlino, [formerly media shop] OMD’s media group head, to run our ad group. Her vision of media, combined with a close partnership with my creative group (we sit next to each other), allows us to plan approaches on a real-time basis with media planning.
The power of these shifts is just starting to blossom in our recent campaigns for the Seattle Sonics and the Gill Foundation’s campaign for gay rights. Multiple media vehicles and cross-discipline approaches have extended our creative ideas much further than in the past. The ad world is at the threshold of a creative renaissance.
If anyone truly cares about grooming and mentoring new creative talent, they had better look at their entire organization as a first step. If you are not truly committed to a creative culture, don’t bother with trying to bring along creative talent. Just hire average people, pay them peanuts and reap the thin margins of ordinary work.
What really needs grooming and mentoring is the organization. Creative people are only as good as the support they get from the people around them. Crispin is a wonderful example of [a place that] instills a creative belief system throughout an organization. Everyone in that office knows the vision and the value of it. When your whole office is committed, ideas come from everywhere and execution is protected tooth and nail.
If you care about using creativity as a tool to help clients and grow revenue, infuse your business with the mission of generating original thinking from the top down. If you can commit to this path, creative people will flourish and clients will follow.
Paul Keister
VP/creative director
Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami
What’s the current state of advertising? I’m not sure if I can answer that because I lead a pretty sheltered life down here in Miami. I hardly watch that much TV anymore and when I do it’s off TiVo, so I mostly skip the commercials. Oops, maybe that’s the current state of advertising.
I wish I could throw out work that I’ve seen lately, but nothing’s coming to mind right now. Well, that’s not totally true. I dug the Citibank work [from Fallon, Minneapolis] this year. It’s always nice to see traditionally stuffy brands in a different light. And their brand messaging had a really nice tone of voice, especially from a bank. I’m not sure if they’re really like that, but if they are, I hope it comes back to them tenfold. Damn, that TiVo comment’s making me feel really guilty right now.
I know from the business end there seems to be less of us unemployed, which is good. And I just read a few days back that the average American watches over 1,600 hours of television a year, so that’s gotta be great for business. Or, at the very least, compensate for my complete support for a technology that’s making our jobs harder. I suppose we’ll have to think of different ways to reach ’em.
[Grooming talent] just depends on the individual or team. You have all sorts of personalities coming in, and each one’s different. I just like to give them projects and let them be [for a while]. I don’t think it helps to be heavy handed because in the end, I would hope they are the ones coming up with the ideas. Then, once they’ve had time to work, we sit down together and really see where their strengths are. Encourage them where the ideas are strong and give them suggestions on where they can make work better.
I also think it’s important to give younger teams assignments that can seem boring or relatively routine to others, like a small space tactical project. On the surface it’s boring, but in the hands of a team just starting out, they’re gonna try and bust their ass on it and produce the best campaign ever. If they can do a great job on that small space campaign (and learn the ropes off it), then it gives me—and them—confidence when they’re producing larger and more demanding projects.
Kevin Roddy
Partner/executive creative director
Euro RSCG MVBMS, New York
I don’t like to be pessimistic about the state of our business and frankly, I don’t think there’s a lot of reason to be. Sure, times are still tough and it’s making everyone’s job harder. But this is also an incredible time for advertising. Creativity and creative outlets are expanding. A TV screen or a printed page no longer confines creative people. So, while money’s tight and clients are feeling empowered like never before, creativity is still king. A great creative idea is still the center of the communications universe, and it can still do more for a brand than money. It just needs to live larger.
Unfortunately, I believe many clients don’t adapt these expanded ideas because they aren’t structured in a way that can accommodate them. So with little understanding and less ability to see it through, ideas are allowed to fall away with a fading scream for help.
But don’t let me lay all the blame at the client’s feet. That’s too easy. I’m still dumbstruck by the fact that many agencies can’t untether themselves from their own traditional creative restraints. Of course I’m being overly general, but many agencies still look to the familiar as the only solution; they still tend to only look to those areas that are awarded in the shows. That has to change, and it will change. And the smart ones will be on the cowcatcher of that train, while the dumb ones will be waving so long to the caboose.
I recently judged The One Show, which, like judging any show, is a great way to see a lot of the work that’s being done out there. But in so doing, I have to say that I wasn’t excited by the body of work in general. There were very few things I saw that … kicked me in the ass and told me to do better stuff. That’s unfortunate because when you judge a show like that, you expect to be blown away.
I will say that there were some highlights, however, as there always are. I still laugh at the Citibank credit card fraud TV campaign out of Fallon, [Minneapolis]. And, as usual, there were some high points out of several international agencies that, for whatever reason, tend to take more chances. But one thing really stood out for me was from Wieden+ Kennedy, New York, for a Sega/ ESPN football video game. It was pure genius. A fully integrated campaign—and I do mean fully integrated, including the Web, television, direct mail, chat rooms, print, the list goes on—that took the consumer on a real roller coaster ride (sorry for the cliché). I couldn’t begin to do it justice here, but if you haven’t seen it, find it. It’ll kick you in the ass and tell you to do better stuff.
[Grooming new talent] is one of the big issues that we as an industry face today. [There is a] lack of training for creative people at all levels—including creative directors. But as for new creative talent, I was talking with Ron Berger [CEO of Euro RSCG MVBMS] recently about the difference between "growing up" as a creative today vs. 20 or 30 years ago. And one of the biggest differences he cited was "time." He said that when he was a junior in the business, you started at the bottom and worked your way up. You began by truly honing your craft on tiny assignments. Then, as you improved, you graduated to bigger and more important things. He said it was probably five years before you even touched a television commercial.
Today, young creative talents come out of schools with a sense of entitlement, thinking they’re ready for their Super Bowl opportunity. And if they don’t get it, they want to leave and go someplace else. I think they’re hurting themselves. "Honing your craft" in an advertising school (as much as I respect the schools) is not the real world. The biggest favor we can do for the next generation of creative talent is to move them along slowly. Train them. Work with them. Make them work and rework until it’s perfect. I believe radio is a great way to train a writer to think. I believe insisting on visual-only solutions is a great way to train a writer to think. I believe making a writer write dozens of versions of a single headline is a great way to train a writer to think. Whatever it is, be disciplined with young talent … and don’t let them move along too fast.
John Russo
Executive creative director
DDB New York
In terms of creative, the state of advertising is what it always has been: 20 percent of advertising out there is bad, most is mediocre, eight percent is good and two percent is great. Which is really a shame because there is so much opportunity out there today. The insights that planners are bringing to the table are sharper, more user-friendly and consumer-driven. Few people these days argue with the fact that advertising needs to entertain. And there are so many more tools at a creative person’s disposal. From a business standpoint, the state of advertising is also what it always has been: it’s all about the work.
I like to remind writers and art directors that all truly great creative people throughout history have one thing in common besides talent: an all-consuming drive and passion that comes from within, not from playing foosball down the hall. In other words, just do it.
Dennis Ryan
Chief creative officer
Element 79 Partners, Chicago
We’re coming out of a pretty tough stretch. The grinding economy stole confidence from clients, and a lot of the work reflected that. Driven to produce numbers immediately, many [clients] felt compelled to fall back on the comfortable delusion that product-centric messages are somehow more responsible. There’s still quite a lot of good work across the board. Arguably, our industry now produces more consistently than ever, but we’re noticeably thin on truly breakthrough ideas.
Our shop’s creative highlight is the Propel campaign. It’s an eye-grabbing, yet relevant visual idea embraced by the client and truly enhanced by the vision of Michel Gondry [of bicoastal/international Partizan], Gerard de Thame [of bicoastal HSI Productions and Gerard de Thame Films, London], and now Mehdi Norowzian [of bicoastal RSA USA]. And not coincidentally, Propel’s sales have shattered early expectations.
Maybe it is the incessant election year finger-pointing and name-calling, but between the disillusionment over Iraq and the increasing separation of the economic classes, snarky, detached irony no longer feels like the most breakthrough advertising voice. Fresh as it was when Letterman began back in the ’80s, irony has become the tone of daily life. A truly fresh and courageous new voice will be something more like guileless optimism. And I think consumers will respond to that. But just in case I’m wrong, I’ll cop to it right here, thus allowing myself an out of snarky, detached irony.
[To groom new talent] first you’ve got to find them, and hopefully you find them smart, hungry, and enthusiastic. Smart, hungry creatives learn far faster, studying every aspect of the process, not merely the narrow purview of their Quark layouts. Hiring this talent is a lot like casting—you look everywhere, hoping to discover someone fresh and different, a potential star.
Given rising travel and production costs, it’s tempting to just throw these creatives out and let them sink or swim, but we’ve had tremendous success sending younger teams out with highly seasoned, highly engaged creative directors and producers. During your first few shoots, it’s hard to figure out where to look, who to listen to, and when you absolutely must pay close attention—an involved senior creative can cram years of hard lessons into a single, five-day production. And then assess whether or not the team gets it or not.
Sending your best out with your newest and giving them the specific mandate to teach helps replicate the skills you value most. And at the risk of sounding like some tripe off the Disney Channel, the senior creatives usually benefit the most from it. Few things inspire like enthusiasm, and it’s nice to be reminded of that.
Eric Silver
Executive creative director
BBDO New York
Advertising, like the economy, feels like it desperately wants to make a comeback. The down economy is a killer for advertising because it allows agencies to "undercut" other agencies and then business is basically awarded to those who offer the most discounted fee—which may account for a lot of the flat work we’ve seen in the past few years.
I keep reading about the death of television advertising and I, for one, don’t buy it. Television advertising won’t disappear because of TiVo and the like. It will just take on a new role. There might be less commercials, which just means they’ll have to work harder.
I think this is a weird period in that a lot of agencies are generating a lot of buzz (within the industry) and boasting about "new mediums." But in reality, the vast majority of non-television stuff that is being heralded probably has a fraction of the impact of a killer TV spot.
With that said, it behooves clients to fire on as many different cylinders as possible. So if there’s a clever ad on the Internet or in an airport or wherever, that’s great
Also, unfortunately, I’d be hard pressed to name more than a few great TV spots in the past year. In particular, I found a lot of the Super Bowl ads very depressing. When dogs biting crotches and farting horses rule the day, that’s not a great sign.
As far as grooming creative talent, I think there are two basic tenets to being a good creative director: 1) Let the creatives develop their own style. That is to say, don’t force your style on them. 2) Don’t be afraid to try new things. Once that goes away, you’re in trouble.
Kash Sree
Senior VP/creative director
Leo Burnett USA, Chicago
I think advertising is in a state of flux. This is certainly reflected in, and to a large extent is caused by, the fragmentation of media. More TV channels. TiVo. The Internet. More and more magazine titles. More new media.
We’re finding that we can’t operate in the way we have been for the last 40 years. Clients [who are] seeing their ad budgets being spread thinner and thinner over more and more TV channels are realizing their message isn’t reaching their target audiences and they’re getting as frustrated and frightened as their agencies. Change is always a bit scary. But as more clients and agencies realize that this fragmentation means that we can talk to far more focused audiences in a far less generalized way, then exciting things will start to happen.
From a creative standpoint, we should all be chomping at the bit to search for new ways to reach people. And now that we’re talking to fewer, more targeted groups, start treating them with a little respect again. This could be by doing things that aren’t necessarily ads, but that still build that likeability/coolness factor for brands. But who knows for sure? That’s the exciting thing.
It hasn’t been a year of creative highlights generally. But then again Honda’s "Cog" [directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet of Partizan Midi Minuit, Paris, for Wieden+Kennedy, London] was brilliant. It showed us that sometimes you don’t have to buy lots more 15-second ads to reach more people. You sometimes have to make a compelling three-minute film that everyone remembers.
I thought the Hewlett-Packard "Hype" campaign [out of Publicis, London] was a glimpse at the future. From our own agency, I think the Altoids Strips work is really cool and experimental. I especially like the animated "Goth Girl" film. Altoids still feels like a cult brand even though it’s now a market leader. And I like our Lakland Guitar viral teasers.
I really liked the adidas billboard from Japan with two soccer players competing 100 feet in the air on bungee cords. It makes me wish I was in Tokyo to see it when it happened.
There are a few ways [to groom new talent] depending on time, the mentor and the mentee. One way is to throw loads of ideas out there yourself to show them how you think so that they can take it, run with it and leave you behind. Another way is to nudge and hint, so that they can come to their own conclusions. I find a good way is to work with them so that you can catch a glimpse of each other’s minds. That way I keep learning too. I’m selfish like that.
Robbie Vitrano
Co-founder/creative director
Trumpet, New Orleans and
New York
The nap is over. Big opportunity for the brave and smart. Clients recognize that doing nothing is not a strategy.
[An agency’s] obligation is to take this initial blush of enthusiasm for reacquainting with the brand and rethinking the business, and turn it into great, creative branding. Purpose, authenticity, surprise. Fidelity.
We’ve got a new bite at the apple and we can’t cave to sell and repent. Follow through and find out just how good you are. [There’s] got to be more than CP+B and Mother out there.
[To groom new talent], treat them as adults. Make collaboration and common sense the golden rule. Define the space. Let them make mistakes, meet clients, see the books. Brief them properly with other non-creative members of the team.
Push context and perspective—force them to think about "why." Why are we doing this? Why does it matter? Who cares? Have an opinion you can share with the team. And not "My way or…"
Explore. Not just other advertising solutions, but fashion, art, entertainment, etc. Get out from behind the PlayStation.
Always reward curiosity, but explain the difference between preparation and execution. [We] need to understand that there is a time to explore, wander and think. Then there is a time to put it into motion and solve the problem.
Reward them, but not above the other, less glam team members. In the Super Bowl, the offensive guard gets the same check as the quarterback. Rewards should come in the context of contribution to a successful collaboration. Review their contributions before they ask. Show them the books. Be transparent. Shoot whiners, politicians and nay-sayers on sight.
