Feature... So, you want to get ahead

Name John Hunt
Title Worldwide creative director
Company TBWA\Worldwide

With the hunt for great talent more challenging than ever, a lot of people ask me how I got into this business. I was a philosophy and art history major at a small Wisconsin college. When I graduated, I asked myself what I wanted to do. Advertising sounded good. The problem is that I was rejected by all the big general agencies in Chicago, but got an offer from Stone & Adler, the largest direct agency in the US at the time.

Jim Kobs, a well-respected direct marketing practitioner, gave me my big break. When he left Stone & Adler to start his own firm - Kobs & Brady (a forerunner to DraftFCB) - he took me with him. I was in the right place at the right time. A career milestone for me was back in 1992, when I gave the keynote address at the Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference. I talked about the future of direct marketing and shared my vision for an agency and an industry without any lines - no above-the-line, no below-the-line.

I’ve been lucky to have two mentors. Don Zuckert, who was an EVP at Ted Bates when that agency acquired my company, opened my eyes to what advertising in all its forms was really all about. I later bought the agency back after Bates was acquired by Saatchi & Saatchi, giving me the chance to meet my other mentor: Phil Geier, the former chairman and CEO of Interpublic, which bought our agency in 1996.
Over the years, I’ve brought on board a lot of impressive people. The most impressive would have to be Laurence Boschetto, the president/COO of DraftFCB and my chosen successor. Laurence was the founding partner of his own general agency, which we acquired in 1997.

The three words I’d use to describe the kind of person I want on my team would be honest, committed and entrepreneurial. For years, I looked for people with deep expertise in a specific discipline, such as direct, retail, or promotion. While we will always need experts in any given discipline, we’re also looking to hire and train what we call ‘renaissance practitioners’.

These are channel-agnostic people whose knowledge spans disciplines.  They are flexible enough to develop strategies and communications programmes that are best for the brand, rather than put their own self-interest first. And with the rate of change our industry is undergoing, a really successful candidate has to thrive on it.

Name John Hunt
Title Worldwide creative director
Company TBWA\Worldwide

When I left high school, I joined the army - it was compulsory in South Africa at the time. After that, the thought of going to university seemed like a bit of an ask. I managed to spend half a morning there. I then sold insurance, worked as an admin clerk - all the horrible jobs that you do when you’re 20.

But throughout all this I was writing, and some of my work got published. My then-girlfriend’s mother, a copywriter, liked one of my articles and suggested that I become one too. I had no idea what a copywriter was, no idea you could get paid for this sort of thing. Even now I still write the odd TV script and play. Perhaps it’s this hybrid in me that allowed me to get into advertising.I was hired by Hands, a very small agency offering experience in place of money.

Here I met Reg Lascaris, with whom I later started Hunt Lascaris. I moved around a lot, working for a year at one agency, then travelling and working on a project like a book. When I returned from backpacking around Southeast Asia in my late 20s, it struck me that I had to grow up and get a nine-to-five job.

I started Hunt Lascaris in 1983. In ’92, Nelson Mandela was released and we were nominated to work on the ANC elections, ushering democracy into South Africa. We really felt we were playing our part in the eye of the storm.

I never really had a mentor  in terms of work, as there weren’t many homegrown creative icons in South Africa. When we started Hunt Lascaris, we wanted to be South Africa’s first world-class agency. We
all inspired and mentored each other.

I get lots of CVs, from very senior guys who want to head up offices in other countries, to juniors who are just starting out and want to live in other countries. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I don’t think there is any set background to look for in a candidate. I’m more interested in ideas. My ears prick up to someone with ideas who feels they have found the sweet spot, somewhere they really want to be.

It’s very important for candidates to be passionate, but without the ego. If someone is skillful but a pain in the arse, it won’t work. ‘Hungry’ is a word I use a lot. A complacent genius is no good. I look for people who are restless, never satisfied. I feel that skill is something you can work on, but passion should be innate. If you don’t have drive, it doesn’t matter who your supposed guru is - it just isn’t going to happen.

Name Bob Greenberg
Title CEO/global chief creative officer
Company R/GA

I first entered the industry in 1977. At that time, I was working for my uncle in Toronto and my brother Richard (who left R/GA in the late ’80s) was a designer in New York. He was partnering with a producer on motion-graphics film projects, but we decided it was best to start a business of our own. I left Toronto and joined Richard to start R/Greenberg Associates (now R/GA). We pooled our savings, got one of Disney’s animation cameras (its third) and we were in business.

With my working the camera (self-taught) and Richard’s design skills, we started experimenting with computerised special effects long before they were ubiquitous. We got our big break when Steve Frankfurt (then president of Y&R) called us to work with him on Superman; our ‘flying titles’ were a hit and business took off.

I can thank Steve for not only sending us this piece of business, but also serving as my mentor in advertising, both as a brilliant creative director and an accomplished businessman. He taught me how to recognise and fight for good ideas - ability that still drives R/GA’s innovation and a quality I look for when hiring.

From these beginnings, R/GA has evolved four times. It went from a motion-graphics design studio to a digital production company, and from an interactive agency to the  full-service digital agency it is today. People thought I was crazy, and, admittedly, I did make some mistakes, but now I could always see clearly where R/GA was heading and how to get there. However, in order to keep succeeding, we have to overcome a huge challenge in today’s environment - attracting, hiring, and retaining the right talent.

Despite getting nearly 40 CVs a day, only three to five of them are viable leads for our purposes. We need people who are conceptual, collaborative, and creative. They should fully understand the digital landscape and have an interest in marketing and solving communications problems. Our creatives (across disciplines) must be able to simplify and reduce ideas, to streamline user experiences, create content that is digestible and understandable, and use metaphors to contextualise a brand’s story.

Above all, the candidates must fit into our unique culture, which has never been rolled up into or merged with another agency. And, although we are a part of a large holding company, we manage to remain independent and our business thrives on the entrepreneurial spirit in our employees here. This will never change. 

Name Mainardo de Nardis
Title CEO
Company Aegis Media

You could say marketing is in my blood. My father was in marketing and, at the age of eight, through him, I came into contact with Young & Rubicam - and decided that was the place for me.

My first position in this industry was in 1980 as a trainee at McCann Erickson in Rome. But it wasn’t quite what I’d dreamt of, so I bombarded Y&R in Milan with so many letters that in the end they gave in and offered me the job I’d wanted since I was eight.

I spent a fantastic five years at Y&R, until one day, I was contacted by an ex-colleague from McCann asking for my help in launching a new advertising agency.  How could I resist? I then joined Medianetwork in 1987 as deputy chairman and CEO of the Milan office. We decided not to hire typical media agency people, but instead went out and found people who understood the strategic importance of media to our clients. Then came probably the most important moment in my career - merging Medianetwork with CIA.

Clients were increasingly looking for a network; we had been working closely with CIA for five years and
in 1993 agreed to join forces. Chris Ingram was my mentor; the best partner and teacher I could have wished for. I’ve worked with a lot of brilliant talents over the past 25 years; too many to mention by name.

In 2002, our parent company, Tempus, was acquired by WPP and I was tasked with merging WPP’s Media Edge to become Mediaedge:cia (MEC). That done, I took on the newly-created role of CEO of Aegis Media, responsible for brands such as Carat, Vizeum, Posterscope and Isobar. In so many ways, this is my best job yet - the brands are individually brilliant and the potential for cross-fertilisation is almost infinite.

I look for three things in a candidate. They must be passionate about what they do, they must challenge ideas and the status quo. Personality counts too. I still get quite a few CVs sent to me - which is great as it keeps me in touch with the kind of talent that wants to join us. There’s definitely a trend for people from outside the industry to be interested in marketing communications and I welcome the experience they bring.

Name Daniel Kleinman
Title Founder/director
Company Rattling Stick 

I wandered into the industry by mistake; after art school, I was working as an illustrator making some extra money doing storyboards for other directors. When I saw the finished results, I often thought that I could do better. It was very difficult to get started as the industry was a union-closed shop at the time. With much persistence, I was allowed to direct my first music video in 1983. I began concentrating on commercials in the ’90s as the music became less and less to my taste.

Apart from getting my foot in the door with my first music video for ’80s band Heaven 17, I don’t think any particular event in my career has been especially important. Some people go straight in at the top with one massive break, burn brightly then fade; I just slogged away, kept my head down and worked consistently. This has given me a wide range of experience and longevity in what can be a very fashion-led business.

I can’t say that one person was a mentor. Director Steven Barron gave me good early advice and support, and John Hegarty gave me a good break in the UK market, but I’ve always  followed my own way and my visual heroes are just as likely to be painters as filmmakers. I enjoy seeing new talent arrive and when someone does something good I celebrate it as raising the bar for us all.

I am excited by the work of Andy McLeod a new director, but by no means new to the industry - as a top creative director, he was used to honing scripts into lean, mean works of excellence. Now he is bringing that experience to directing. Steve Cope is also a relatively new director who seems to have prodigious technical talent.

Rattling Stick sees quite a few new hopeful directors’ CVs, but as a small company, it is difficult and expensive to put in the resources needed to launch a new director in a very competitive market. Anyone who wants to be associated with our company should be pleasant, talented and keen, regardless of the job they are doing. I don’t think anyone is interested in loads of degrees or a particular background for new talent. To stand out, I’d advise that demonstrating breadth of ability, being able to take a simple idea and develop it with a good grasp of comedy, and knowledge of how to make quality special effects work in the easiest and cheapest way will get you in most doors.