Advertising & Cooking

Last week my 8 years old daughter was helping me in the kitchen and she said "the more it takes the better it tastes". The smile of my face was not because she enjoys cooking like her dad or because I am still surprised by her perfect American accent. It was because what the sentence means.


If you cook you know what she said is true, even if on the Food Network the cooking shows seem more like a F1 race. But if you think about it, you know that what she said is true for everything in life, including our business.

We live in times of urgency where "speed to market" or "30 second elevator speeches" rule the business world. The brands (and the clients) we work for want to do in two years what they didn't do in 40. Why? Have you heard this before?: "the average CMO lasts 18 months in the job".


We don't take time to think things over. We don't take time to slowly "cook" an idea. To add spices, try it, give it to other cooks to try it so they can suggest different spices or maybe introduce a new "ingredient" to make the idea more robust. We don't take time to see how our customer enjoy our dishes. To talk with them, get their opinion, listen to suggestions, "more of this, less of this, how about this?"


I love to cook and I love advertising. Probably because in both cases I can experiment, use different ingredients, connect dots and see how people react to them. But I know that the more time and passion I put in each activity a better dish will come out. And the goal should always be to make the best "dish".


Quoting Jamie Oliver: "I really, really do generally, first and foremost, make creative decisions based on what feels right, and anything monetary follows if it’s good, I believe."


I believe too. Bon appetit.

"T" shaped and more.

I recently read another article about how important is to find "T" shaped talent for advertising agencies.
For those of you not familiar with the term, executives and recruiters now a day refer as a "T" shaped professional as someone that has "deep" expertise in a particular communication discipline: mass advertising, digital, CRM, events, branding, etc., while having "some" experience in the other disciplines.

In today's advertising agencies there is still a lot of close minded people and there is not enough and good communication between different areas. Why? Very simple and basic human trues. To communicate effectively with someone you must share a common language. That is the first step towards successful interactions among disciplines and to allow creativity to flourish. But if you think that having "T" shaped professionals (and there are not that many) solves the problem, you are wrong. To create a great agency requires people with a lot more traits than having a by-the-book resume.

Holding companies executives look at creative shops and ask: How do they do it? And some comes along and says: We need to be more integration! Get "T" Shaped professionals ! 

If you think that you are missing the big picture. I can bet you $100 USD (yes, I know, I am cheap) that the creative agencies that we all have in mind have an over index of professionals with these traits:

• Smart (vs. Intelligent): It is not all about a high IQ and a great University Diploma.  It is about being able to learn. To have intuition. It is not about being but becoming. Guys, this is not science and we don't work for NASA, sometime just common sense and drugs !
• Passionate (vs. Reliable): I have met people in this industry that could perfectly work in a bank from 9 to 5, that do their job and go home (you know who they are, right?) I believe that if you don't love this job. If you don't know what is happening our there. If you don't judge every single ad that you see. If you don't have an opinion about everything (even on who is your favorite on American Idol). I don't want you in my agency. I might want you as my accountant but not to inspire, instigate and innovate.
• Good (vs. Nice): There is so many nice people and so very few good people. I have worked with nice people that were real SOBs and even with psychological pathologies (I like mad people, not crazy!) Just find good people that are willing to share, to help, to support each other. People that might have their ego (as we all should do) but that understand that to create greatness everyone (really, everyone) has to get out the best of themselves.
• Nonconformist (vs. Entrepreneurial): A nonconformist will be never satisfied and would like to make things better, always. A entrepreneur wants to make money (which is good too) but making money does not mean that you do the best job. You see a lot of entrepreneur in the holding companies and you see a lot of nonconformists in the great creative advertising agencies that we all look up to.

Next time you look to hire someone hope you follow this advice and follow your instinct. Don't look at a CV like you are looking at a DNA sample.

Yes, look for people that can communicate with each other (and you can call them "T" shaped if you like it) but more importantly look for people that are Smart, Passionate, Good and that won't settle for the first thing or the average idea. Riskier? Maybe. But if you are not willing to take risks why are you in advertising?