Confessions of a Creative Director

Enjoy an in-depth with Mark DePace Chief Creative Officer and Zach Mortensen, the CEO of Ghost Robot. This innovative studio is a one-stop creative powerhouse for top tier clients like Netflix, Google, Peloton, Away, and Airbnb, just to name a few. Ghost Robot stands out as a channel agnostic creative hub, adept at solving complex marketing challenges with a diverse array of solutions from video games and apps to comic books, card games, and even podcasts. Today, we're getting an insider's look at how Mark and Zach balance their roles, perfectly meshing the creative and business sides of their company. They're here to share their insights on building a successful collaborative environment in the fast-paced world of running a creative business.

On today’s show, we take a bit of a departure with former copywriter Ben Purkert, author of The Men Can't Be Saved, a wonderful novel set in the world of a branding agency and centered around a narcissistic young copywriter whose world comes crashing down after he gets laid off. While the book is fiction, it’s filled with stories inspired by his time in the industry we can all relate to like ECDs walking around like Golden Gods and overzealous copywriters who live and die over commas. The novel also touches on larger societal and agency issues like Toxic Masculinity, the search for purpose and male loneliness.      

On today's show, creative director Roberto Lastra shares his inspirational origin story as a kid from Mexicali, Mexico, who immigrated to the US during his teens. Pushing through culture shock and language barriers, he went on to work for five of the most famous agencies in the world before founding his own agency, Lovers Not Haters. Along the way, he learned that "The Less You Try To Fit In, The More You Do" and he’s passionate about the idea of bringing your whole self to work.

Lucas Ribeiro and Kazuo Kobo are a dynamic duo of Creative Directors from Brazil, currently residing in New York City, where they work at the legendary McCann NY. They are Cannes Lion-winning creatives who have also taught at the Miami Ad School Brazil and recently published a book in Portuguese, translated as "Principles – 128 Principles for Becoming an Ad Agency Creative." The book is filled with great tools, techniques, and ideas they've developed along their journey. They are here to expand on an idea called "Batman or Superman: Skills vs. Talent." Learn more about them at www.landk.work.

Highdive Advertising has become a go-to shop for top brands looking to make a splash at the Super Bowl. It might have a little to do with the fact that Chade Broude, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Highdive, sold through his first Super Bowl script one year into his career and has been creating winning spots ever since. Today, he’s opening up his playbook to reveal 4 simple concepts to keep in mind when working on a spot for the big game, including my favorite which is the Two Beer Rule! So if those SB briefs are starting to come in, you’re gonna wanna listen carefully to our conversation. Learn more about Chad here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-broude-13b74b11/

Donny Dykowsky is an accomplished musician, composer, songwriter and founder of The Ski Team –  a premiere production, custom music and sonic branding studio out of Jersey City, New Jersey. His work has garnered Lions, Pencils, Clios, Webbys, Sundance Premiers, and is on permanent display at the MOMA. Check out our amazing conversation where he shares some hot tips that Creative Directors can use when working with a composer or custom music producer.

Kevin Lynch is an accomplished Copywriter and Creative Director , whose with an incredible career that has taken him across the globe with stops in China and Sweden where he was most recently Creative Director at Oatly. Kevin has always made career decisions by asking: What stories will I be able to tell? and he’s here to share with us his 5 Principles for Finding Success in a non-linear career.

Aaron North was recently described as a marketing genius by the master marketing genius Ryan Reynolds for his work as CMO of Mint Mobile. And after our conversation, I would have to second Ryan's assessment. Aaron is here to give us a sneak peek at the multi-agency strategy and workflow that he's perfected to create Mint Mobile's amazing work. Learn more about Aron here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aronnorth/

Brett Essman is a Creative Director extraordinaire Brett Essman from ad agency Preston Spire in Minneapolis Minnesota. Brett’s here to talk about being proactive as a Creative Director and looking for the opportunity to create big ideas in every brief And when you boil all that down, what he’s really describing is this idea of not becoming complacent but pushing yourself to go above and beyond. It’s about the grit and perseverance you need to get to do the work that makes you feel fulfilled. And what I love about Brett is that he’s not all talk, he’s got the case studies to back it all up. Check out his work here https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettessman/ and here http://www.brettessman.com/

Today’s guest is Andres Fabian, a globe-trotting Dominicano creative director who has worked on three different continents for companies and agencies like Leo Burnett, Kelly Bluebook, Innocean and VMLY&R. On this episode Andres discusses his experience as a Latino creative in the world of advertising.  It’s an important conversation we all need to hear, and we both share personal stories about the most outrageous things we’ve been told or overheard to the weird practice of code-switching to the need for real action around diversity in our industry. This is can’t miss episode especially for people of color or under represented groups in our industry .