Being a Pirate: Rick Boyko

After taking us on a tour of the facilities, Rick Boyko delivered his thoughts on the creative mindset in the advertising agency world. To a roomful of creatives, it was riveting, like some kind of professional pep-rally. To a roomful of non-creatives, like account executives or clients, a lot of people would have felt nervous.

But, as Rick emphasized: that's a very good thing.

As Rick explained things that brought success in his professional life, he pointed out the importance of building a creative culture. Advertising agencies are in the business of selling a creative product: ideas. Therefore, the creative product must be the top priority of the agency. A creative culture is how we establish and maintain that sense of priority. It also becomes contagious and can infuse creative thinking in other areas of the business. A creative culture must permeate all areas of the agency in order for it to be successful.

Rick also talked about the importance of the agency/client relationship. He pointed out that it is just as important for the creatives to have a good relationship with the client as it is for the account management teams. An understanding of the brand's business and a mutual trust between parties is how the best work gets done. It's very easy for creatives to feel as though they don't need to know the inner details of the brand: that's for someone else to worry about. But in order for us to have true insights in the creative, we must have deep understanding of the brand and the challenges it faces.
And as for the title of this post, it comes from one of my favorite parts of what Rick told us creatives: "It's our job to be the risky ones. If the agency is a ship, we're not the Navy. We're the pirates."