Beyond the next campaign opportunity, beyond the next client won, beyond the next account won, beyond the next award won, beyond the next agency built, is a point at which we as creatives finally get out of our own heads and look to influence the next generation. Nothing matters more than to share everything you know, to light new flames from what seems like an inexhaustible source within you.
This burning desire came surprisingly early to me. I put it down to my having been the world’s peskiest intern and so everyone in my first agency promptly put me in charge of all future interns right from my junior writer days as some form of payback.
Over time, I took it upon myself to share everything I knew, with absolutely everyone that walked in through my cabin door. I knew I’d been super lucky to have a set of fantastic bosses from whom I’d learned so much and wanted to pay it forward long before that phrase was even born.
There was a patch in my life when I’d be giving workshops and chats galore every weekend I could, in colleges and B-Schools even. Then life got busier and I had to stop doing so much and just buckle down to being a CD 24/7/365 rather than influence posterity as teachers are supposed to do.
Over time, the desire to share came back and while an earlier batch of interns were now such things as Senior Creative Directors and what not (hi Binnita!!!), in 2019 it was a whole new generation out there and a whole new industry out there (hiiii Yaamini, hiiii Valerie, hiiii Sarah, hiiii Johanan!!! ).
So I was quite delighted when a colleague of mine young Brett invited me to tag along for Portfolio Night. It was just next door from our office, at Famous Innovations / Miami Ad School and I was excited to be among the OGs that everyone can look up to like Pops and Bobby as well as the ones after them like Aggie, Vikram, the Raj’s (both Kamble and Nair) etc, followed by people of my own generation like Amit Akali, Ashish Chakravarty et. al.
More than the establishment though, I was keen to see the current bunch of industry hopefuls. I wanted to know how they’d be different from their predecessors over the years. After all, millennials are now rather long in the tooth and even Gen Z is fairly crinkly when it comes to starting out in agency land.
They say Gen X and Gen Alpha are natural allies. I’m not a fan of all this cohort randomness. To slap an arbitrary bunch of values and attitudes on to a generation of people purely because they were born in a certain bunch of years is no more scientific than Linda Goodman’s best attempts to find meaning where there was perhaps none in zodiac signs.
At any rate, I digress. This bunch was delightfully interesting. Gone was the crippling anxiety and mental health issues of the previous bunches. They were focused on what they wanted to do, they were clear on the path to get there and they were respectfully asking us, the dinosaurs, about the snakes and ladders they’d encounter along the way. (Disclaimer, I was just there in a social capacity not as an official portfolio reviewer, but I did get a wide bunch of bright eyed and bushy tailed enthu kids who came up to chat.)
It is always hard to put yourself through scrutiny and putting a portfolio up in front of legends (yours truly excluded from such august company) is always hard for anyone no matter what stage of this gig you’re at. I found it quite commendable that this bunch was primed, they had their stuff down, their books were all slickly produced and being shown about on shining Macs – a far cry from our modest large black portfolio cases that contained physical examples of our work and sketches of our wild ideas.
But as I wandered quietly through the halls, taking in the sights of the many interactions, I was quite impressed to see these kids on the ball. While I’m sure they must have had pre-show jitters, when they were in front of giants, they weren’t trembling at the knees. Their body language spoke of confidence, their demeanour that of a desire to learn as much as they could from the precious moments of that tete a tete.
To the class of 2024 therefore, here’s my two bits. Love this gig. It’s not a job, it’s a way of life. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re going to burn out sooner than you think. And please remember, Advertising is a discipline, not a medium. The fragmentation of the industry may make you think one medium over another is the only way forward, but consider yourself as a Field Marshal, who knows how to harness the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, when, where and in what combination, to decisively win brand wars.
Read More: InspiRAYtion: Advertising is a discipline, that uses many mediums
While it’s tempting to earn a few more bucks, don’t change jobs for money. Change jobs when you stop learning. Find a good bunch of people with whom you can laugh and don’t have to watch your back. Win clients, win consumers and win awards. Also, please win serious awards, not the once a week kind of award shows that give you a gong just because you entered in it. Validation is nice, but ensure it comes from places that have high standards. Don’t settle for the easy wins, those aren’t worth the price of the trophies they give you.
I’m not Steve Jobs, but yes, staying hungry and staying foolish is a remarkably fantastic piece of advice especially for anyone getting into advertising. While your talent may be nascent, the one true superpower you do have is your energy to work harder than anyone else.
Stay true to your craft, don’t delegate everything and turn into a postman over the years. Actively write or art direct something you can be proud of at least once a day. No matter how many years go by from now, be kind to the kids. When you inevitably get them, help them fall in love with advertising as much as someone on Portfolio Night may have for you.
And here’s a secret. The dinosaurs learn more from you than you learn from them. The energy of youth, the ability to not have the baggage of the centuries upon you, are what we admire so much about the new kids on the block, year after year.
Enjoy your time as Young Turks. For one day, you’ll be reviewing a portfolio of some hopeful aspirant. It’s this journey that makes the industry what it is.
Till next Sunday!
Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.