5 Things Pam Postrel Has Learned from 35 Years in Advertising
Pam Postrel is an executive creative director at MOCEAN, specialising for many years in marketing animated movies and TV fare. At the end of the year, she is retiring to start a 鈥渢hird act鈥 of personal creativity and relaxation, leaving current and future projects in the capable hands and brilliant minds of her award-winning veteran teammates Alexis Brodey and Sherri Jacobsen.
1. Things Change!
Everything changes. Audiences change. Client regimes change. Technology changes. Long-term success means being nimble. Stay current!
2. Read the Room.
At whatever level you currently reside, from the lowest rung to the highest corridors of power, interacting with the panoply of personalities in advertising is an art form. Empathy, social intelligence, and experience are your brushes. Be sensitive to when folks are open to suggestion, when you should quietly observe (and learn), when you鈥檙e on a roll, and when to back off.
3. It鈥檚 Important to Be Someone People Enjoy Being Around
When the chips are down, you can鈥檛 go wrong with warmth and humour. Advertising is a high-pressure team sport. The people who work for you will create more and better when they don鈥檛 hate or fear you. The people above you will want you around, always, if you鈥檙e a good hang. (Caveat: It鈥檚 possible to try too hard to be lovable. See #2 above).
4. Find a Way to Protect the Flame
Our jobs can get formulaic, no matter how creative they are, or how hard we try to push the envelope. Our babies get rejected, sometimes accompanied by an insult. Our utter genius gets revised beyond recognition. It鈥檚 easy to build a wall of ennui and cynicism to protect our poor, accosted souls. Toiling in the business of 鈥渃ommercial creativity鈥 requires some method of rejuvenation on a regular basis. I鈥檓 personally a huge proponent of meditation, but pick your own non-poison: Exercise. Laughter. Smelling the roses. Something that will keep your brain from settling into familiar ruts and will keep you from wanting to run in front of a bus.
5. Do the Work and Trust the Journey
Even with 35 years in the business, everything I鈥檝e ever tried to 鈥済o after鈥: Clients, projects, jobs鈥 have mostly resulted in a big goose egg. Of course, you have to be somewhat proactive or you鈥檒l never get anywhere. You do have to put yourself in the right universe, you have to impress the right people, you must have a solid work ethic. But, by and large, by adhering to #1-4 above, the clients found me, the projects found me, the jobs found me. I learned to trust the journey, and what a journey it鈥檚 been.
