The Black Cab Interviews have flown all the way from London to Singapore just in time for Spikes Asia – Singapore’s Festival of Creativity, in collaboration with Cogs Agency with production support by The Flying Kick Asia and Shooting Gallery Asia.
In the back of a signature London black cab, Michael Tomes, founder of Creativepool, has been cramming in interviews with judges and top speakers for the duration of the three-day festival.
With his super-high-tech plastic yellow spinner, Michael has been asking questions (some nice and some horrible) of his guests as he takes them around the city.
Today we have Matt Eastwood, Worldwide CCO, J. Walter Thompson, talking about how passion trumps talent, the tactful application of somewhat brutal honesty, and moving clients to tears.
You can watch the interview below and read the full transcript at the bottom of this post.
About Black Cab Interviews
The "Black Cab Interviews” are series of interviews in which Creativepool’s founder, Michael Tomes, takes the great and the good from our industry on a cab ride around London, New York, Singapore... to talk about their work, careers and what they think about the fabulous industry that we work in. If you would like to do a Black Cab interview in your city, get in touch with Christie H.Kristensen.
In Collaboration With:
Production Support By:
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Tomes: Hey!
Matt Eastwood: How are you?
Michael Tomes: Good to see you!
Matt Eastwood: Yeah, good to see you.
Michael Tomes: Welcome to the Black Cab Interviews!
Matt Eastwood: Thank you very much - great fun to be here!
MT: So, Matt Eastwood. Worldwide CCO, [of] not JWT anymore-
[Both]: Now J. Walter Thompson!
MT: What are you doing in Singapore?
ME: I'm here for Spikes. I've been chairing the Print, Print Craft, Film and Integrated juries. So I've been judging all week.
MT: So give me a run down on what a worldwide chief creative officer does
ME: Well, really it's about helping set the creative standard for the whole network, so giving people something to reach for, and then really helping direct the work for our biggest clients. We have a lot of global clients -- I'd say we have 20 global clients from Nestlé to Unilever to Rolex. And then, I guess, probably one of the other biggest parts of it is talent. Making sure that we have the best talent and get the best talent in our various offices around the world. And that's one of the main reasons I love coming to something like the Spikes. Because you get to meet and spend time with, you know, the best talent in the whole region.
MT: So from what I know, you have a talk that you’re doing tomorrow as well
ME: I am, I'm doing a talk in the morning, and it's about curiosity. And I guess the subtitle of the presentation is The Beauty of Being the Dumbest Person in the Room. And it's really about how curiosity can help fuel knowledge. Curiosity, I think is the beginning of new knowledge.
MT: And is that something you try to instil into your ECDs and CDs?
ME: Yeah! I mean, it's actually a core value that we've instilled in the company since myself and the chief executive have arrived. There's four values, and two of them: one is curiosity, and the other is courage. Collaboration... [laughs] is one of the other ones, and [there is also] capability. But--
MT: The four 'C's!
ME: The four 'C's, exactly as we refer to them. C to the fourth. But, yeah, it's something that i really try and instil in all of our people, not just the creative people, in all of our people in all of our offices. To have that, sort of, relentless curiosity. And find out things that you don't know and enjoy the process of that -- rather than being fearful of that.
MT: So what kind of creative officer are you, are you sort of, running around with a big stick and telling people that they're doing everything wrong, or are you…
ME: I'm definitely not the kind of fear-based chief creative officer. I'm much more encouragement-based. I mean, my philosophy that I always talk about wherever I visit an office is 'Be tough on the work, be nice to the people'. Be honest -- and I think that's a bit of an Australian trait, the sort of honest directness. And it's always served me well in my career, and I think clients really appreciate -- you know, if something is not good ... tell people. Instead of pretending 'Yeah, I don't mind that, what else have you got?'. Be honest and tell them what's wrong with it.
MT: The essence of creativity. How could you formulate that?
ME: In the last twelve months, I spent some time defining what that means for J. Walter Thompson... So we've talked about [how] our aim is to create pioneering solutions that build enduring brands and business. And there's some very deliberate choices in there that I think relate back to creativity, you know, the choice of solutions, as a word ... I think that the world is no longer about 'advertising' per se, I think it's still important and still plays a role, but I read a quote which I loved which is 'advertising is not dead, the only thing that's dead is a process that leads to only advertising'. And I think that's a really important aspect of creativity today, and what clients are really looking for, they're looking for creativity in everything within their business. Definitely in their communications, but in their product development, in their pricing strategies, in their ... everything! So I think that we're very much about using creative people to help unlock those solutions for business, whatever they may be.
MT: So what piece of advice would you give to new people coming into the industry?
ME: Work hard and be nice to people. You know, I think this world is too ... short, for assholes. I don't want to work with assholes, I want to work with talented people. And another thing I say, particularly to young creatives just getting into the industry, is that I really believe this idea that passion trumps talent. and actually I’ve seen that talented people fall by the wayside because they just haven't had that passion to keep going. particularly when something tough happens, it's easy when everything's great, but, you know, when you're faced with a creative director who's constantly rejecting your work, it's easy to give up! So I think you have to have resilience and passion to keep going.
MT: So, last part of the interview... [Michael produces a plastic yellow spinner that points to a number between one and ten when spun]. I have this very sophisticated piece of apparatus... I have ten questions on my phone.
ME: [Laughs] Yes!
MT: The odd numbers are slightly naughty or controversial questions--
ME: Alright!
MT: And the even are nice questions.
ME: OK!
MT: So you start here
ME: I spin and see what happens!
[Matt spins to an even number]
MT: Bloody Australians. Always cheating. How did you get into the industry?
ME: I was actually very lucky because I knew, from about thirteen years old, that I wanted to be in advertising. Which is very weird, for a young kid to go, 'that's what I want to do'. I think it was because i used to like watching Bewitched, with Darrin Stevens--
[Both laugh]
ME: And I was like, 'That's such a cool job, they’re coming up with ideas all the time!'
MT: Are you SURE that's what you were thinking at the time?
ME: Aaaaah ... yeah!
MT: Nothing to do with [inaudible]?
ME: Yeah, yeah ... so I used to watch that, thinking 'OK, that looks cool'! And I sort of pursued it from there, and it's funny, when I grew up, in Perth, in west Australia, there was no ... there was no advertising course. This was in 1984, and so I studied graphic design and majored in advertising, so i graduated as a designer and always knew I wanted to be in advertising and my very first job actually was as a copywriter, and I’ve done it ever since.
MT: [To the spinner] Off you go.
ME: Oh, another one!
MT: Nope, you don't just get one!
[Matt spins]
ME: Six. I'm getting all the nice ones.
MT: You are! What are you passionate about?
ME: The thing that fills my life outside of advertising is that I'm passionate about interior design and architecture. I'm .. I’ve renovated probably four houses now, and because I'm so driven by media I always like to have them published if I can, so they’ve all been published which is good. and for maybe seven years until recently when I had no time left i even ran a blog about interior design, so ... yeah, If I ever get fired that's gonna be my job!
[Matt spins]
MT: We're gonna go ‘til you get a naughty one at least.
ME: Nine!
MT: Which continent produces the best work?
ME: Oh wow. I'm a big fan of the work that comes out of South America and I think that you know countries like Brazil, they really have a huge focus on craft, but always do like really inventive [work] ... not that it's one of the only, but it's one of my favourites. Another [question]?
MT: Go for it!
[Matt spins].
ME: One!
MT: Who was your worst client and why?
ME: One of my best -- and worst -- experiences was shooting a brand new campaign for the client, finished the whole thing and we -- I got together with her, showed her the work, and she said: 'That will go to air over my dead body'.
[Both laugh]
ME: I was like, 'oh my god'. That's like, such an extreme reaction.
MT: Not a lot of room for manoeuvring!
ME: Like, what do I do? 'Over my dead body' isn't just like, 'Oh, could you just tweak that and do that, then we're all good'. I spent the next few weeks kind of convincing her that it was the right thing to do, and there was a moment when we went out to breakfast together and we were sort of holding hands over the table - she had tears, I had a tear in my eye, we were having this honest conversation ... and then in the end, she bought the work and she said 'I will eat my hat. You were right.' we made the work and it was hugely successful. And she said, 'thank you for helping me get this out there'. So that was probably the best and worst client, all in one.
MT: Oh, amazing.
[Dropping Matt off]
MT: Thankyou very much for joining me on this black cab interview excursion, hope you enjoyed yourself!
ME: Oh, it's great fun, great fun, it's one of the most interesting interviews I've ever done, I think!
