What skills do you look for in creatives entering the business today?
We’re never really looking to “make the next great ad,” because ads are unfortunately just kind of inherently bad and disliked at this point, so even the best ad—the greatest ad ever made—is still just an ad.
So instead of hiring advertising experts, we try to find people who have real relationships with real culture.
Folks who can react to culture, comment on culture, feed culture, knock different parts of culture together, question culture, celebrate culture, etc.
And not advertising culture, but the culture of sports, entertainment, design, cars, music, comedy, literature, internet, business, etc.
Jocks, nerds, artists, sneakerheads, students of film, students of comedy, poets, playwrights, former athletes, former lawyers, former bartenders, current comedians … if you’re part of the real culture that’s happening in the real world, then we’d love for you to be part of Wieden+Kennedy.
And once we have these people connected to culture in the building, what we ask of them on a daily basis is pretty simple:
Have an opinion.
Not just on ads, but on everything. On our brands, on what our brands make, on what’s happening in professional sports or in food or music or in politics or in neighborhoods and cities.
Opinions on everything from deodorants, SUVs and cheeseburgers to Olympic athletes, rideshare apps, music playlists, flying cars, puberty, being a mom … everything.
I think that’s kind of always been the foundational magic of this place. Real people talking about real things versus ad people talking about advertising.