Ray Longoria, Charles Schwab
After two decades at creative powerhouse GSD&M, Ray Longoria’s freelance career took him to a number of in-house agencies, including a 5-year stint as the execuitve creative director at Charles Schwab. In this episode, Ray talks about the importance of working with clients who have a purpose and why going in-house is no longer Plan B for creatives. You can see Ray’s work at raylongoria.com.
Chris Ryan George, Utah Jazz + Utah Hockey Club
Chris Ryan George is Senior Creative Director of two pro sports teams in two different leagues - the NBA's Utah Jazz and the NHL's Utah Hockey Club, just starting their inaugural season. If you like sports and you like advertising, design, and marketing, this episode's for you.
Annie Castellano, Edward Jones
Annie Castellano is Head of Brand & Agency at financial services giant Edward Jones. She talks about working in a culture where they say “yes,” what it means to “quantify the squeeze,” and how to show ROI to the CEO and other executive leaders.
Will Chau, Whole Foods
Will Chau is the Vice President of Creative and Design at Whole Foods Market, where he leads a 50-person team responsible for all creative work, including advertising, design, and packaging for both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. Prior to this role, he was a Creative Director at GSD&M, crafting award-winning campaigns for clients like BMW and Southwest Airlines. He also founded The Austin Creative Department in 2011 to provide an alternative to traditional education and has been recognized twice as "Educator of the Year" by the Austin Advertising Federation. Passionate about fostering creativity, Will teaches organizations how to solve problems by thinking outside the box.
Kevin Lynch, Oatly
Kevin Lynch talks about his in-house work at Oatly and the Shanghai American School. He’s been the ECD of BBDO South China and is currently the proprietor of The Wrong Agency. In this episode, Kevin talks about the difference between selling t-shirts and selling conversation, how the Oatly Department of Mind Control doesn’t fit on an org chart, and why he’s never had an alarm clock.
Amanda Butts, Elevance Health
Amanda Butts leads over 80 creatives across multi-brands for Elevance Health. This Blue Angels-laced episode was recording during the Chicago Air & Water Show and you'll hear Amanda's house get buzzed a few times early on in the interview. But you'll still be able to hear Amanda talk about her apprehension about leaving the traditional agency world and how that's panned out, eliminating the us vs. them mindset, and a very interesting way of structuring a creative department.
Matt Bijarchi, blend.
Matt Bijarchi is an award-winning producer and former assistant to Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby. Now he runs Blend, a creative production company (check out weareblend.la). He describes Blend as a "white label in-house agency for brands." In this episode, you'll hear Matt explain why relationships matter, and how to close the gap between marketers and makers.
Mollie Wilkie, NFL + Nerf + Hasbro
Mollie Wilkie is Global Creative Director at Hasbro. Before that, she spent 10 years as an in-house creative director for the NFL. In this episode she discusses the difference between both in-house creative departments, how individual NFL teams use the League for creative, why in-house talent worked for Nerf, how to take the subjectivity out of creative reviews.
Michael Dhalliwal, Topgolf
Michael Dhalliwal, Director of Brand Creative & Content at Topgolf discusses maintaining creative integrity on the client side and loving the brand you work on. Michael was born and raised in San Diego, got his advertising degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, then got a job at The Richards Group and moved to Dallas. After a couple of years, he left to be the internal copywriter for Topgolf. Eight years later, he's so successful he's now joining podcasts.
Jim Bosiljevac, Yahoo!
Jim Bosiljevac, former ECD of Yahoo! and current professor at the University of Texas Austin discusses in-house leadership, culture, and the importance of red shoes.