Publicis' Dave Bowman, DDB Group Aotearoa's Matty Burton, BMF's Tara Mckenty and M&C Saatchi's Steve Coll have all jumped ship from advertising to take on leadership roles and steer the creative futures of tech companies in the last decade, and have all returned to adland since.
Speaking one a panel at This Way Up, the industry's signature creative festival, none of them expressed regret with their chosen trajectories. They did however notice, at times, the atrophy in the tech world, and missed the urgency of advertising; the rapid pursuit in which creatives are constantly making.
"In advertising, you’re the front person. What you do makes the industry and the business money. In a tech company, you have to be comfortable being a base player," McKenty says.
McKenty left for a decade for Google APAC. She returned 18 months ago to be the chief innovation officer and co-ECD for BMF.
“I left the industry before I knew what it felt like. It’s pretty lonely, if i'm honest, being a creative in a tech company. My creative partner and I were the first team that Google ever hired,” she says.
“You don’t just walk into work and are surrounded by creativity, where there are people to bounce off ideas.It's like someone who loves music, talking about it with someone who loves maths."
McKenty hand't yet experienced the fruits of being a senior leader in the industry prior to switching sides.
‘“When I joined, no one really knew what Google was. I've never really been a traditional creator. Google's really exciting because it’s got over 380 platforms. For me that was like going from a toy box with three or four things to being a kid in a candy store,” she says.
“There was diversity in what we could build, make and create with.”
Because what creatives do is so valued, they're often compartmentalised to just do that thing, she says.
"Take your head up, even for just a second, and think about where you want to be in five years, how you plan to get there."
That's her criticism to some creatives, they're so focused on what they're doing because there is so much of it to do.
“Little moments of reflection and goal setting…I wish creatives would do more of. You need to know where you’re going and how to get there.”
Often when you're a creative at a tech company, McKenty says, it’s like being on a bench and watching the game.
“You have this view of the industry. At Google and other tech companies, often your projects are two-three years long. So you may make one, chunky project a year which you're really proud of.
“But I have such admiration for the advertising because you're constantly making. That what I missed the most - that rapid pursuit of making different things. You learn more when you do that.”
Bowman, who is currently the CCO of Publicist ANZ has been back about 18 months after around six years also leading APAC creatively for Google.
He and Burton jumped ship at the same time in 2017.
“As a creative person, you’re always trying to push and learn. It was very much a conscious decision to try and upskill in a different world,” he says.
For Bowman, Publicis feels different to his stint tech-side. he missed that attitude, spark and real hunger advertising people have for trying different things
“I felt like I was beginning to see a little of atrophy inside the tech world. Everything slowed down and I missed the urgency, which is maybe too urgent to a degree," he says.
“The biggest difference that I felt I witnessed was that the survivors of the last five or 10 years of change are amazing. Anyone who has stayed in the industry, has survived all of that change and continues to make things; they're the most match-fit slice of the industry.”
Bowman is happy the way things turned out, having learnt a lot during his time at Google.
“If I go back further in my career, the best advice I ever got was from director Jonathan Kneebone. He said you’ll never go wrong if you follow the work.
“He said don't move for money, don't move for anything else - just the work. If you’re going for the right reasons – the creativity and the output – then you’ll never go wrong.”
Burton returned to advertising almost three years ago when he took the role of group CCO at DDB in New Zealand.
He says he’s happiest near work - regardless of where that has taken him.
“I can be just as happy at Google or at DDB or in a shed. It doesn't really matter, as long as I'm making something, or annoying someone else who’s making something,” he says.
“No regrets for having done it. There’s a lot of lateral leaps in this industry."
On the benefits of taking these different trajectories, he says people don't have to make that big leap to the other side. They can also do it in different ways.
“Experiment in small ways. You don't have to go all in,” he says.
Burton realised just how much he didn't know about people management.
“They spend so much money on it. Upskilling creatives to give them tools is so important. We don't spend enough giving back, it’s a travesty. The more we can share, the better it will be.
There’s a construct in which we operate that's put there by other people, Burton says.
“It’s on all of us to find and experiment different ways of making money and scaling ideas and creating ideas.
Coll returned this year to take the group CCO role for M&C Saatchi ANZ, after spending four years as head of Facebook's Creative Shop.
He says it's easy for people to become restless with what they do.
“I looked at mobile and thought... I don't understand it enough and I feel like I want and need to.”
From working in both sides, Coll was reminded of the value of being in a room with people who think differently than you.
“There’s that saying where if you can't see the dumbest person in the room, it’s you. About four times a day at Facebook I experienced that feeling, but it was brilliant at the same time," he says.
What's humbling with tech companies is their desire to embrace change, Coll says. They're racing each other to do everything they can to embrace it.
“I'm not sure we’ve got that in our industry at the moment. When you go to the likes of Meta, obviously they see what you’ve got is valuable, but you’re not important. You’re selling your skills. I find that quite confronting.
“I’d be angry at myself for not having switched sides though. Curiosity is such an essential part of what I do. Facebook has let me lean into things I'd frankly have been scared of before. The whole experience has been beneficial for me."
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