Edward Boches, professor of advertising at Boston University, and the long-term chief creative officer at Mullen, believes that advertising creatives are motivated not by sales results but by a need for personal recognition. “Just look at the award show industry if you want validation,” he says.
In fact, Boches admits that a deep-rooted desire for attention sparked his interest in the business. “I think I was overly praised as a child and became somewhat addicted to it. Combine that with my love of words, film and performance and advertising became the perfect career. It takes a long time to make a movie or write a book or prepare body of work for an art exhibit. But in advertising you can generate and produce ideas far more quickly and get that immediate reaction. Of course, you also have to be tough enough to withstand the constant rejection too.”
A similar intrinsic motivation drives most creatives, suggests Boches. “I can honestly say I never met a creative person who was motivated first and foremost by a desire to sell a product. More often than not he simply needs an outlet for his creativity.” This isn’t a knock but rather an opportunity, Boches explains. “Smart creative directors and clients must learn to take advantage of that passion for creating. It’s no different than the Catholic Church hiring Michelangelo to paint a ceiling,” he adds.
Boches places a huge emphasis on talent — individual and collaborative. “In this business you don’t get credit for trying, you get credit for ideas and innovation,” he declares. “When I’m hiring a junior person I look for people who are original and prolific in their thinking. When I hire senior talent I want people who have done something famous already.”
The real challenge of Boches’ job as a creative director is “casting” talent. “Not every creative person is right for every job. It’s a balance of skill, passion, taste, creative judgment.” He also believes that in advertising’s current environment, where creative ideas are less dependent on craft and more dependent on understanding social media, technology and emerging consumer behaviors the definition of an advertising creative should extend to departments that don’t have “creative” in their names. “These days, some of the best ideas come out of media, account planning, and public relations,” he explains. “We should all welcome that.”
Fundamentally Boches believes that everyone is creative. “They just have to exercise the right muscles and be willing to take chances,” he says. “And as our industry finds itself in the business of creating experiences, apps and full-blown platforms that consumers use rather than watch or read, we need more people to be creative thinkers and contribute to those experiences.”
However, Boches will quickly remind you that tools and technology are not the answer. “You can give anybody a keyboard, a camera, the full Adobe suite or an editing station. It doesn’t turn them into a great writer, photographer, designer or editor,” he adds.
Boches was not always in the advertising industry. He has been a journalist, a photographer and a speechwriter, among other things. “I think those experiences were helpful, especially now with all the changes in content, because it gave me a holistic view,” he says.
But he was also part owner of Mullen, and even as creative director he was responsible for budgets, financial performance and people’s livelihoods. “That was a great experience and certainly I’d rather work for myself than for someone else. But sometimes it forces you to compromise your purest creative standards. Do you fight for your more narrow, selfish creative idea? Or do you work to save people’s jobs?”
During his 31 years at Mullen, Boches helped build a nationally recognized Ad Agency A-list agency by hiring and motivating individuals and teams of “people far more talented than me.” Today he teaches creative courses at Boston University. “I think everything has changed. Technology, real time access to information, consumer control of the conversation, and hyper-connectivity present a host of new challenges for everyone working in advertising. But I also believe that nothing has changed. We still have to identify problems, develop strategies and generate ideas that attract attention and overcome indifference. Whether it’s a combination of words and pictures, an interesting use of media and technology, or simply a story told in a new interactive way, we still need great creative ideas.”