Interview with Ignacio Oreamuno

I recently interviewed Ignacio Oreamuno about life as a jr. creative. You may have heard of him from a website he started (ihaveanidea).

(taken from ihaveanidea) Born in sunny Costa Rica, Ignacio has never lived longer than 5 years in one single country. After traveling the world in pursuit of his advertising dream, Ignacio was left frustrated with the elitist structure of the ad industry and its non-existent community. One cold night, without asking for anyone’s permission he decided to take the reins of the industry he so much loved and created ihaveanidea.

The dream was simple, create an online interactive brain that would allow fellow creatives to share their valuable knowledge and build on each other's experience, hence forming the next generation of the advertising industry.

Soon after starting, Ignacio was joined by other fellow volunteer creatives who sided by the ihavanidea plight. His art director job at Ogilvy kept Ignacio busy working on IBM, Kraft, Unilever and Motorola for a while, but attempting an advertising revolution while doing comps at the same time proved a little too much too handle and after a great time at Ogilvy, Ignacio decided to take the challenge of fulfilling ihaveanidea's mission full time on 2004.

Ignacio holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, a Bachelor Degree in Public Relations & Business Communications, a Diploma in Advertising Design and a Professional Degree in Web Development. He was named Marketing Magazine's Ones to Watch under 30 in 2004.

He doesn't smoke, but he's a social drinker. (He's also very social.)

Do you miss being at Ogilvy?

It's a big thrill working for big clients like IBM, Motorola, Unilever
and Kraft. It's fun pitching for a 300,000 dollar spot or doing a
meeting with 20 people trying to convince them why your idea with a
pro NFL athlete is going to be a cool spot that will sell phones and
stuff. I got to ride in big cranes in the middle of Toronto while
shooting spots, have dozens of people work day and night to shoot my
little ideas, and even closed down the ACC where the Toronto Maple
Leafs play to shoot an ad for IBM. We virtually got the remote control
for the Jumbotron to lift it up and down and we got to skate in the
ice at night. I also loved expensing all my DVDs, magazines and books.
I had the best bosses in the world, Janet and Nancy (Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk), which made the
job even better.

To be admitted into the TX Creative program is very hard. A lot
of my friends want to be a creative because it is "fun" and "cool."
What are the characteristics of a Creative? They're quirky, weird...

Before getting a job in advertising creatives may be quirky and weird
but all those get filtered out in the job hiring process. After that
only the hard working people are left. In the old days (70's and 80's)
people dressed weird and were very artsy fartsy. Nowadays, creatives
are pretty normal restrained people. In fact I find all other related
industries like Direct Marketing and Design have waaaaaaay cooler
people.

What should aspiring AD/CWs do outside the classroom to prepare
them to be better AD/CWs?

It's easy. If your teachers ask for 10 ads for your portfolio, then do
30 for yourself. If they ask for 3 ideas for a campaign, then do 10. A
career in advertising is all about ALWAYS doing a bit more than what
they ask of you. Those are the people that make it and thrive. The
rest stay back making flyers.

What's your personal creative philosophy?

Most of the best work I made was late at night in some restaurant
eating good food and drinking good beer while having a laugh (all
expensable!) Timelines are good. Creatives are lazy and we leave
everything till the last minute. Many of the best ideas are done under
lots of pressure.

I read that you have never lived longer than five years in one
country. Which countries have you lived in? Do you feel that your
global perspective has helped you in your thinking? Has it helped you
in your social skills too because you have a broader knowledge of
different cultures?

From living in Holland: You CAN work from 9-5 and be highly effective.
These guys can have a 20 minute meeting that in North America would be
the equivalent of 3-4 meetings over a period of two weeks. People are
empowered and take decisions. There's also no bullshitting. If they
don't like what you're offering it's dead. No hard feelings buddy.

From Spain: Take a 3 hour lunch and nap. Life is short

From Argentina: Be proud, always.

The big lesson from all these countries is that no culture is right.
Learn to see the good things in everything in life.

Holy smokes. You have three business-related degrees and one
diploma. How does having business knowledge help a jr. creative?

Not at all! Those diplomas are gathering dust next to my old tennis
balls in my garage. No one has ever asked me for my diplomas or even
yet, my resume. I thought gathering as many credentials as possible
was important, but in advertising, as a creative they mean squat!

However, in being a creative, EVERYTHING, even pottery classes help.
If just go to school and then hit an agency your mind might not be
open enough. Being a creative means being a student of life.
Everything you have studies, done and experienced will come back to
help you. However, if you have a Masters in Mass Communications don't
expect it to help you get a job as an AD/CW. Only the portfolios
matter.

What should students learn in a good portfolio program?

A good portfolio program is not about creating great ideas. Anyone can
do that. It's about polishing the book to a point that you become good
enough to hire. Creative Directors have way too many people offering
to work for free for you to have any chance if your portfolio is not
perfect. It's the responsibility of the schools to not let you out
without having a scratch free portfolio. This means that if you are an art director your design, typography, kerning, leading, colors usage, campaign consistency, etc is perfect and if you are a copywriter, that
every comma, period, space and adjective is there for a reason.

Do you think business etiquette should be taught at portfolio
schools/programs?

Yes!

Advertising is not about creating great ideas, it's about selling
them. Try presenting your idea to your classmates.Then imagine try
selling that same idea to the President, Vice-President, Marketing
Director, Brand Manager and lawyer from Kraft. Try to get them to drop
half a million dollars on your idea. If your etiquette and
presentation skills are not amazing your ideas will die, regardless of
how good they are.

What are the top five most important things you learned as an AD at
Ogilvy?

1. Typography is HARD. It's not about trying to find a good font. It's
about spending hours and hours and hours (that you don't have trying
to find the most amazing perfect typeface to match the design, brand
and idea you have crafted.

2. There will always be assholes in any agency you work in. Ogilvy was
amazing in terms of the amount of nice people that worked there.
However, there were a few assholes and no matter how many agencies you
go to, or how many times you change, you will always find them in your
career. Learn to live with that early in your career.

3. The success of your career will depend a lot on the chemistry
between you and your partner. Invest time building that relationship
and making it work. It's like a marriage.

4. No matter how much you learnt at school...you will start your
career without knowing a thing. Advertising is so hard because it
can't be taught. It's a do and learn career. You will be shocked at
how many things school can't teach you when you hit your first real
week of work.

5. Art direction is harder than you think. Legal, legibility, print
restrictions, color variations, etc will be a shock to you as a junior
ad.

What's the most important piece of advice you heard from a CD or
a fellow creative?

It's just advertising. We're not changing the world, just making ads!
So have fun!

Based on my personal, and limited professional advertising experience, it seems like in the advertising industry almost everybody wants to help you. Why do you think the industry has this quality?

What?!?

People helping people in advertising?

Just the opposite. Advertising has probably the worst community spirit
and industry of all the communication industries. Agencies live in
silos, creative directors don't answer phone calls, creatives that win
gold awards don't like creatives that don't win gold awards. It's a bunch of prima donnas. However, when you look hard you find a lot of amaaaaaaaazing people. That's why I created ihaveanidea. To pursue positive change in the industry and have a voice for the 'nice people'.

How do you get over a creative roadblock?

Throw everything in the trash. Go for a walk. Order some food and
drinks on the company and start again.

I was told that being humble and being observant are two very good
characteristics for a jr. creative to have. Do you agree? Do you
have any anymore to add on?

Yes these are very very important. Again, advertising is a do and
learn industry. It's sort of like becoming a blacksmith. You need to
learn from the master, that's the only way. It's easy to get carried
away and think you know it all, and get angry with your CD when they
kill your amazing ideas, but if you learn to be humble from day 1 you
will be respected and you will grow fast. Very few people make it to
the top being jerks. Most of the CD's I interview that are world class
are the super super nicest people you'd ever meet.

Do you think Jr. creatives find it shocking that advertising is an
idea business" and not as glamorous as it's portrayed?

I think it's super glamorous! You'll get to travel, expense stuff,
walk in whenever you feel like it, do lots of creative stuff, work in
studios with directors, musicians, 3d artists, voice actors, actors,
multimillion dollar brands, gets lots of free stuff and go to lots of
parties.

It's the hardest business to break into, but it definitely is worth
the trouble and hard work.