The Egotist Briefs: DJ O'Neil

When you think of the great creative agencies in San Francisco, Hub Strategy might not immediately come to mind. Until that is, you see their work. From the current Oakland A's campaign to the Nike 6.0 Ill Mobile, the shop has been cranking out stellar advertising for quite some time - all using a network of uber-talented freelancers and a small full-time staff. And the guy with the vision to set up an agency like this and keep it on the tracks? Hub Strategy CEO DJ O'Neil.

DJ talked to us about his unique agency set-up, creativity in San Francisco, and why he hates that one campaign. You know... that one.

How do you think the level of creativity in San Francisco compares to the rest of the world?
Well, it’s tough to argue with the creative prowess of our fair city, both today and over the past 20 years or so. But I’m not sure I’m ready to develop any sort of ranking system. There’s incredible creative pouring in from all over the country. I think what’s really different about San Francisco is the fact that people who are creative professionals here are damn good AND they’ve decided to live in a place with an unparralled quality of life.

How does Hub Strategy take advantage of the creativity that the city naturally produces?
Can I skip this question? Or put it off for a month? We’re working on something really cool in this department right now, but it won’t get rolled out for at least a couple of months.

“Crowdsourcing” is obviously a loaded term these days and there’s a ton of debate on whether it’s good for advertising. What are your thoughts on the practice and how it helps or hurts creativity?
In my opinion, crowdsourcing is either incredibly evil or incredibly interesting. It’s evil when it’s done just to get really cheap work. I’ve seen this for advertising, production and technology. When it’s done purely for low cost reasons, I think it’s parasitic—basically people with some money trying to take advantage of people that wish they had more, and are willing to lower their standards as a result of that. That type of crowdsourcing shouldn’t be called “crowdsourcing” it should be called “whoresourcing”.

But done right, I think crowdsourcing can be pretty incredible. If there’s a really great client who is willing to produce work that anyone would want to feature in his or her portfolio, well, everyone wins. The client gets great work, one creative will get a portfolio piece that they would otherwise have never gotten and the rest of the creatives were swinging for the fence, creatively, and probably had fun doing it.
But clients willing to facilitate the above scenario are pretty rare.

Where do you find your creative freelancers? For someone trying to break into the SF freelance world, what do they have to do?
We work with a ton of freelancers—it’s a central part of our business model. They come from all over the place. Referrals. Word-of-mouth. Or just contacting a person whose work we’ve noticed. We also work with some great creatives who are working on boring stuff at their full time job, and are willing to anonymously moonlight with us to work on something fun. Once we worked with a writer from Chiat in LA whose contract said he could never freelance. He told us that if we won an award for his work, we’d have to use his porn name instead of his real name. So we’ve got an award hanging on the wall with the writer listed as “Rufus Corwin”.

It seems like we’re all working harder than ever to squeeze out even small gains for our clients. Has advertising gone wrong somewhere along the way or is it just a function of today’s world?
It’s the economy. That’s it. I think it’s definitely a function of the economy. Businesses have been forced to cut cost wherever they can, so how the hell could we ever be an exception? Plus, come on: in the past, our industry has been sort of legendary in its ability to overcharge for things. Right now, I just think we’re in the low part of the cycle, and when that changes, budgets will get looser. That being said, it doesn’t feel like the economy is in any hurry to get itself out of its low.

Beyond what’s on someone’s resume, what do you look for when it comes to creative people you want to work with?
I love people that love what they do. Peter Judd, my Co-Creative director and Partner lives for this business. He lives for creativity and aesthetic, and looks for it all around him, every day. He doesn’t bitch about the industry (well, not that much anyway). He doesn’t complain about the thinning margins or the insane deadlines required. He’s been doing this for 15 years and has every right to be jaded but he’s not. I think it’s because he knows that what we get paid to do every day is a whole hell of a lot better than what most people have to do to earn a living.

Personally, what inspires you creatively?
A couple of years ago, I took an intensive documentary filmmaking class. It was every night of the week, plus a whole day Saturday, for five weeks. At that time, I’d directed lots of TV spots. But I’d never learned to run the camera, set up the lights, run the sound, or edit. This class taught me all that. I had to write and produce my own 7- minute documentary by the end of the class. I just loved the whole process. It really got me fired up, creatively, to learn all this new stuff. So I guess the short answer to your question is: learning new stuff inspires me creatively.

What’s the best career advice you ever received?
When we were starting our first ad agency in 1995, my partner and I were thinking about giving up some equity in order to get investors. When we told our CPA, Charles Duck, he said: Are you in for a penny, or in for a pound? I didn’t know what the hell that meant, so he explained. Basically, he was telling us that if you believe in yourself and your ability to succeed, take your life savings, plow it into the business and forget about giving up any equity. That’s what we did and I’m still thankful for that one sentence from Mr. Duck.

Favorite campaign of 2010 so far? Why? Care to offer up your least favorite?
I know it’s probably a lot of people’s favorite, but I can’t get enough of “The most interesting man in world” campaign, from Dos Equis. How brilliant: get a dude that’s a good 25 years older than the target, give him an accent that the Mexican version of Hugh Hefner would be proud of, and soft-sell the idea of drinking beer (“I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis”). I especially like the radio (Bulls flat out refuse to fight him; he is the life of parties he has never attended, his blood smells like cologne). Incredible writing!

My least favorite? I’d have to say that my least favorite campaign was the one for that spec pitch that the other agency came up with and won because of it and we lost, but their campaign was terrible and our campaign was so much better and every time I see it I can’t believe that the client picked it over ours. That one.

What three pieces of advice would you give to any creative person?
Look at everything through the consumer’s eyes. If you do this, consistently, and you can solve problems creatively, your work will get produced. If you don’t, you’ll end up creating cool stuff that appeals to you and only you, it will never get produced, you’ll get frustrated and become one of those angry creative types.

Don’t over-think it. Learn to develop your gut. We all complain about clients over thinking creative communication, but I see creatives do it just as much. The consumer doesn’t look at our stuff very long. It’s the most overt and instant take-aways that are really important.

Do what’s right and be fearless. Don’t worry about what people are going to think; be true to numbers one and two above, and you’ll be in good shape. Start worrying about what people think (other than the consumer, that is) and you're sunk.