Q&A: Eric Silver

NEW YORK Eric Silver, DDB New York's new chief creative officer, discussed how he will approach his first opportunity to run an agency creative department in an interview with Adweek senior reporter Andrew McMains.Silver, a former executive creative director at BBDO, who's replacing longtime DDB N.Y. CCO and chairman Lee Garfinkel, starts on Feb. 17.ADWEEK: What drew you to this job?SILVER: After five years at BBDO, it was simply time to try something new. At Cliff Freeman, the challenge was to create talked-about work on smaller accounts. And then, at BBDO, the reason I wanted to go to a big agency was to replicate that success, but on bigger accounts, which I felt really good about with FedEx and Monster. The next sort of evolutionary step is you go and you run an agency [creative department]. Why was it time to leave BBDO?I achieved the goals that we set out to do. What will be your biggest challenge as CCO?I don't know. The first four weeks of my plan is [to] go in and listen. Then, I can answer that question better. I'm not going in with any preconceived notions. I don't know if this is a sexy answer or not. I'm just being honest. The first four weeks, I just really want to go in and listen and see what that place is about. Then I would have a better sense of how to answer that.What about the job will come easily to you?I think I do well with people. I want to surround myself with smart people, people I trust and people I can delegate to. On some level, you're only as good as your cabinet. So, I think I'll have a good rapport with people and I want to create a two-way street with people that I trust. I think that's critical to the success of the thing. What did you learn at BBDO that will help you?Client interaction, wherever you are, is key in earning their trust. Doing right by the clients -- there's really a focus on that [at BBDO] -- is obviously critical for this next move.Any of your peers offer advice?No. But my advice to myself -- what I was saying earlier -- is to not rush to judgment on stuff and go in and look around. By the way, if that's wrong, tell me! (laughs).Get the lay of the land first, right?Yeah. Because if you go in pretending you have all the answers, I think you're in trouble right off the bat.Who did you meet with during the recruitment process?[N.Y. president] Peter Hempel, [worldwide CEO] Chuck Brymer and [North American president] Dick Rogers. You spent a fair amount of time with Chuck?Yeah, with all three. All three are aligned on getting the New York office talked about. There's a lot that's right, but everyone is focused on getting the office talked about.Did you meet with [worldwide chairman and chief creative officer] Bob Scarpelli?Yeah, who's a great guy. . . .His quote was, "Let's open up the windows and let a little air in." That's a good one, huh?How would you describe your management style?Wanting to surround myself with people I trust and just delegating. I want business associates I trust who are also friends and [are] having some fun along the way.What prompted you to weigh in amid the hundreds of comments generated by our initial story about your talks with DDB? [Silver submitted a comment on Feb. 8, three days after the story was posted.]No comment. I just don't want to get into any of that.Based on the critical comments about your predecessor, are you concerned about morale?I can't comment on that.You're known for doing great TV at a time when digital marketing is all the rage.I think people create perceptions that they want to believe and then they adhere to those perceptions. Me and my guys actually during five years at BBDO won more awards for non-TV work than TV work. BBC outdoor, for the past two years, was a runner-up to the [Outdoor] Grand Prix at Cannes. But maybe because we did so much Super Bowl work for FedEx and Monster [the TV-centric perception is there]. I just think people are more interested in creating boxes that may not exist. As far as the online space [is concerned], it's just a question of coming up with good ideas. It's not more complicated than that. You know what I mean? If you're a good thinker and you think out of the box, it's not harder than that. And it's [about] figuring out what makes sense for what client. If you can do good TV, print, outdoor, you can certainly do good digital work. By the way, there was a ton of online work we did for FedEx. B2B magazine had FedEx as the integrated [campaign] of the year [for 2006]. Any particular online efforts that you're proud of?No (laughs). When I first got there, Snickers was great. Working with Atmosphere, a lot of the FedEx stuff was actually pretty cool. . . . It was a lot of small things that added up.How long have you been on Facebook?A year.How did you get interested in that?I was lonely (laughs). It wasn't for Scrabulous?It was part Scrabulous and part if you get enough of those invites [you'll eventually join]. You know what I mean? You're curious. If you get enough invites, you're like, "Well, what is this party?" It has been great. It has been really cool catching up with people. I'm on it quite a bit.Is it purely for fun or is there any business you do there?Purely for fun. I've had close to 10 jobs and I've had friends at all those jobs. It's a great way to keep in touch with them and friends from college and high school. I don't do any work on Facebook. It has just been a great way to keep in touch with people. And I'm definitely on it at least once a day.What kind of goals have you set for yourself in year one as CCO?Very quickly I want DDB New York to be the best creative agency in the world. That's really my goal. I'm sorry that sounds so vanilla, but that's really what I want. By what definition?Ostensibly, it can be by some award count. But in advertising, people just know. So, people hopefully will see stuff that comes out that surprises them. . . . You know, it's funny. Agencies [are] like campaigns; stuff happens virally. And you build and works gets out. A good campaign is followed by a good campaign and there's a buzz about it. So, I want us to be a talked about agency.

Brand Marketing

Q&A: Eric Silver

Andrew McMains

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Andrew McMains