Greg Bell On The Spot

Greg Bell, 35, co-creative director of Venables, Bell & Partners, has had a career he says "most people would kill for." He's had only three agency jobs. Starting at Cliff Freeman and Partners in New York, he became a vice president at age 26. In 1997, he joined Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, where he worked on Discover Card and Pacific Bell and met his "ad wife," Paul Venables. The two opened their own shop in June 2001, when prospects could not have looked worse. But the agency is thriving with a long list of clients, including most recently Pacific Gas & Electric. —Q: Your agency is growing while others in San Francisco are still struggling to hold on. What are you doing differently?A: We opened at quite possibly the worst possible time. San Francisco was already in trouble and then Sept. 11 happened. We have had nowhere to go but up. We have not suffered the stigma of other shops that opened up … working with record shops, or tattoo parlors and silly stuff like that. We started right out of the gate with a big national client, Microsoft Ultimate TV, and then just picked up more and more great things—HBO home video, Robert Mondavi Winery, Mervyn's, Animal Planet, Barclays.Your agency also did a large amount of work branding Napster. Is that business still viable in the age of the iPod?We are still talking to Napster about projects, but they took a great deal of the work in-house. They have finally introduced their killer app. … You are able to download as many songs as you want for $15/month.Name the last ad you saw that made you say, "I wish I'd done that."Well, it's been a long, long time. … I always know I love an ad when I catch it on my DVR and watch it over and over again. It was the Michael Vick experience for Nike. Just a stellar spot, so well-produced, genuinely funny, very human, connected to the brand.How did you get into advertising?When I was at the University of Texas, going through the choice of majors, there were two in the A's that interested me—one was architecture and the other was advertising. Something just felt right about [advertising]. Why is that?I think in art direction and creative direction, you have to be the jack of all trades—you know, you have to be an expert at communication first and foremost. But beyond that, you have to have a little bit of expertise at a number of different categories. You have to have good taste in photography. You have to have a way with words, and how human beings react to things. You have to relate to people who are not necessarily like you. You have to be good with music, good with timing, good with color. This is the perfect job for somebody with attention deficit disorder. How do you get past a creative block?Well, when the ideas are not flowing, stop and do something else. Be willing to come back to it a lot. In short, powerful bursts. That's when the best work that Paul Venables and I do is at coffee shops first thing in the morning. We have about half-an-hour power sessions, and we will end up writing three or four spots. He and I are the perfect yin and yang as far as a creative team goes. I have never worked with someone that we just click so immediately on any creative issue. ... We're always figuring out what the other could not figure out. What would you be doing if you weren't in advertising?What I wish I was doing but I think I would have to be 10 years younger, is being in a hair metal band. Realistically, I probably would be making furniture. It is very similar to advertising. A table is a table unless somebody brings something different to it. What's the smartest business decision you have ever made? Without a doubt, opening my own agency. It was an opportune time for us because [Microsoft Ultimate TV] came to us with a sizable national account. I suppose if you waited around for the timing to be perfect, you would wait for a long time. What about the dumbest business decision?People started wanting towels in the bathroom instead of hot-air dryers. I didn't want to get just any towels. So I got these really nice towels. And then our finance person wrote me an e-mail saying, "You know, these hand towels cost 14 cents per sheet. With 50 employees, I am estimating it costs us $9K to $10K annually." So that wasn't the smartest business move, and we've moved to cheaper towels.What are three words you would use to describe yourself?Hardworking, perfectionistic and human.And three words others would use?Perfectionistic, perfectionistic, perfectionistic.What is your biggest fear?The fear is not the typical fear of failure. It is when we work, not to maximize it. I see ads on air and think, 'That's a pretty smart idea,' but it falls short of that. What a waste of life that is. Not maximizing that out.What is the last movie you saw?Two times in a row, Finding Nemo. [My son] Ryan was sick. But I also use Netflix and ... I finally got to see Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore's stuff is always one-sided and he gets a lot of slack for that, so I see it as less of a documentary as a tool of rebellion. It's the anti-journalism. He puts people in a tight spot. I wish journalists did more of that.

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Greg Bell On The Spot

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