What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day starts with the NYT Mini Crossword and checking email and Teams chats for updates from other time zones. I try to block out 8-10am to respond to things and do some work. I also commute to the city every other week so some days there’s a very early Amtrak train. Consulting is full of meetings, which coming from advertising 10 years ago I found annoying until I realized that discussion and debate is the work, so I started to prepare for meetings to have something thoughtful to contribute. Much of the day I’m reviewing work from various teams or initiatives internally or for clients, but I do try to look for things from the outside world to share with the firm or the team to inspire them. I should experiment with AI more. I should exercise more. I should drink less coffee.

What was your first job?
My first job was as an assistant (secretary) in the creative department at agency FCB/Leber Katz Partners in New York. I wanted to be a copywriter but my portfolio was terrible so I took this job to learn from six creative directors, get a crack at assignments, learn the craft of advertising and take classes at night at the School of Visual Arts. It was hard work—I was always the first to arrive and last to leave at night—and it was amazing to be nurtured and watch how to behave (and how not to behave). I write all about the crazy stories and people  in my memoir Bronze Seeks Silver: Lessons from a Creative Career in Marketing. 

What was a milestone project for you?
Of the 100s of campaigns I’ve worked in my career, the milestone was actually a promotional campaign for Ogilvy, where I was chief creative officer of a division called OgilvyOne which handled direct and digital marketing. During the last recession and in advance of the 2010 Cannes Lions festival, we created “The Search for the World’s Greatest Salesperson” a global contest to reassert the importance of sales in marketing and attract attention to Ogilvy legacy and expertise in it. David Ogilvy said it best: “We sell. Or else.” The winner won the title, a trip to Cannes, and a job at OgilvyOne to help us write “The Salesguide of the Future.” It was an amazing experience, tapping our entire network, gaining tons of press attention and even a few marketing and creative effectiveness awards.

What fuels your creativity?
Curiosity has always been my fuel for creativity. I always have questions I want to answer.  What’s down this road? How does this app work? What would make this person notice this idea? There’s ego in it too. Can I be first to do something or even a close second? What might win at this award show? What has never been done? Could I ever produce a song? (Answer is yes).

Do you have any brainstorming rituals?
First there’s a rule for volume. Even before I was in consulting, I worked in threes. Three ideas for everything, three great headlines, three scenarios of what might work. Usually there’s a weak link, so I end up throwing out one of them and a fourth one is a replacement. Getting to the ideas I use a lot of tools, including “The Worst Idea” in which you think of the worst idea for the brief and that usually helps you get to an insightful place and you can turn it into a great one.

What categories are you looking forward to reviewing for the Davey Awards?
Advertising & Marketing is a natural category for me and a great way to stay current for what’s been created this past year, much of it I probably haven’t yet seen. Podcasts are my great love, having gotten involved during the medium’s very early days and now as a host of two shows myself. Video is my third favorite category since it has such capacity for inspiration (or boredom).

When you enter your projects into the Davey Awards, they land on the desks of advertising and marketing experts like Mat. This week is your last chance to participate this season. Enter your work by this Friday, September 13th before time runs out.