Successful Creatives Share This Trait
Jonathan Cude, chief creative officer of McKinney, also singles out “the greatest differentiator” in the advertising and marketing industry.
This article is part of CMO.com’s October series about creativity and design-led thinking. Click here for more.
For “Marketing Today,” I’ve interviewed people from across the country and around the world. In this episode, though, I talk with someone who works in the same building—McKinney chief creative officer Jonathan Cude. (Note: Our companies are both part of the Cheil network.)
For Cude, the two most important qualities for creatives to possess in advertising are fearlessness and resiliency. Talking about fearlessness, “I do believe that the creative people in our industry are artists,” Cude said. “But we don’t so much get paid for the artistry as we do the ability to withstand the critiquing and pulling apart of ‘our babies.’”
As for resiliency, he went on to add, “To me, being resilient as a creative in advertising is probably the single greatest determining factor in whether or not a person is going to be successful.”
Highlights from this week’s “Marketing Today” podcast include:
- The experiences that led Cude to a career in advertising. (1:31)
- Let your fingers do the walking: Cude’s “colorful” first foray into advertising. (6:02)
- “People care more about themselves than they care about brands.” (9:44)
- Why “creativity … is probably the single greatest differentiator in advertising and marketing.” (12:56)
- How modern culture and the fragmentation of our media landscape affect the way Cude pays attention to brands. (22:57)
- Cude’s take on the future of marketing: A hyper-personalized world where no two people experience an ad the same way. (26:08)