Alex Shifrin, CM, President at LP/AD, knows creativity when he sees it. His vision allowed him to build an agency, sell it and discover that ego is the enemy of progress. Alex shares his unique take on AI, emphasizing the enduring value of raw, smart creativity. Alex’s CM Spotlight is an inspiring perspective on change, the two ideals driving success and why you must follow your own path.

Maintaining Standards

The industry undergoes a seismic transformation every decade or less. Substantive ideals like professionalism, accountability, responsibility and ethics have not changed despite changes in their form. We need a way to collectively define these standards and hold our profession accountable. In my opinion, the CM program is the only way to maintain this standard.

Great Creative

When I was 10 years old, I vividly recall being asked by a friend what I want to do when I grew up. I told him that I wanted to make commercials because I thought they were funny. After twenty-five years in advertising, I’m still excited by this profession. At first, it was being given a chance and sharing my voice, then it was getting work out and being recognized. Now, I’m excited about seeing others succeed. I love mentoring, giving people a platform and knowing when to get out of the way. Great creative, still makes me smile. That should never change.

These Moments

One thing I wish I knew when I started is there will be wins and setbacks. When I sold my agency The Creative Factory (TCF) to Saatchi & Saatchi, I had a friend say to me “allow yourself to enjoy this.” At the time, I couldn’t appreciate what he meant and immediately searched for the next mountain to climb. I could have taken a few days off in the name of victory, but I didn’t. It’s important to put a pin in these moments so you can give yourself an emotional anchor for how you want the next challenge to feel.

Inclusion and Focus

When it comes to marketing or creative work, everyone has an opinion. When we do creative ideation, I like to involve as many people outside the immediate team as possible which is important for an agency. That is, after all, the fun part. Once you start crafting, one person should have the final word as creative by committee just doesn’t work. It starts with inclusion and ends with focus. Get your ego out of the way, it will only prevent you from making a better product. Getting in that uncomfortable zone makes everything better, including you.

Challenge Yourself

You can stay current by challenging yourself to go where you don’t feel comfortable. Once your surroundings start to make sense, try somewhere else. This applies to technology, markets, cohorts and business verticals. I’ve been in the same field for about 25 years. In my experience, in an agency, one day you’re selling chocolate bars and healthcare services, then it’s software, banking, scotch whisky, or hamburgers all in one week. If I need change, all I need to do is show up.

Change

Everything is moving fast. Change is happening as you read this. You must be more comfortable in embracing this chaos and finding your vibe within it. Look at some aspects of your career like a ride, hang on and enjoy where it takes you. I stress “some” because you also need to have a plan.

Two Ideals

Agencies put themselves out there knowing that most of the time whether it’s a pitch or campaign they will be rejected. To succeed, you need to develop thick skin and empathy, two ideals that don’t work very well together. We’re taught how to pitch to win, by investing a piece of ourselves into the work and to drive that process with passion. Winning is great, but what happens when you’re rejected? Given that you lose 75% of the time, I don’t think we spend enough time being taught how to lose. How do you recoup that piece? Without a strategy on how to handle losing, you’ll burn out quickly.

The Creative Factory

The defining moment of my career was selling my agency, The Creative Factory (TCF), to a network, leaving that network, and starting the process all over again. One of the things I’m most proud of was creating a public transit brand system for a major city. Over a decade later, over 10 million people use that system daily. It’s humbling to know someone has encountered my work over 45 billion times. A lot of great work came out of the TCF shop. We did cool work with IKEA, Burger King, Red Bull, Nike, Uniqlo, John Deere, Maybelline, HSBC Bank, and even The Office of the President of the United States (Obama).

Raw, Smart Creativity

I’m not as excited about AI as a marketing trend in the year ahead because I think we’ll simply be using it as an organic part of our workflow instead of talking about it. I think AI is a synthesis of humanity, and while we embrace its ubiquity, we will start to appreciate actual humanity. I’ve turned off spell-check on my email client to suggest that I, and not an AI-aided tool, wrote the email. I understand you can program AI to synthesize quirks and mistakes, but I like knowing that the funky typos came from me, not GPT. In the year ahead, I think we’re going to embrace raw, smart creativity again, and I’m most excited about that.

Your Path

Hack out your own path. You might have heard a lot about the path of least resistance. In advertising, we look for the tension to create emotion and empathy. In many ways, I feel like a successful career in advertising is taking the path of most resistance. If it garners a reaction, chances are you’re doing the right thing. That’s probably how I found my path, walking through the bushes and trees swinging a machete.

 

 

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