DDB Worldwide creative chief Amir Kassaei: The best talent in the industry doesn’t always come from traditional advertising backgrounds

Amir Kassaei, chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide, is one of the most lauded creatives in the world. With 140 Cannes Lions in the past 5 years, he shares exclusively with Campaign Brief his point of view on finding the best talent in the industry.

I often hear leaders discussing the ad industry’s talent shortage.  With increasing pressure around cost combined with the competitive talent landscape, we are noticing real opportunities to look beyond the expected skill sets and traditional schooling when recruiting. It is important to recognize the shift in the industry with regards to scope of work so we don’t exclusively target the traditional background. 

I’m looking for curious people with an open mind and a personality suited to our clients’ businesses and the agency’s environment. It is our job, as industry leaders, to nurture creative minds to create amazing and outstanding work. When working for DDB in Germany, I started a program called “Rising Stars,” which focuses on developing junior talent, and the agency often hires talent without agency experience.

DDB Worldwide recently expanded our LaunchPad program across 14 offices internationally. LaunchPad is designed to bridge the gap between student and professional creative, providing junior hires with the opportunity to be coached and developed by professionals in the ad industry. It is a three-month program that offers creatives their first big break in the industry. During the recruitment process, we make sure to expand our search and include those without a traditional background.

I’m not interested in hiring people who can only win awards, because only winning awards proves just that a person is good at winning awards. The best creative is the person who is able to use skills, knowledge of existing technologies, and insights to solve a business problem in an intelligent way. If he or she has that, everything else will happen as a consequence –the recognition, the awards, and the hype.

As an industry, we also need to focus our investment — as a priority — on significant talent development programs. After all, great talent will produce a great product.

Meaningful talent development needs to start at the top of the organization. It is our responsibility as an industry to grow and shape our young talent into creatively brilliant leaders of tomorrow’s advertising landscape. Our creative leaders have the duty to guide, educate and lead by living up to the high standards that we have internally.

We’re not only required as an industry to train and educate young talent, but we also need to have programs and initiatives in place to develop our creative leaders. That’s the only way to develop a culture where humanity and creativity are the foundations of innovation.

We can only attract the right people if we have the right culture, the right attitude and the right mechanisms in place to help them grow their careers. Talented people with passion are not interested in what you are doing. They are interested in why you are doing it. They want to be part of a bigger mission and they will join you if you prove that every day. So, think about it, and perhaps take a chance on someone brilliant with unexpected training and education next time you hire, and while you’re at it, make the decision to invest in their development.

AMIR KASSAEI

Iranian born and raised in Austria – Kassaei joined DDB as the youngest European chief creative officer and associate partner of DDB Germany where he reshaped the agency. Kassaei has worked on a range of the world’s major brands, including Apple, Adidas, Bosch, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nike, Reebok and Volkswagen. He was named ‘The Big Won Report’s Top Chief Creative Officer’ in 2009 and has been one of The Big Won’s Top 3 chief creative officers for each of the past three years.