Open Mind Key to Creative Sustainability
By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter
Openness is the key to developing consumers' trust and creativity, said an executive of Korea's largest advertising agency.
It is also the most essential characteristic for any foreigner considering coming to Korea and working in a new, creative environment with new professional staff, he said.
``If you don't come here with an open mind, you will struggle and inevitably get frustrated. In the worst case, you will fail, best case, survive, but you won't succeed,'' said Joe McDonagh, global creative director of Cheil Worldwide, in an interview with The Korea Times.
He added that keeping an open mind is not about compromising and giving up one's identity or belief, but it is always about learning to accept and be open to the new and different.
Coming to Korea and starting afresh is not an easy decision to make. Even McDonagh said he was not 100 percent sure whether he absolutely wanted to come here and work for the Korean ad agency.
``It wasn't something I was looking at,'' reminisced McDonagh.
Surrounded by Cheil executives in suits at the time of an interview, the creative director had doubts at first about working for the company as he felt that the firm was too structured and hierarchical, instead of having a creative and multicultural atmosphere usually found in Western agencies.
``When I first came here, it was all cubicles and conference rooms _ a typical Korean company,'' he said.
However, once he landed in Korea, he saw potential for Cheil to transform into a global agency comparable to other big leaguers.
The key attractiveness McDonagh saw was its reputable relations with Samsung. ``But foremost, I liked the people,'' he said.
Also, he wanted to support the transformation Cheil was undertaking initiated by CEO Kim Nack-hoi, who, as McDonagh noted, ``has changed the company a lot.''
He highlighted Kim's rigorous overhaul drive has made the firm become very transparent, and the partnership between business and creative teams stronger.
McDonagh has been with Cheil for almost four years, and is in charge of global ad campaigns of corporate brands such as Samsung and Hankook Tire.
He said to market the brands globally, the larger task is understanding consumers in each region, and strategically and creatively plan ad campaigns, while being sensitive to economic conditions and keeping in mind the consumers' perspective.
``Overall, our goal is to have the brand perform strongly in each region by being creatively in sync with what is happening with consumers globally and how economic conditions are affecting consumption,'' McDonagh said. ``Consumers will feel more linked and bonded to brands that show understanding of what they are going through.''
Cheil is aiming to become one of the world's top 10 agencies by 2010, and McDonagh said he will stay with the firm until it achieves its goal.
``I came here to help this company achieve a really big goal. To get that goal, it really needed to change. So that is the exciting thing to be in regardless of how difficult it might be,'' he said.