444 - Ben Playford

Canada Week kicks off with Ben Playford, Creative Director at Tribal Worldwide in Toronto. Ben gets the opportunity to work with internationally known brands on brand strategy through digital marketing and advertising campaigns. Throughout his career at various ad agencies Ben has had his hands in every aspect of the process from ideation to execution and currently leads teams through the sometimes tricky waters of agency work. Take a look behind the scenes of what it's like to spend your day at an agency and how things have changed across the last decade. Through his history in punk rock Ben learned to think for himself and then use that skill to excel in a world with an insatiable appetite for great ideas and even better people to execute them.

Talking Points

• Punk rock leads to compelling careers.
• A moment of silence for Flash.
• The digital and physical role of DDB in today's world.
• Does Ben get a deal at the US Embassy in Canada?
• The many moving parts of an agency and defining responsibility for them.
• A key to success in the agency world.
• High school, work hours, and goofing off!
• A day in the life of an agency design director.
• Finding design time after hours.
• The structure of the advertising world or the freeform organization of freelancing.
• Working with people who have pull.
• Staying positive while making more money within the system.
• Capitalizing on the opportunities you're given and being the best you can be on your team.
• Punk rock and mega corporations don't mix.
• Strategies in lateral career moves and changing design firms.
• How Cheerio ads advance consumer technology.
• Thinking like the customer you're aiming for.
• The role of video content and the patience to get through the whole clip.
• How much time do you get to dick around with design?
• Trusting your designer's intuition and balancing when you push boundaries and when you go through the motions.
• Finding the win for creativity.
• When, why, and how advertising agencies hire outside talent.
• Homogenous design elements and making things people have never seen.
• Compromising is the key.
• Deliberately going too far to get what you really want.
• Tips to get hired in the agency world.
• Pulling on the thread to make better work and understand your client.
• Protecting your creative soul.
• Do you have to show the final product exactly as it was approved in your portfolio?
• Walking into the agency world in 2017.
• Checking your gear on Judgement Day.