4 Rules for Creativity From Advertising Experts Goodby & Silverstein

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein of San Francisco-based advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners believe that advertising should feel endlessly creative, like you’re constantly hacking and rearranging culture.

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein were destined to meet. After graduating from Harvard, Jeff was a writer and illustrator, with illustrations published in magazines like Time and Mother Jones. Early in his career, Rich worked as an art director at various publications including Rolling Stone. Their worlds collided when they both worked at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in San Francisco. Before long, they decided to form their own agency—Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Since 1983, GS&P has been one of the most powerful ad agencies in the United States. They’re the team behind some of the biggest brand strategy campaigns—like the Budweiser lizards and the “got milk?” ads for the California Milk Processors Board. Their client list includes brands like Doritos, Pepsi, Cheetos, BMW, Xfinity, the NBA, and Nike. Jeff and Rich were named Adweek’s “Executives of the Decade” and GS&P was recognized as “Agency of the Year” numerous times by multiple publications.

An advertising agency must have a strong team of creative people who can offer different perspectives, make new connections, and excel at creative problem-solving. Here are Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein’s tips for boosting creativity:

1. 1. Get inspired by the world around you. The best creativity is born out of a curious mind that is attentive and ready to listen. As a creative person, you are charged with reinterpreting the things you hear every day. Use your creative mind to manipulate and alter the things you see and experience, turning them into your own unique works of art.
2. 2. Always be researching. The creative process requires more than imagination; it also requires inspiration. You can only brainstorm so many new creative thoughts and brilliant ideas before the well runs dry. If you don’t take the time to refuel the cultural curiosity in your daily life, you’re going to run out of creative ideas. Jump-start your mind by refreshing your creative juices, which can be done via external sources such as using the Internet, watching movies, traveling to foreign lands, or getting out of your comfort zone in order to boost creativity and bring out your best work. Sometimes just living your life can provide enough of a creative spark to inspire your craft.
3. 3. Run toward fires. Disruption and chaos encourage creative thinking, experimentation, and, most importantly, emotional reactions. Advertising should evoke emotional reactions from its audience. If there’s no connection between the person and what they’re seeing on screen, then you’re adding to the stream of interruptions that consumers hate. As a creative person, you must look for the things people may be afraid to explore, finding insights and ideas that could be both novel and transformative. Don’t be boring. Be dangerous.
4. 4. Actively seek fame and recognition. When you seek out fame and recognition, it pushes you to find the opportunities to create rare ideas that would then generate that kind of notoriety, ultimately making for a more interesting body of work. Granted, you should always listen to and respect your clients’ goals, but sometimes the project requires a more innovative approach, which is something creatives should capitalize on. When you silence your inner critic and create work you’re proud of, it can help open up more doors to the kind of work that you want to do.

Learn more about advertising and creativity from Jeff Goodby & Rich Silverstein. Break rules, change minds, and create the best work of your life with the MasterClass Annual Membership.