Eric Kallman

Eric Kallman is executive creative director at the relatively new agency, Barton F. Graf 9000 (www.bfg9000ny.com), headed by Gerry Graf and based in New York.

Prior to joining Barton F. Graf 9000 (BFG), Kallman was a copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Oregon, where he worked with Craig Allen on cam-paigns that included the Old Spice campaign, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Kallman was partly responsible for game-changing Skittles and Starburst campaigns during his tenure at TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Before going to ad school and joining TBWA, Kallman studied journalism and was a local NPR host in California.

The following excerpt is from my interview with Eric for Advertisers at Work.

Tuten: What led you to advertising as a profession?

Kallman: In college, I studied journalism. I went to college thinking I wanted to be a sportscaster. First, because I love sports and [second,] because sportscasters seem like they have a ton of fun. I was kind of like, “Yeah, that Craig Kilborn, he used to be an anchor on Sports Center, and then he got the show after Letterman.” It seemed to be a little more entertainment or comedy infused than in most journalism. So, anyway, I wanted to be a sportscaster. I went to college and I worked like nuts. I interned at NPR, and I interned at NBC Sports.

Then after college I landed an awesome first job. I was the local morning host for NPR’s Morning Edition in Santa Barbara. I did that for a while. But I guess what I was learning, throughout all my internships and then my job, was that journalism was not for me. I’m not trying to get over the top about it, but, really, when you broke it down, instead of doing something with your own life, you followed other people around all day and talked about what they were doing with their lives. When I interned at NBC Sports, I realized it I guess for the first time. I love sports, but I quickly realized that the job meant talking to other people about what they were doing—and what I wasn’t doing. I hope that doesn’t sound horrible. It was just important for me to do something with my life.

Craig Allen

Craig Allen is a creative director at Wieden+Kennedy (www.wk.com) in Portland, Oregon.

He earned fame and recognition as an art director, working for the last several years with partner Eric Kallman on accounts such as Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

Allen’s early work in the industry was at TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York, where he (with Kallman) became known for their innovative work for Skittles. In 2010, Allen and Kallman were named among Creativity magazine’s top 50 creatives in the industry.

The following is an excerpt from my interview with Craig for Advertisers at Work, which can be found at Amazon.com.

Tuten: How do you stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the industry? All of the things you need to know to be current?

Allen: If I have a recipe for success—if that even exists—I read a lot of ESPN Longhorn football blogs and then I follow that up with celebrity news web sites for some reason. I’m not proud of that. And I also like funny viral videos. I try to do this every day. I come in and catch up on what’s going on. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but my wife watches a lot. For me, just living and being outside and getting out a lot matters for soaking up what’s current. I try to keep in tune with as much stuff as I can, but I by no means watch a ton of television. I hate reality television, so that’s probably the main reason.

Tuten: Do you have a ritual that’s important to your ability to create? Something you use when you are ideating?

Allen: As far as how I create, I wish what I did sounded “cooler” but sadly, my process is just sitting in complete quiet until I think of a good idea. When Eric and I would go into concepting sessions, everybody would always say it looked like we were sad or fighting with each other. For our sessions, we would basically just sit in a room, staring at each other in complete silence until we had something funny to say. I wish it were cooler. I’d love to tell you that we just turned on some good rock music and played ping-pong to get our creative juices flowing, but that doesn’t work for me as well.

Yeah, for me, concepting means sitting there in a quiet space and going through everything in my head. When I was younger, this process took much longer than it does now. As you get older and more experienced, it becomes easier to run through the ideas and shoot holes in them on your own. Before we even share concepts, we can be running through things in our head, thinking “Ahh, that’s not good because of this or that.” Even as a team, there’s a lot of pruning that can happen before we share with each other.

David Oakley is president, and creative director at BooneOakley (booneoakley.com), the agency he co-founded with partner John Boone. The agency, based in Charlotte, NC, has done well since its inception in 2000. In a relatively short period of time, the agency has brought home a Webby, a Cannes Gold Lion, and multiple Clio and Addy awards. Under David’s leadership, BooneOakley has been named an Advertising Age “Southeast Small Agency of the Year,” and David and John were named a “Hot Creative Team” by Creativity magazine. The agency web site was honored in the Google Creative Canvas for 2010.

David started his advertising career as a copywriter at Young & Rubicam in New York, where he crafted campaigns for major brands including Certs, Dr. Pepper, and AT&T. From there, he went to TBWA/Chiat/Day to help develop the Absolut Vodka campaign—voted one of Ad Age’s “Top Twenty Ad Campaigns of the Twentieth Century.” After seven years in the Big Apple, David followed his Carolina roots to super-regional agency, Price McNabb, where he worked on several award-winning campaigns. In 1997, David and John Boone opened a satellite office of The Martin Agency in Charlotte. There, David served as associate creative director for Wrangler, Alltel, Kellogg’s, Saan, and the Charlotte Hornets.

The following excerpt is from my interview with David for Advertisers at Work.

Tuten: What led you to advertising as a profession? Did you grow up wanting to work in this field?

Oakley: Both of my parents were potters, which was great. It was a really creative background to have. I actually didn’t realize until I got in college that I’d had a very unusual upbringing, being the son of two craftspeople. It was really a great childhood. We traveled to craft shows up and down the Eastern seaboard when I was a kid. We would go to Florida or we’d go to Virginia Beach and we’d show our wares. But it was also a lot of work and growing up that way taught me that while I wanted to do something creative in my career, I did not want to be a craftsperson. I really didn’t want to be a potter. I saw my dad and my mom, and they always had mud all over them. They had clay all over them, you know, just from making pots. It’s a really hard business being a potter, and they worked really hard. I wanted to find a way to be creative and not be dirty all the time. That sounds like a really weird thing because I’m not exactly the cleanest person around, you know? I take a shower once every couple of months [laughter].