Crispin, Porter + Bogusky's chief creative officer shares insights on discovering brand essence and preparing yourself to do great work.

Crispin, Porter + Bogusky went from a scrappy Miami shop to one of the world's most admired agencies in less than 10 years, thanks to a small-budget, big-impact campaign for Truth, Florida's teen anti-smoking outreach program.

Alex Bogusky

The in-your-face campaign, which included images of kids in body bags and the distribution of tons of logo swag, made not smoking cooler than smoking. In 2002, CP+B introduced the Mini with guerilla stunts, quirky product placements and a smattering of TV spots, reaping tons of awards and goggling attention from Madison Avenue.

Under the direction of chief creative officer Alex Bogusky, the shop doubled in size when it won the Burger King account -- and surprised the industry by keeping it.

The agency is known as a rule breaker, yet it's now famous for handling formerly staid accounts -- and making them hip. How many servings of the Subservient Chicken have you had? Everyone is dying to see what Bogusky will do with Microsoft's $300 million campaign budget -- the brass ring account CP+B won in March.

Bogusky's lips are sealed. He wouldn't reveal zip about Microsoft's creative brief or goals. But he insists that creativity is merely a tool, not an end in itself.

Here are Bogusky's six rules for being a media maverick:

1. Sell the solution, not the ads

iMedia: Is it hard to sell clients on some of your wackier ideas?

Bogusky: Our approach to advertising is not necessarily to come at it through advertising. We use creativity as a leverage-able asset in solving business problems. We don't present things in such a way that they're ever misaligned to the business issues clients have. We don't wind up in a selling "situation," we wind up in a conversation where we usually talk about the work and the different aspects of each, where one might be stronger or weaker. It's everyone together looking for a solution, and not so much, "Hey, what's the most creative thing or the most outrageous thing?"

iMedia: Can you walk me through how the Subservient Chicken came to be conceived with this kind of process?

Bogusky: For that campaign, it was one of the first chicken products we had advertised, and we wanted to be on-brand and say, "Chicken your way." We were concepting the idea and came up with this chicken character that was very subservient and liked to be told what to do. We launched the idea with broadcast, and while shooting, we went over to a friend's apartment and shot it for the website.

iMedia: It makes perfect sense when you say it, but the Subservient Chicken is a bit disturbing and scary. You're telling me that the folks at Burger King thought that "disturbing" went with their brand?

Bogusky: Yeah, it's the idea of chicken your way. It's done in a post-modern sort of wrapper, but the marketing premise behind it is pretty old school, and the strategy is pretty old school. The idea that someone would spend eight minutes with your brand -- and that would help them create an affinity -- is pretty old school, too. It's the same belief in branding we've had for a long time.

Next page >>