Don‘t Skip with Zack Seckler

This is officially the unofficial first episode of Season 2 of Don't Skip. Today I welcome agency founder, decorated creative and all around great guy Paul Caiozzo to the podcast. Topics we cover include: - How AI is impacting advertising - Building an agency built on an AI platform - Starting an ad agency - Becoming profitable as a new ad agency - Creating outstanding work for Kayak - Working with commercial directors Watch the ads we discuss on this episode. MORE LINKS Paul's agency: Supernatural Zack’s comedy work: zackseckler.com OBLIGATORY OVERVIEW Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

On today’s episode I chat with legendary creative Craig Allen. Craig spent nearly a decade at Wieden + Kennedy where he won armloads of awards including 2 Grand Prix Lions at Cannes, Best in Show at The One Show and a Grand Effie. His Old Spice campaign “Smell Like A Man, Man” has been lauded as one of the top ad campaigns of the 21st century. Craig co-founded his eponymous agency CALLEN in 2017 where he and his team have created celebrated work for brands including Clif Bar, Vistaprint and Liquid Death. Now, it’s been almost a year since I posted our last episode. My hope was for this interview to be the first in a new season of Don’t Skip. But as it turns out, the extra time I had to create this podcast during covid has just completely evaporated. So before anymore time slips away I really want to get this interview out there. It’s a great one. Craig and I chat about his time at Wieden and how his insanely successful Old Spice work impacted his career early on. We talk about the challenges and opportunities of starting your own agency. And we talk about commercial directing and how Craig has actually directed a bunch of spots himself and almost ended up leaving agency life to become a commercial director. Craig's work: thisiscallen.com Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Find Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

**We are taking January off. Lookout for new episodes in February 2022** On today’s episode I chat with Brett Beaty who is Associate Creative Director at Goodby Silverstein. Brett is an Emmy winner, a Cannes Grand Prix holder and a creator behind Super Bowl spots for Bubly, Cheetos, Sam Adams and Pepsi. In this episode we talk about lots of fun and really informative behind the scenes stories from three Super Bowl spots. The Cheetos Can’t Touch This spot with MC Hammer. The Sam Adams Clydesdales parody spot and the Is this Pepsi? spot featuring Steve Carell. We also hear some advice for young creatives on dealing with burnout and a lot of ideas for commercial directors on winning jobs and working with clients. If you have any feedback, or suggestions about the show please hit us up on our email: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com. Please also rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are hearing this now. The reviews are super helpful in spreading the word and helping this podcast grow. Thank you! Brett's work: brettbeaty.com Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Find Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

On today’s episode I chat with Ryan Kutscher. Ryan is co-founder of Circus Maximus. The full service agency has won Ad Age Small Agency of the Year three times since it’s founding in 2013. They’ve had clients including Gilette, Roman, Shake Shack and Smart Water. Before founding his own agency Ryan was a creative director at Crispin Porter Bogusky where he worked on a lot of influential work including the Whopper Freakout campaign. Ryan also worked as Chief Creative Officer at J. Walter Thompson. In this episode we talk a lot about starting an ad agency. Why Ryan wanted his own shop, how he found his first clients, his experience pitching for business, developing a company culture, creating an in-house production arm and so much more about the process of running a small agency. We talk about what Ryan would do differently if he were to start an agency in 2021, and about strategies for how they’re continuing to grow their business in the future. There is so much more we touch on I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode. If you have any feedback, or suggestions about the show please hit us up on our email: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com. Please also rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you are hearing this now. The reviews are super helpful in spreading the word and helping this podcast grow. Thank you! Ryan's agency: circusmaximus.com Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Find Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

Our guest today is Barry Katz. Barry is an Emmy winning creative director who’s been featured in AdAge’s 40 Under 40 and AdWeek’s Creative 100. In the past year Barry worked on two big campaigns for State Farm that I’m sure you’ve seen. The New Chris Paul series with Jake from State Farm and The Last Dance which won a ton of awards from all the major competitions. We talk in depth about how each campaign developed including some major challenges that came up during production. Think celebrity no-shows and re-writing scripts on the shoot day. Barry has been crushing it as a freelance creative director and we talk a lot about the freelancing life. How to make the transition to freelancing, how to develop a network and some tips on how to charge for your time. There is plenty more in this episode about agency life and working with commercial directors. If you have any feedback, or suggestions about the show please hit us up on our email: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com. Please also rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you are hearing this now. The reviews are super helpful in spreading the word and helping this podcast grow. Thank you! Checkout Barry's work: barryskatz.com Checkout Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Follow Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

Matt Sorrell is a Creative Director at Wieden+Kennedy Portland. Matt’s won tons of awards including gold lions, gold pencils, and a grand Clio. He's created outstanding work for HBO, Foot Locker and Old Spice. And just this year Matt helped create some extraordinarily unusual spots for a company named Meow Wolf. Think parody of a local supermarket commercial hosted by a deep-fake of Willie Nelson. This episode is jam packed with fun production stories along with advice for creatives, filmmakers and anyone who is in the business of creating visual comedy. We also dive into the process of creating one of those Meow Wolf spots and an all-time favorite for Old Spice. Checkout Matt’s work: matt-sorrell.com Checkout Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Follow Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

Laura Wimer is Executive Creative Director at FCB New York. She’s been involved in the viral launch of Dollar Shave Club, she’s been in the Adweek Creative 100 and just this year she helped create an advertising first, a spot that featured moms breastfeeding on broadcast television. That campaign for the brand Frida Mom earned widespread praise for it’s light-hearted, authentic approach, and earned over 2 billion impressions along the way. I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode. We talk through creating viral pieces of content for Dollar Shave Club, Alaska Airlines and Frida Mom. Laura share insights about building creative teams, about assuming a leadership role, and about what she looks for when hiring creatives. Checkout Laura’s work: iamlew.com Checkout Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Follow Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

Dan Oliva is a Senior Creative Director at BBDO New York where he works on the Snickers account. Dan’s won dozens of awards from Can, Clio, AICP, the One Show, Webbys, D&AD and the list goes on. His most recent award was a Super Clio for his 2020 Super Bowl spot for Snickers. Dan and I had a conversation that is loaded with insider knowledge and advice. We talk about the planning and strategy around creating super bowl spots. About hiring and working with different commercial directors. About gaining the trust of clients when working on a creative brief. And we Dive deep into talking about how three different spots for Snickers developed. Touching on everything From the initial brief to preproduction, production and post. Checkout Dan’s work: danoliva.com Checkout Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Follow Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com Don’t Skip is a podcast featuring conversations with ad-agency creatives and other talents who help create award-winning advertising. Ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode delivers valuable insights into how the best campaigns are created along with honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities experienced during a career as a commercial creative. Topics include pitching to clients, creative ideation, client relations, treatments and creative calls, pre-production and on-set adventures. Don’t Skip is hosted by award-winning comedy director and photographer Zack Seckler.

If you work in advertising or you want to, you’ve probably fawned over Super Bowl spots and Cannes winning campaigns. Have you ever wanted to meet the people that create this work? To hear their stories and learn from their experiences? Welcome to Don’t Skip. I’m Zack Seckler a comedy director and photographer. And I’ve been working in advertising for over a decade. This podcast is going to feature the creative minds behind some of the smartest, funniest ads out there. The ads you don’t want to skip. Each episode will take an in-depth look at how specific campaigns were created. We’ll also dive into topics like production, pitching, developing scripts, working with commercial directors, and the challenges and opportunities of a creative career. You can hear a new episode of DON’T SKIP every two weeks. Follow us to stay in the loop. And until next time, don’t skip those good ads. Checkout Zack’s work: zackseckler.com Follow Zack on Instagram: @zackseckler Email us: dontskippodcast (at) gmail (dot) com