Talent Talk: Margaret Morales on the Evolving Definition of the Advertising Creative

Margaret> At one point, hiring was based on resumes and cover letters, but that era has passed in the ad world. Don’t get me wrong, certain technical skills and certifications are needed for some roles, but for most creative roles, we try to look at things a bit more differently - more creatively. 

Beyond format, there is the source: numerous platforms that allow people to explore and display their talents. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok. These platforms aren’t just stages for entertainment, they help recruiters and hiring managers identify talent. 

Dooley Tombras, President of Tombras, has even been known to scroll TikTok in a bid to identify unique candidates that oftentimes don’t come from traditional advertising backgrounds or even possess a resume. 

So, if you rely solely on the value of degrees, educational background, resumes and applications alone to qualify candidates, then you are most definitely missing out on some great talent. 

And at the end of the day, it’s all about creativity, right? The creative spark which in some might be innate, must be identified, nurtured, guided and built up. We need to foster talent. We can do that through direct peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities, continued training and education like AI workshops and stretch assignments which develop skills and inspire, such as our ‘For Purpose’ work - like the recent World Vasectomy campaign. 

Margaret> Social media, artificial intelligence, metaverse – just to name a few. 

We are starting to see bigger and more innovative ideas in portfolios and creatives with blended skill sets – which we love to see! The definition of an advertising creative is evolving. However, when we interview candidates for certain roles, we will still dig into your foundational skill sets. For example - if you're an art director, we want to see your layouts. If you’re a copywriter, we want to see headlines. These fundamentals mixed with forward thinking make one heck of a creative person. 

Margaret> The wonderful thing about Tombras is most of our in-house initiatives are grassroots and built organically. As an example, our employees generate the ideas and execute them through our Volunteer Culture Committee. We’ve done things like run internal campaigns of self education, promoted activism and awareness, and enjoyed Pride potlucks and Juneteenth celebrations.

Tombras established the Tombras School of Advertising and PR at the University of Tennessee, with the goal of building a program to increase overall enrollment, but also further support the historically underrepresented students with more learning opportunities. 

In just one year, we’ve already seen so much good come out of Tombras School of Advertising and PR partnership:

We’ve expanded our college internship program, hosted PH.D candidates, created Tombras Talks (career coaching for students), and produced fun outreach content for high schools and universities. Lastly, we are about to launch the Tombras School Young Professionals’ Academy which will be our college mentoring program.

We still have a lot of work to do, but it is exciting to see the progress and potential. 

Margaret> There is no better way to sell an idea to a client than backing it up with data, right? Well, data lives everywhere now and it's publically available. Views, likes and reposts are all data points that live on social channels. So if I need proof that a candidate can create content that is effective and engaging, all I need to do is look on social platforms and find the content they created. Just take a look at some of our client’s tweets and tiktoks. These simple data points are out there for all the world to see and it’s hard to fake them. 

Margaret> We’ve landed major AOR accounts and won some notable awards the past couple of years, but it’s the current Tombras talent and strategic hires in leadership that have made the real impact on our growth. 

Dooley Tombras has hired some heavy hitters: Jeff Benjamin, chief creative officer; Chad Hoppenwaser, chief production officer; Maggie Jennings, chief growth officer; Juan Tubert, chief technology officer; Lindsay Stein, chief purpose officer; and most recently Avinash Baliga, our first executive creative director in NYC. 

Each person brings a different background, unique perspective and network of people with them, yet shares the entrepreneurial and creative first mindset that makes Tombras successful. 

Margaret> It is all about bridging the gaps between departments, and leveraging our differences and specialisations versus siloing. We want to encourage departments to collaborate and utilise each other’s talents to bring breakout, provocative, cutting edge or culture-leading innovation.

Our most recent metaverse project was a diverse, cross functional team that combined creative, design, tech, and social. It was a true all-agency effort to produce work of that calibre. It’s these types of efforts that build relationships between departments. It creates an environment where collaboration flourishes. For example, sharing the same geeky fascination with the newest AI tools.

Margaret> Providing career advancement opportunities and relationship building environments. This goes back to fostering talent and bridging gaps. If we can provide talent with the tools to build their careers and encourage them to forge relationships to push their creativity, it is a perfect recipe. 

And the cherry on top is when leadership is fully invested in creating the best work possible.

Margaret> You’re going to see more growth and even more culturally attuned creative work. We’ve just hired our first ECD in New York. While there is a focus on building our presence in NYC, there is also a focus on thinking bigger and quicker. 

We are just beginning to see the capabilities of AI and how quickly it works. If we combine creative talent and AI tools correctly, you could see the pace for creative work completely change next year. The future is always top of mind at Tombras, along with one major goal: being the best independent advertising agency.

Thinking outside the agency realm to make a large scale impact. When it comes to creative work, Jeff Benjamin, our CCO, likes to say “We make news, not ads,” and that really sticks within our agency – you can see it in almost all of our work. 

When it comes to DE&I and future recruitment, take a look at the Tombras School of Advertising and PR’s mission. That is a foundational approach to building a diverse pipeline of high-achieving talent for the advertising industry. It’s this type of out of box thinking that creates long lasting impacts.