Neil Heymann — Chief Creative Officer, Droga5 New York
Neil talks to TheNextGag about why the industry is moving away from brilliant jerks, what he wants to achieve as D5's new creative leader and why he likes to hire non-advertising people.
Neil Heymann is the Chief Creative Officer of Droga5 New York in the USA.
Neil Heymann started his career in Sydney where he took his love for cartoons and video games and crafted international projects for entertainment clients like New Line Cinema, Disney and Sony PlayStation while working at Tequila and Amnesia/Razorfish.
He then moved over to Crispin Porter + Bogusky where he worked on projects for VW, Geek Squad, Coke Zero and Burger King.
In 2009, Neil joined Droga5, and since then, he has expanded his roster to include Toyota, Motorola, Prudential, a partnership with Jay Z for Bing Search and Maps, campaigns for Spotify, PUMA, Mondelez, Kraft, Activision and NRG Energy.
Neil was named one of the Top Creative Minds in Digital by Adweek in 2011, as well as one of the Most Creative People in Advertising by Business Insider in 2012. More recently, he was named to Adweek’s Creative 100 in 2015.
Neil Heymann was appointed Chief Creative Officer of Droga5 New York in May 2018.
THENEXTGAG: FIRST I WANTED TO CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR RECENT PROMOTION.
NEIL HEYMANN: Thank you very much.
TNG: IT IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL, I IMAGINE ?
NH: Well, trying not to focus on the bigness of the gig too much.
But, it is obviously a great honor. And the weight of the responsibility is not lost on me. But it is also extremely exciting. Having invested the amount of time and energy that I have at Droga5 over the years, it is great to be able to take that to the next stage and still trying to push things into a new direction.
My goal has always just been contributing to the work at the agency in any way that I can.
TNG: AFTER HAVING INVESTED A LOT OF TIME AND ENERGY AT DROGA5. WAS IT EVER A DREAM OF YOURS TO GET OFFERED THE TOP CREATIVE JOB ?
NH: I never assumed that it would be a possibility. I have been at Droga5 for nearly nine years now. And it’s always been about the work and the people. You tend to stay very focused on what’s in front of you. My goal has always just been contributing to the work at the agency in any way that I can. And this is just the next phase of that.
TNG: I DIDN’T REALLY KNOW YOU BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT SO I WENT TO READ ABOUT YOU ONLINE. AND ON ALL THE MESSAGE BOARDS, PEOPLE WERE SAYING “OH NEIL IS REALLY REALLY A KIND GUY”.
NH: I didn’t realize my family knew how to use the message boards (laughs). Good for them.
TNG: BECAUSE ONLINE COMMENTS ARE ANONYMOUS, PEOPLE OFTEN SAY NASTY THINGS WHENEVER THERE IS A HIGH-LEVEL PROMOTION. BUT IT WAS NEARLY UNANIMOUS ABOUT YOU AND PEOPLE WERE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT.
NH: Oh, do you want me to respond to that?
It is so important to be able to collaborate with other people and people with different backgrounds and skills set and disciplines.
TNG: MY QUESTION IS: IS IT A QUALITY TO BE KIND IN THE ADVERTISING BUSINESS ?
NH: Is kindness something that is valued in the industry? Look, I’ve always found that it worked in my favor.
Maybe it is surprising? As an industry, it is not necessarily something that we’re known for. At least, in the stereotype is something more self centered or even cut-throat. But, in my experience it’s actually been very effective to just go against that perception.
Nice only gets you so far. But if you’re aware of the competitive dynamics that drive the industry and plan for how to deal with them you can achieve a lot.
And, ultimately, in the landscape that we are in now currently, it is so important to be able to collaborate with other people and people with different backgrounds and skills set and disciplines. And you can only get so far by stomping your feet with that many people involved. You have to be able to bring in people with you.
TNG: DROGA5 HAS BEEN THROUGH SOME CHANGES IN THE OWNERSHIP OF THE AGENCY AND IN THE WAY THAT YOU DO BUSINESS WITH SOME ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE RATHER THAN JUST ADVERTISING. WILL THAT BECOME AN IMPORTANT PART ?
NH: It has always been important and it is just becoming increasingly more important. And part of it is the fact that we are being asked to tackle all kinds of assignments.
And the media landscape is so fragmented these days that you kind of have to be able to blend in in a lot of different channels and a lot of different situations. So, the more than we can bring in experts that speak those languages and can help us to understand how to blend in, so that ultimately we can stand out.
How do we build teams in ways that are more tailored to the tasks at hand?
TNG: YOU TALKED ABOUT TRYING TO STEER THE AGENCY TOWARDS A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE CREATIVE LEADERSHIP. DO YOU HAVE A PLAN OF WHERE YOU WANT TO TAKE IT TO ?
NH: Some of it is about doubling down on some things that we’ve always done and we’ve had great success with. And I’ll also be building up some other things that I have, personally, found some success with at Droga5 and making them a bit more commonplace within the agency.
The plans are coming together. But it is really about following through on a lot of the things that we’ve already been talking about. How do we collaborate in new ways ? How do we build teams in ways that are more tailored to the tasks at hand? How do we continue to bring people that maybe aren’t advertising people or people who aren’t traditionally trained in copywriting, art direction and the other staples of advertising? And then, how do we incorporate them into a bigger team to get us to different results ?
In many ways, it is about embracing the complexity of what our jobs entail now. It’s about taking those principles of simple, bold, ambitious ideas and then just continuing to get really smart about how we execute and deploy them.
TNG: YOU USUALLY SEE CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICES GIVING A LOT OF INTERVIEWS, SITTING ON AWARDS SHOWS JURIES. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU WANT TO DO MORE ?
NH: I’m not a stranger to those things and they’re really important. But I don’t know if it will be my first priority. Just simply because my favorite thing is still working with teams through the concepting phase, through the execution and doing more and more of that at an agency level.
TNG: THE INDUSTRY IS FULL OF BIG NAMES, SUCH AS ANSELMO RAMOS OR CHLOE GOTTLIEB, ALWAYS SITTING ON JURIES, DOING INTERVIEWS, GIVING THEIR POINT OF VIEW AND ATTRACTING TALENT. BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY LEAVE ? DO YOU THINK THAT WE WILL BE GOING INTO A DIFFERENT ERA ?
NH: I do think that there is a shift of what creative leadership looks like. It is always going to be important to inspire people and get our agency’s point of view out into the world. I don’t think that is going to change. But, we have such a talented creative department and we have so many amazing people in the agency, so there are a lot of opportunities to be shared there.
It’s really about finding that balance between the sense of clarity you get from one voice with the dimension you get when you hear from more people within the agency.
Neil Heymann
Chief Creative Officer
