“DON'T TALK ABOUT GREAT CONCEPTS, IDEAS AND STRATEGIES, IF YOU’RE MISSING GREAT PEOPLE.”
We Are Social Germany MD Bastian Scherbeck on how to prosper in the creative industry (without becoming an asshole along the way).
Q: Bastian, how did you get started in communication and specifically Social Media?
Bastian Scherbeck: To make a long story short: I studied art history in addition to communication & media science.
After finishing my Masters, I earned a PhD scholarship and started to write my thesis on the visual representation of proverbs in medieval churches.
Looking back it was an awkward and enjoyable topic to work on:
- Enjoyable, because it sparked and stimulated my creativity;
- Awkward, because of my personal outlook after investing at least three years in my PhD; Art historians are not exactly sought after.
Since I also had a deep interest in communications, I found a gig as a trainee at a German PR agency based in Hamburg and Munich.
I ended up founding their social media unit. That was about 6 years ago.
And from then until now, it’s always been “social” and always agency side.
Q: How has becoming MD changed your thinking and doing compared to before?
Bastian Scherbeck:
“Being MD immediately broadens your perspective. Before that it was all about strategies, concepts and clients.
Now it’s about numbers, new biz and PR.
But first, foremost and above all, it is about my team.
Ours is such a people driven industry, that you can forget about numbers, new biz and PR if the team is not right.
And don't even start to talk about great strategies, ideas and concepts if you're missing the people…”
Q: What are some risks and opportunities facing the advertising industry?
Bastian Scherbeck: In 2014 and 2015 “social performance” (performance optimized paid media in social channels), will explode again (as % of total media spending) and become even more professional.
That poses a risk and offers a massive chance.
If done right:
It’s a massive chance, because of analytical expertise and social intelligence. Think about it; delivering relevant content (anything from text to interactive experiences), at the right time and place, to people who you know will care about it.
If done wrong:
Like it is in many cases now, it will result in massive fuckups. Delivering irrelevant shit to massive amounts of people, just because it is cheap and you can do it. Just like the ‘good’ old days!
If the advertising industry wants to thrive and prosper in a digital today and a digital future, it is essential that we use our tools and power, responsibly. Otherwise, we might lose the most important currency we have: the trust of the people.
The massive focus on performance in social, that we as a global agency currently see, also poses another risk:
It leaves less room for true creativity and innovation. It often puts people back into “being part of a target group” mindsets.
This then triggers outdated industry behaviors, when a new mindset (what we call “social thinking”) is needed.
Q: New technology has amplified old and created new forms of consumer behaviour. How do you and We Are Social pick behaviours to invest time in to build skillsets around?
Bastian Scherbeck: Understanding consumer behaviour in social spaces is one of our great passions. It’s also one of the foundations on which we are built and that helped us grow to 500 people in 8 locations.
Picking the right behaviours to invest time in to build skillsets around, rests on three pillars @ We Are Social:
Our global research & insights teams:
In each location we have dedicated R&I teams. They dig deep into ideas, interests and the behaviours triggered by them. We constantly evolve our work based on that input.
The global team itself:
We hire according to the specialties needed by our clients. In many cases that means that your WaS team consists of highly skilled people in terms of our own industry and who are also part of the consumer group that our client is aiming at.
Our SocialCRM hub:
We're launching our SocialCRM hub in several markets around the world. It allows us and our clients to get a microscopic view of consumer behavior in real time.
Analysing that anonymized data gives us very early indications of how consumer behavior moves in each market we work in.
This then lets us do the right thing at the right place and time.
Q: You've said that on average Social Media campaigns require sizable investments in people (strategy, community management, content production). Since people are key, how involved are you personally to make sure WaS hires the right people?
Bastian Scherbeck: Having the right people is what counts the most, and it is a massive task to get right.
Having said that, in the last three and a half years I did not always get it right. Sometimes I was too involved, sometimes my level of involvement was not high enough.
I’d say that now we have found a good way to get great people — one that works for We Are Social:
- We mainly rely on our network to spot talent;
- We interview each person on average three times, with a different set of the hiring team in each interview;
- We make sure people know who they are joining and what our goals are:
We aim to be the agency of the decade by putting social thinking at the centre of marketing — and we want to have fun doing it. That’s a work hard play hard attitude.
Q: What should students and graduates, looking to up their chances of breaking into the creative/comms industry, focus on, in terms of skills and knowledge topics?
Bastian Scherbeck: Digital. I could say there is not much more to say than that. But there is.
Besides being on trend, knowing what is happening in digital in terms of creative and comms and having a solid understanding of the technical foundations, I’d say that some old fashioned “skills” are essential:
- Dedication and passion for your work;
- Being able to deliver on time;
- Working in international teams.
That might all sound boring, but it is this combination of professionalism and being at the front of the digital wave that has shaped We Are Social.
Oh…and if you're looking for chances at We Are Social; Being 360 social is a massive skill too — not only being digitally social but also real life social.
Q: In his essay on how to build brands in the digital age, Martin Weigel writes: “There is as much to unlearn as there is to relearn”. What are you unlearning and relearning? Why?
Bastian Scherbeck: Social is the fastest moving part of the digital industry. Therefore unlearning and relearning is the experience you’d better get used to really fast once you decide to join a Social Media agency.
Martin’s saying is very true — to a frustrating extent. In many cases people joining us, find out that basically whatever they’ve learned at uni needs to be unlearned — and relearned. Probably the only exception: the basic skills I mentioned before.
As MD, I am pretty much out of the daily business of the agency, so for me unlearning and relearning takes on another, very different shape (besides understand the ever changing digital environment):
Having grown from me to 30 in the last few years, I've had to (and still do) constantly unlearn and relearn how a complex real life social system a.k.a an agency works.
Q: With the way that tech, design and comms are merging, what would you advise 20 year old Bastian, if he asked you for advice on where to work?
Bastian Scherbeck: I am an agency / startup kind of person.
So advising my younger me, I'd tell him to work where I am working now: a fast moving, idea-friendly environment that allows him to keep doing what he loves.
BUT…
If I could also advise him what to study, I’d surely tell him to get a more solid IT background … art history is a big step away from that.
THANK YOU BASTIAN.
“Where the puck is going” is an interview series by GapJumpers. We ask people we like and find interesting to share their thoughts. Whenever we find someone willing to answer our questions, we'll feature them. If you'd like to stay updated on more stories, please follow the collection.
