Coffee with BBDO Planning Director, Hubert Boulos
D: Could you tell us a little about you, sorta bring your life to life!
H: You only live once!
D: Every planner gets the same first kick off question, in your limited experience in this region,is planning undervalued or does the region lack value in planning?
H: Neither. Whether here or in the rest of the world planning has to be defined within the agency and for its clients. I believe planning is an
agency related issue vs a geographic one. Some agencies are better than others at it in the Middle East and elsewhere.
D:So everyone claims a different method to the madness of planning, what's yours?
H: Quantitative research!
D: What is it you look for when hiring a young planner? Could you give us a sneak peak at an unorthodox question you might ask?
H: I look for people with whom I could have a beer after work or with whom I could enjoy a good lunch.
D: So you hired a junior planner what would be their first task you'd assign?
H- Ideally (if a client is running a promotion) I would send the junior
planner to actually sell the product in a supermarket (part of a
promotions team)
D: Someone roles up to you one day and claims to be heavens marketing director. For some odd reason, you believe him (possibly due to his business card being trailed by a halo) He goes on to elaborate on how people are losing faith in heaven and putting all their allegorical eggs in this life's basket. Any idea what any sentence on the brief would look like?
H: What do you have to lose? (though it runs against my personal
philosophy -see answer #1)
D: As planners we are constantly vexing over the right sentence,or words to bring something to life. What sentence or combination of words bring Hubert to life as a planner?
H: If it does not sell it's useless!
D: If you were conducting this interview, what would you have asked yourself?
H: What strategy would you have loved to have written?
Answer: the Axe/Lynx strategy developed by LINTAS Paris (FYI: most
people think it's BBH but it's not!)
D: Many thanks Hubert and good luck at BBDO!
posted by Nic at 12:47 PM
6 Comments:
Very focused answers. And crisp. I loved the questions.
Loved the whole heaven marketing director question & and answer "what do you have to lose"
enjoyed the read.
Ideally (if a client is running a promotion) I would send the junior
planner to actually sell the product in a supermarket (part of a
promotions team)
I think this is a particularly important point that staff seem to miss out on, both client and agency. The clarity that comes with such activities is essential.
I would like to add Production as a good place for junior planners to be exposed to.
Any particular idea why anonymous or is it just the women down there?
I think exposing someone to excessive amounts of advertising and footage, figuring out what to do with all this footage, what should be shaved off what should be kept, what mood should the music instill allows for a good foundation for planners.
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