Greg Stern started his advertising career straight out of college when he was recruited by Ogilvy & Mather. He took a job as an account manager, planning to switch to broadcast producer but ended up really enjoying the position of account manager. They sent him overseas to work in Hong Kong and Jakarda, where he grew the company substantially by established divisions in direct marketing and other things. When he returned to the U.S., he took a job at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, where he worked on Sega, a brand he had never heard of. Nevertheless, his team produced great work under his management. After only being there for a short time he left with his two colleagues to start their very own agency – Butler, Shine, Stern, & Partners.
In San Francisco, Butler, Shine, Stern, & Partners quickly grew as an agency. They had growing momentum and interesting clients such as Microsoft, Disney, Round Table Pizza, 3DO, and Anheiser Busch. It was a slow, steady growth for the agency that led them to reach what Stern calls “irrational exuberance”. In the era of dot-com 1.0, not all of their clients had sensible business models for websites. For example, homeimprovement.com offered free shipping on everything – even ladders that cost more to ship that the cost of the ladder itself. With a little bit of common sense, and a lot of strategic and creative talent, BSSP helped many clients to fix this aspect of their business model.
BSSP is an in-house production facility. For them, this means incremental revenue possibilities. It also keeps the creative team on premise while working and editing, which is very important to them. And they work hard. For a Borders campaign, they produced 106 commercials that showcased 106 different products that were being sold at Borders around the holidays. The agency is symbiotic – everyone works together at BSSP. Digital solutions, Stern says, have driven a lot of new production styles that force everyone to work together more. In addition, BSSP tries to have work sessions with clients. In these sessions nothing is finished and nothing is sold, but rather they all work together to improve the campaign.
The mission of BSSP is to develop integrated communication ideas that break through culture and drive business. They see themselves as an agency which is both accountable and creative. They were one of the first to use user-generated advertising (before YouTube was invented). They contacted people asking to make a 30-second video about Converse, and the results were astounding. They got 5,000 responses, and used a little over 100 as commercials for Converse. Stern says this campaign was the bravest campaign they ever did because they had to let go of control.
Stern comments that the creation of an ad is only a small part of what you do for your client. The advertising industry is about more than just creating commercials and print ads. It is about branding, marketing, growing awareness, and much more. In the most successful cases of advertising, a brand is recreated (or created) to have its own brand image or voice. BSSP did this when they created the first talking billboard. For their campaign for Mini Cooper, they had a billboard that created customized messages geared towards the drivers of Mini Coopers who passed by the billboard. As a result of this and many other successful campaigns, BSSP was named Ad Week’s “Best Small Agency” in 2010. But what they are more proud of at BSSP is their inclusion on Outside Magazine’s “Best Places to Work” in 2011, 2012, and 2013. I think that with the direction that BSSP is heading in, they will make significant impacts on many aspects of the advertising industry.
If there is one point that Stern really drilled home is to take opportunities presented to you, because you never know where they will take you. He took a leap of faith by accepting an advertising job even though he had been set on being a radio producer. But he took what he had and worked with it, seeking others help along the way. “No one is going to ask to be your mentor,” Stern says. He urges everyone to find someone in your company who you want to develop a relationship with, who you think can be a good influence on you and impact your life in a positive way. It is important to have someone constantly pushing you to become a better version of yourself. To Stern, life is all about being at the right place at the right time, and seizing the opportunities presented.