Creativity Squared: Why Laughter Is Everything with Katie Reid and Kristin Mizushima

Katie is a creative director at Founders Agency in Miami and a graduate of MAD. She has worked on brands such as Lipton Hard Iced Tea, Netflix, Red Stripe, Hornitos tequila and more. 

Kristin is a creative director at Founders Agency in New York City and a graduate of MAD (formerly Miami Ad School). She has worked on alcohol brands such as Lipton Hard Iced Tea, Seagram’s Escapes Refreshers, Hornitos tequila, Red Stripe and Kalik beer. She has also worked on tech and entertainment brands such as Snapchat, IBM and Netflix. 

Person

Katie>

Laughter is everything to me, especially when working. If we’re laughing, we’re creating.

How do I like to see the world? Sometimes it’s just not that serious.

I think creativity is something that’s innate and something that you learn. I think in a general sense creativity is innate, but how you harness and translate it is something you learn, especially in advertising. 

I am an extroverted introvert. I have a performative nature but there’s nothing more I love than being alone.

Routine is everything. When you have a routine and structure down, your mind is free to get creative.

When I’m working I live and breathe advertising. When I’m not working I like to explore other forms of creativity e.g. interior design, music exploration, painting. 

Kristin>

I'm dedicated, loyal and thoughtful. While the astrology haters will always hate, I feel that being an Aquarius and a Dog (in the Lunar zodiac) resonates with my identity. 

How do I like to see the world? This unfortunately depends on the day and what’s on the news. I have a lot of compassion for the pain and suffering of people and animals, which motivates me to make the world a better place wherever I can. Overall, I see the world as a place of potential–with an infinite capacity for good as well as bad. 

Creativity is a skill we can nurture. We all have it, but it can dwindle without support or encouragement. In our field, we should not only cultivate our own creativity, but also inspire others to do the same. If you don't see creativity in those you mentor, it might be worth examining your own creative abilities.

I have done enough Myers–Briggs and personality tests to “confirm” what I already know: that I’m an extravert who may sometimes pass as an introvert. As an extrovert, I recharge in the company of others. I’m inspired by, comforted by and most at home when I’m with people.

When it comes to creative ‘stuff’ that I enjoy, I like things that are similar to the work I do because our field touches all walks of life. I’m a fashion fiend; it’s my first creative love. I'm a student of history, especially Medieval Europe, and I like to dance at DJ gigs until just about dawn in my downtime. 

Product

Katie>

How do I assess whether an idea or a piece of work is truly creative? If it’s idea-first it’s successful. If it’s strategy-driven it’s successful. Simple work that demonstrates higher-level thinking is my criteria. Everything has to have a ‘why.’ Everything has to have a purpose.

The criteria has definitely shifted or evolved over the years? I used to be execution first, idea later. Not saying that’s always bad, it’s just not how I operate. Mentors over the years have shown me the light. 

We did a campaign for climate change that was directly tied to penis size. It was an example of how to take a serious insight and turn it into a not-so-serious execution. As long as you’re being respectful of the issue at hand, sometimes people are more susceptible to comedic relief. 

I think we’ve gotten lazy with the creative we celebrate. We’re losing our standards a bit. It feels more centred around status than ideas. Maybe that’s too cynical. On a positive note, I feel we’re finally making strides with diversity in this industry that was, not too long ago and still kind of is, white, cis, male-dominated. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but I feel we’re getting somewhere.

Kristin>

How do I assess whether an idea or a piece of work is truly creative? First and foremost is the idea on-brief, in other words is it solving the strategic problem at hand? Second, is this idea on tone and unique to the brand or could this be for any other XYZ brand? Lastly, does it make sense? Only then can something truly be PR-able. Much of the seemingly ‘wackiest’ work has a sound strategic foundation. At the end of the day if we wanted to make art, we’d be at art school. Advertising must help solve a business problem; how we get there is the fun part.

The criteria can take other factors into account, but the fundamentals have remained the same. 

I’m proud of Lipton Hard Iced Tea since it was a launch campaign. There’s something really rewarding about bringing a brand to birth with a creative partner, team and client who were truly a joy to work with. Similarly, The Witcher Maze activation is a proud moment because the creative, production and client partners were passionate, dedicated and just plain awesome to be around. When you have that bond, it’s electric. 

The industry is always evolving, but its obsession with newness is predictable. AI driven ideas continue to get made which in turn creates counter campaigns that utilise traditional tactics such as OOH (see “Hey ChatGPT…finish this building” by Belgian agency Impact, a brilliant, cheeky response to AI replacing jobs anxiety). All of it is exciting to me, what frustrates me is when work is made for the sake of targeting Gen Z (or now Gen Alpha is the new cool generation on the block) with tech (or who could forget the NFT bandwagon of 2021) for the sake of it, without determining whether that is the right target or tactic for their brand. 

Process

Katie>

Kris and I like to kick things off by catching up with each other on a personal note. That always leads to a lot of laughter. Once we’re laughing, the creative juices are flowing and we’re going down a rabbit hole of insights and then the ideas come.

I find Reddit particularly helpful for gathering or iterating ideas. Reddit has some crazy insights. 

I’ve never been a fan of reverse engineering an idea. Backing thinking into an execution. I think it’s a good skill to have, but if you have the right strategy in the beginning you can avoid the stress of having to come up with an idea for an execution.

I like to start each project fresh. Some of the best ideas are a real-time response to something that happened in our world and we know there’s no kind of prep for that.

I prefer to work collaboratively. It’s important to have at least one other person check your thinking.

I like to drop everything and go on a run or walk. Sometimes when you’re forcing yourself to think your brain rebels. It’s best to let thoughts settle in the back of your mind, take a break, let them stew, and come back later with fresh thinking. 

Is a piece of work ever done? Just kidding…’Done’ is when we’ve fleshed out the details. When we’ve solved our opportunity problem. When the creative is clear and speaks for itself. When all the ‘why’s have been answered.

Kristin>

I like to be briefed by strategy and align on measurable KPIs. Then aligning on a realistic timeline is always key to making sure everyone agency and client side stays on track and happy. Once the housekeeping is out of the way I like to wake up early in the morning to brainstorm. I always feel freshest first thing in the morning and find that my brain makes connections more clearly at this time. Then later in the morning I’ll brainstorm with Katie, my creative partner, and loop in our team. Collaboration is so important to the creative process, and the fun part. The best ideas are not born in isolation. From there the beautiful song and dance of presenting, giving and receiving feedback and presenting again begins until an idea hopefully makes it to production (many an idea dies on the creative operating floor).

I’m a Google Slides, Docs and Notes app gal. I appreciate the ability to capture insights on the go, like during my morning run, and quickly jot them down on my phone.

I used to brainstorm in a notebook, but truthly for the sake of efficiency I enjoy going digital right away. It may be less poetic, but it sure is productive.

I have a Notes page labelled ‘Secret Insights Stash’ even though it’s not precious, where I can write down insights that are interesting to me. They don’t have to be brand specific, they’re usually about human nature or societal customs or faux pas. This stash serves as a reference point, but I start with a clean slate for each new project because the problems and therefore the ideas will need to be unique to the brand. 

I prefer to work collaboratively. Alone is a good place to start for research, insights or making sure everyone is bringing some meat to the brainstorming table. From that point on however, collaboration is the best way to strengthen an idea, catch a mistake or get the job done. I’m inspired by the people I work with and hope to continue that spirit for junior creatives. 

I like to make a list of what we’ve tried so far, and what we still need to work on then I like to pause. Going for a walk or run is always the best way to clear your head. I often find that the roadblock seems less daunting after I’ve switched gears.  

Work is complete when we've met the brief, achieved the objectives, and feel that elusive sense of accomplishment. That inner satisfaction signals it's time to share our progress with the internal agency team.

Press

Katie>

I grew up in Florida. My parents were keen on raising my twin and me with very few gender roles in mind which definitely expanded our experiences and thinking. Both of my parents were very receptive to my creativity early on. 

I always wanted to work in an office environment with a beanbag chair. So I did some research and saw advertising was pretty big on that and I knew I had to get into the industry. That led me to Miami Ad School where I studied copywriting.

Kris and I work well under pressure and that has always served us when pitching or big projects. We thrive on the intensity. For me, clutter distracts me. Sometimes when we’re brainstorming I have to get up to do laundry and do certain household chores. It’s hard for me to sit still and create. 

Trust is everything. I’m very grateful for our relationship with Lipton Hard Iced Tea because we have so much trust in one another and when that happens creativity is made possible. 

Delivery of feedback on every level is important. Are you ‘yes-and’ing your creatives? If not, there’s probably some work to be done there. In terms of design, everything needs to be intentional. Everything has to have a purpose. Strategic, conceptual design always wins.

Kristin>

I grew up in Chicago, Illinois. My parents were supportive of whatever I wanted to pursue, including creativity. My earliest creative memories were secretly drawing behind the couch on the wall (an anarchist art director in the making) journaling during nap time (a budding brooding copywriter) and my parents never discouraged it, except the crayon graffiti. 

I wanted to make a career out of creativity whether it was fashion or the broader industry of advertising. School at Boston University and later Miami Ad School (MAD) did provide a foundation for a tangible career. 

Stress is a symptom of poor planning, my Virgo rising is certainly rearing its neat freak head here, but I truly believe that is true. Clutter is distracting for me. A clutter-free, organised workspace is both motivating and inspiring for me.

Trust in your agency and creative team, you came to them to help you solve a problem you could not solve in-house, don’t let your money and time go to waste by doing the job for them. Instead, see your agency as partners who can offer you a unique perspective and solution. Agencies and creatives want to and should want to help strengthen their client’s business at the end of the day. Glory at Cannes is often an indicator of impeccable client-agency relationships.

Agencies can facilitate creativity by being active participants in culture and design. We should not be observers, but rather contributors to adjacent industries. Advertising has a bad reputation, which is ever the more reason we should at the very least make sure our work is pleasing to look at, clear, entertaining, inspiring, funny and self-aware. People are exposed to our industry whether they like it or not, so let’s do our very best to make them tolerate it, only then will they love it.