Kari King’s Path to Leadership and Honing Her Creativity

Kari King is a dynamic creative leader with extensive experience across all communication channels, and a specialisation in harnessing personalisation and data-driven creativity for blue-chip brands in Canada and the United States. She brings a unique mix of creativity, insight strategy, and business acumen to her work and clients.

A firm believer that data can be used to elevate creativity, Kari is also passionate about leading the next generation of creative thinkers towards discovering more effective and smart creative solutions, through both teaching and judging creativity at global and regional award shows.

LBB> Person - What kind of creative person are you?

Kari> Recently at RI, we had the senior leadership team complete personality tests. And not those Myers-Briggs ones we’ve all done a bunch of times (I’m an INFP, for anyone who’s curious) but tests that help you understand what kind of leader you are and how to relate to and understand those around you. It measured you across factors like dominance and flexibility.

It turns out I’m a control freak who doesn’t like process. I think that might be an archetype of a creative director – we like to make all the decisions, but please don’t make us organise our files and do timesheets. It also mentioned that I deal well with ambiguity. As a copywriter, that has always been a lot of the job – working with nuances and subtleties. You can make a career out of being able to explain the difference between a ‘friendly’ and a ‘causal’ brand voice (there is one, I swear).

I think creativity lives in everyone but only those who have nurtured it, built it up like a muscle, can make it flex into something more exciting, something sharper and easier to tap into. I remember brainstorming earlier in my career, when I was given the luxury of several weeks of ‘creative development’ and often found it hard or ineffectual. All the time in the world wasn’t necessarily enough to break an idea. Now, with experience behind me, I know the first nugget of an idea needs to break right away for it be truly good – it can always be evolved and refined later. But when you try to force something or excessively ruminate over it, that might mean you’re barking up the wrong tree.

LBB> Product - How do you judge the creativity of a piece of work?

Kari> My idea of what makes something truly creative has evolved over the years. A part of that is experience. Once you know what it takes to get work out there, it changes what impresses you. As a copywriter starting out, edgy and exciting headline-driven work impressed me. Now, I want to know about the data-driven targeting and media behind the work. What’s the placement? Who is the audience? The headline won’t matter if the right person doesn’t see it.

Considering all the challenges and changes in the industry right now, I’m continually impressed by the creative output I see, in particular from independent agencies. When clients have confidence in their agency and give them the freedom to work on their behalf, that’s where the magic happens. I am so inspired by brave clients who work with agencies they trust. That’s what it really comes down to in the end. That feeling of safety, of being known and understood, can almost contrarily inspire some of the boldest risks. If you know that the people you are working with are the best of the best, you know that they’ll do what it takes on your behalf.

Long-term relationships in this industry are rare, but special. When an agency has worked with a client for years and never stops pushing, never gets too comfortable to stop trying to impress and innovate, it’s an incredible thing to be a part of. Coming to RI in the last year, I’ve been able to witness this kind of symbiosis, and it’s caused me to re-evaluate what makes great partnerships and what an agency-client relationship should aspire to be.

LBB> Process - Tell us about how you like to make creative work

Kari> Blank canvas syndrome is real. Nothing can make you feel as lost or a task feel more daunting than lack of constraint. Working in CRM and the one-to-one digital space, I’ve come to appreciate constraints. They aren’t a hindrance; they’re a jumping-off point – a box to play inside, a friction to push up against to test your limits.

We work in an exciting field and are exposed to some of the best minds and coolest ideas, executed to perfection. In the past, when I’d see something that I love being done by another agency for another brand, I would feel discouraged or, worse, like an imposter (I think all creatives know that devil on their shoulder). Now, I’m ignited by seeing work that inspires a healthy level of jealousy. I don’t think, “Why didn’t I do that?”, I think of how I can take the principles behind it that are smart and fresh and apply it in a new way to my clients. How can I take the constraints that I’m working within and push against them using this kind of thinking? I’ve seen again and again how loving and admiring someone else’s work can make my own work better.

I love smart, precise, gutsy campaigns. I also love work that speaks to the end consumer on a personal, one-to-one level. I’m less and less into the one-to-many approach. Measuring simple awareness is too ephemeral and sometimes deeply flawed. I love seeing creatives harness the power of automation, as opposed to shying away from it. We know that human ingenuity is what will help brands differentiate themselves and break through, but that smart automation and personalisation will help make that message more iterative, relevant and effective.

LBB> Press - What external factors have shaped you and what can make or break a creative project?

While I’m an innately creative person, it has taken me longer to discover my creative confidence. I wanted to pursue visual arts in post-secondary, but my high school art teacher took me aside and gave me a harsh reality check. He said my art was good, but my essays were exceptional. He thought I should explore the humanities, where I could keep writing.

From that point on, a part of me felt excluded from visual arts. It felt like secret club I couldn’t join. He was right, in many ways. Writing felt as natural to me as breathing. It was effortless, whereas visual art took so much effort, even though I loved it.

As I began my advertising career as a copywriter and worked my way up to creative director, I initially struggled with confidence around giving art direction feedback. That feeling of exclusion still stuck with me. I knew I was a person who appreciated beauty and balance, but I also realised I needed to trust the technical capabilities and talent of those working with me (this is key, always surround yourself with the best talent). And, more importantly, I needed to trust my own taste, my own sensibilities, my own well-honed eye (and gut).

I’ve never been more fired up to continue to hone my own creativity. I recently turned 40, which in advertising years can feel a lot older, but my thinking feels crisper and my enthusiasm more heightened. I know now that there isn’t a secret club; there’s just a community of talent and an invite patiently waiting for you to gain the confidence to grab it.