Catalin Dobre on Eastern Europe’s ‘Challenger Spirit’
Catalin Dobre is the chief creative officer and co-CEO of McCann Worldgroup Romania. Besides this, he is a philosophy graduate and the winner of a grand total of 40 Cannes Lions as well as pretty much any other award you can think of.
Most importantly, Catalin is a Romanian creative - one that grew up during the revolution, which inadvertently marked his creativity, but never tempered his passion. As a teenager he was ‘arrogant enough’ to believe he could make better ads than those he saw on TV, but ambitious enough to keep writing after his initial failure at his first award show (which he entered with his friends with the full conviction he’d win).
After a long pursuit of the industry, he found kindred spirits at McCann Worldgroup Romania, where he started his career as a copywriter and has remained part of the Groupe since. There, he saw the ‘challenger spirit’ that he sees in Eastern Europe as a whole, and found a voice that empowers other creatives from the region to remain proud of their roots and never abandon their passions.
Most recently, the Golden Drum welcomed Catalin into its Hall of Fame - an achievement close to Catalin’s heart, as he grew up with the festival before becoming an integral part of it.
Today, LBB’s Zoe Antonov speaks to him about his roots, his inspirations and his vision for McCann.
LBB> Catalin, tell me about your upbringing - did you have any inklings that you'd be part of the creative industries later on, or did this come more as a surprise?
Catalin> I grew up in Romania. When the 1989 revolution happened, I was six years old.
Those were times with blurry lines - when everything was changing. There were so many problems in the day-to-day life that people needed to find creative ways to solve them. People were ‘disruptive thinkers’ without even knowing. I mean, with this type of training, everyone could have worked in the creative industries if they wanted to. If we want to see it like that, Romania, and Eastern Europe in general, were these informal bootcamps of innovation and challenger mentality using day-to-day problems as training.
Kids didn’t have the Lego of today for instance. They needed to be creative not only with using games - but also with inventing them all together. I remember there were construction sites of apartment buildings and us, as kids, took the plastic pipes they were using for electricity and we used those to build toy guns and blow paper spitballs through them. It’s still a big surprise how we didn’t lose an eye.
I think everybody grows up with a type of creative spirit. You just need a moment when you become aware of that type of creativity that you have inside you and try to use it in a conscious manner. And I guess I’m lucky for both growing up in this context and also for understanding the value of it - considering it a big advantage, not focusing on the downside of it.
I also liked writing from an early age. I remember I had a book where I was writing science fiction stories and sometimes poems. I don’t know what happened to that book, but I need to find it.
LBB> What were the first steps you took towards properly pursuing your career?
Catalin> I started the proper advertising pursuit with the arrogance of a teenager who thought he could do better ads then the ones he was seeing on TV back then.
I remember we were a group of friends in high school and our bus was passing this beautiful house. And we were saying - it would be great to work in a place like this. And guess what, that was the office of an advertising agency.
So we started writing ads. Not only thinking that we can do better, but actually trying to do it.
We entered this ad contest thinking we’re going to smash it. None of us won anything, of course.
But besides being arrogant we were also ambitious. So this made us go forward and write more ads and start sending them to agencies.
Back then, there was no LinkedIn to directly write to the CCO or Instagram to see what they like and try to convince them that you are creative. You had some weird generic emails that you were trying to find online, those office@something.com or reception@something.com - and you were taking a chance - you were seeing your ideas and hoping they would reach the right person.
LBB> You started your career off at McCann Worldgroup as a copywriter and you have never left ever since! How was that experience for you?
Catalin> I was lucky to find a place with amazing people and a huge creative ambition. I was also lucky that in those times, the industry was a bit more romantic. You had a bit more time to think, creative seniors had a bit more time to spend with juniors. And this helped a lot.
With McCann, I have a very long relationship. And, like any relationship, it needs to evolve in order to remain exciting. And it did evolve a lot over time. I feel the agency grew me and I also helped it grow.
LBB> What made you remain at McCann Worldgroup and what were the parts of the culture that affected your productivity and creativity most over the years?
Catalin> The challenger spirit. That constant need to punch above your weight, to have ambitions that overcome your resources, to disrupt. I think this was the main reason. The fact that we managed to keep that challenger spirit alive.
We changed offices during the pandemic and in the new building we wrote ‘Natural Born Challengers’ at the entrance as a constant reminder. We are calling ourselves ‘pirates’ - I have a beard so I guess that fits well.
It always felt exciting, challenging the status quo. Making sure that you set an ambition that feels too high, but you come up with a plan to do it. And this ambition changes over time. It’s like completing a level in a game and then you move on to the next one. The tricky part is always understanding the next level. But I guess that helped me not get bored and keep going.
While growing from copywriter to CCO and CO-CEO, the specific milestones change but that challenger spirit remains the same. For me, that was the guiding light and a red line between different stages of my career.
You start with the arrogance of a teenager who thinks he can do better ads than anyone, before even starting in the industry, and then you become more humble over the years, with all the experience, the business results and the awards.
LBB> How have you seen the group change over the years, and why do you believe those changes were necessary?
Catalin> The group has a strong creative culture based on collaboration. The fact that many of the leaders have a long relationship with the company, even if in different roles, makes this collaboration not just a fancy word, but a reality.
Over time, the entities that need to collaborate changed. So it’s creative collaboration, of course, but now you have a lot of data, content, entertainment solutions, commerce, technology and so on. All of these entities need to collaborate and feel like one - not just to exist inside a group.
That’s how you can find creative solutions to the evolving business challenges of our clients.
The fact that the people behind these entities are people that also have good relationships between themselves helps a lot. It’s an agile, creative, problem-solving culture that keeps adapting to the clients’ needs.
LBB> You've won all the awards imaginable in your career but which one would you say was the most impactful, not only to your own development as creative but also pointed to a wider change in the industry?
Catalin> As creatives, growing up, we had the ambition to win a Cannes Lion. Bronze, Silver, whatever, it didn’t really matter the colour. It was a milestone. It was that young creatives dream.
The first year I won in Cannes, it was two Grand Prix and a Titanium. Of course I didn’t realise it at the moment, we didn’t even plan to go to Cannes back in 2011.
But it really was a milestone. They were the first Cannes Grand Prix in Eastern Europe and talking about that challenger spirit, it showed creatives in the region that can punch above their weight, that it’s possible to win big.
I don’t know if it was a good or bad thing, winning that big the first time. Where do you go from there? Next year all we were thinking was how do we win again so people don’t think we just got lucky.
And we won year after year.
The impact of winning big awards changes from stage to stage. Probably the first time you are happy for yourself. Then you get happier for others - for the clients, for the people in the team that maybe win it for the first time - because you consider the impact it has for them. The way it pushes them forward and fills them with energy.
This is probably the main impact of awards - keeping the community ambitious and energised.
LBB> Recently, you also became the latest addition to the Golden Drum Hall of Fame. Congratulations! What does this mean to you and what was the Golden Drum experience like for you?
Catalin> Golden Drum is the most important festival in Central and Eastern Europe. It’s the festival I grew up with, the first festival I attended as a junior creative. So ending up in the Hall of Fame is pretty emotional from that perspective.
What I always loved about the festival is the fact that it awards work that is a celebration of the creative spirit of the region. In this sense, we blend our missions a lot. I’m also a big fan and promoter of the spirit of the region. It’s a spirit of challenger thinking, of innovation and non traditional work, of disruptive solutions. I want to make creatives aware and help them carry it with pride anywhere in the world.
Everybody from this region needs to be an ambassador of this spirit.
LBB> Overall, what was this year's Golden Drum like for McCann and how does McCann's seventh agency of the year award affect the group?
Catalin> McCann Worldgroup had an amazing year. The fact that we are winning Network of the Year for the seventh time is a record and it just proves the power of our creative community and the consistency of our effort. I’m lucky to be surrounded by such ambitious, talented people that share a common vision. And here I’m talking about agency people and clients all together, as a team.
It’s not just one or two countries bringing in the points. It’s not just a rockstar campaign or client winning it all. We had 48 awards with 14 campaigns coming from eight countries across the region.
A global network is as strong as its regions and the connection between them. The fact that Central and Eastern Europe shows year after year its strength as a creative group makes our global network stronger. The fact that we see benchmark work coming out of CEE for the biggest global networks helps strengthen the relationship with our most important clients and gives great examples of creative diversity.
LBB> Tell me about the talk you moderated at the Golden Drum and why was it important for you to explore the topics that you did?
Catalin> Everybody is talking about AI. Is it good, is it bad, is it going to take creative jobs, how is it going to affect the creative industries? It’s an important conversation to have.
Even if I was being impartial in the talk, to be honest I’m on AI’s side. We need to see it as a tool that can give wings to our creativity, that scales our effort, not as a solution in itself.
Also, I think AI will help the industry fight mediocrity. Our industry owes itself to remain ambitious and to challenge its own limitations, otherwise it will become irrelevant. Knowing that AI can come up with mediocre ideas should make creatives that don’t want to make that extra push think a bit about their relevance in the future. The future is a combination of AI and HI (human intelligence), but we, as humans, need to deliver on ambition, emotion, and passion.
It’s not AI that’s going to take your job, but someone using AI.
LBB> What is the most exciting thing on the horizon for you right now?
Catalin> I’m excited about the transformation of the creative role. I think we need people with creative backgrounds and creative structure to take on business challenges and business-related roles without leaving their creative hats behind.
They need to take their creative habits, their creative modus operandi and creative way of thinking, and blend it with business understanding. Applying the methodology of creating ideas to help shape business tools and structures. I think it would help a lot of companies and industries change in the future. It can trigger amazing business creative leaps.
I’m excited about this philosophy and about exploring different ways to bring it to life.
This, combined with that ‘challenger spirit’ creative DNA gives me energy at the moment.
