Why Do Creatives Have the Best Job in the World?

Creatives in advertising never shut up about how “we have so much fun in our jobs,” laughed Juliana Constantino, executive creative director at Pereira O’Dell, “but it’s true. This passion that we have is totally reflected in the results of our work.”

She was sort of preaching to the choir, though, speaking on the first day of the London International Awards’ Creative LIAisons event in Las Vegas to a room full of up-and-coming industry talent from around the world to hear from advertising’s leading thinkers and to supercharge their careers.

Her joint talk with Till Diestel, managing director and chief creative officer of Serviceplan Germany, was considering the question: ‘Why Do Creatives Have the Best Job in the World?’ And even if the audience was already pumped about being creatives, the two creative leaders from Serviceplan Group were ready to remind them of why they have such exciting careers ahead of them.

In what other industry would you get to show your parents a film that you got paid to make about little personified testicle people with glorious heads of hair? Juliana can, since that’s exactly what Pereira O’Dell did for Manscaped.

Creative Freedom

They chose the Manscaped work to show the potential of a career as a creative. “We bring in psychology, storytelling, visual metaphors,” said Juliana. “We have so many resources to bring together.” There aren’t many other industries that allow for that kind of freedom, she suggested.

“There are no limits in our job that you can think of,” said Till. The idea can be anything. “In general it’s so much freedom. And you’re getting paid for it.”

That’s a TV ad, but of course there is so much range to what creatives can play with. The pair illustrated this by showing ‘Animal Alerts’ for PetPace – a Serviceplan-created campaign to develop the first earthquake warning system powered by pet health data.



“If you work in agencies, it’s not just a film or print or outdoor,” said Till. You could be working with data scientists and AI experts to save lives in a way nobody had imagined.

The Power of Storytelling

Something peculiar about advertising is that storytelling is central to the job. Till said the best part is that you can work with the most skillful storytelling craftspeople in the world too, from musicians to casting directors, editors and directors. That’s what Till’s team did in the recent ‘Yes’ campaign.



“You get a brief from a client and you start writing a script,” said Till. “Then you’re on your way to shoot it in Thailand. It’s amazing.”

He also loves the minute detail of that film, which does an incredible amount of heavy lifting emotionally.

Impact on Culture

Advertising creatives have a responsibility to impact culture, said Juliana. And Till stressed the beauty of being able to do just that as a creative, such as the project with O2 and big-wave surfer Sebastian Steudtner, which captured him riding a wave that was measured as higher than his previous world record, and sharing that moment in real time across the mobile network’s channels.



Serviceplan Bubble partnered with the brand to open up surfing culture, opening ‘O2 SURFTOWN MUC’ – a 20,000 square metre surfing facility in Hallbergmoos, just outside Munich – the first surf park in Germany with real running waves and a sustainable concept. The agency team even had to innovate with drone technology to find a new way to measure the height of waves, positioning the brand as legitimate within surfing culture.

Grace Under Pressure – Creative Problem Solving

You may always wish you had more time, but as a creative, there are endless opportunities to solve complex problems. When people don’t know what Till does, he always tells them “I solve problems.”

That’s what Serviceplan did with AIZOME WASTECARE™ Industrial waste, certified as skincare. “A beautiful idea crafted to perfection,” said Till. Beyond craftspeople, again Serviceplan had to collaborate with various kinds of problem solvers. “That work was a lot of science people. There are a lot more interesting jobs in our industry,” he added.



This industry gives creative people the opportunity to work with so many diverse kinds of talent, said Juliana. “We are enlarging our creative teams with technologists, engineers and scientists. That expands our capacity to come up with solutions.”

She continued: “When we are talking about problem solving, you have that feeling when you’ve got to the idea. I daresay no algorithm could have that.”

Passion Projects

If you have an idea and you’re a creative, your leaders will encourage you to find a way to make it happen, even if there’s no obvious client for it.

Till did exactly that when creatives in his team came to him having discovered that rams who don’t breed because they’re attracted to other rams end up being killed. They started buying the gay rams and making ‘Rainbow Wool’ from them. “We now as an agency own a farm,” said Till.

The Joy of Seeing Ideas Coming to Life

To get to the moment where a great idea sees itself through to completion takes a certain discipline. “Protecting ideas and taking them through the whole journey of selling it, producing it, getting it done, convincing clients,” he said. There will be a lot of failure in your creative career, he warned, but when you get the good ones made, it’ll be worth it.

That was the case for PENNY ‘Price Packs’, which used the packaging on core products to turn the price into the central design element for the discount retailer – something Till praised his client for its bravery in, especially as this was more than a stunt and required new packaging to be rolled out on all these products across every store in Germany.

The agency also loved its campaign against opioid addiction ‘855-HOW-TO-QUIT’, which used the mandatory pill codes on the drugs to help people quit. Getting that done was not an easy task, but it was worth it in the end, saving lives.

The Global Perspective

Both Juliana and Till work with MINI and this revealed an interesting benefit of the creative career – the ability to understand how brands live in different cultures.

“When you work on global accounts, it’s interesting and challenging to produce work,” said Till, highlighting the importance of understanding things like casting and audiences.

Recognising the differences between American and German culture was key to making the MINI Sphere a reality.

The Role of AI In Creativity

No conference session in advertising these days would be complete without a mention of AI and how it may revolutionise everything for the industry, but Till found a way to turn this into a positive for being a creative right now in 2024.

“I don’t think it will take away our jobs but someone using AI will,” he said, so you have to start using AI to be quicker and smarter. And I think AI will do a lot of the mediocre shit that advertising does, so I think it’s better nowadays to be creative because you have to set out to do work that’s way more interesting and unique.”

For example, the work that Serviceplan did using AI technology to find visual patterns of space debris over areas linked to the consequences, for ‘Space Trash Signs’.



Till ended with a rousing call to anyone starting their career in creativity now: “You can do a lot of these projects. Nobody should hold you back. If you feel like you can’t get out of it, work with your creative directors, your bosses, or find mentors to push you to make amazing things happen.

“From cat food to sneakers to whatever you work on, there are so many amazing stories that haven’t been told yet. And I think that’s the beauty of waking up every day in this industry. We can come up with stuff.”