Serge Flores
Serge Flores, Chief Creative Officer at Third Ear advertising agency, stopped by campus to talk to Texas Creative students about finding your voice in the industry.
Flores has over 20 years of experience working as a creative director in three continents at several different companies including Clemenger BBDO, Saatchi and Saatchi, TBWA/Chiat/Day and more.
During his presentation, Flores emphasized the importance of finding your point of view and learning how to be vulnerable in your work in order to connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Your Voice Matters: You have to understand what your voice is before you can embrace it.
Your Voice Sells: Embrace the fact that your voice has power and you should be able to sell yourself. At the end of the day, they (client/agency) are buying your voice.
Find Your Point of View: Your point of view should come from your life experiences and as well as what you take in from the world around you. What do you listen to? What do you watch?You have to feed your point of view by taking in everything around you.
Flores went on to talk a little about the mission of Third Ear which is Listen First, Listen Beyond, Speak Human. He re-emphasized the importance of knowing your voice and identity by saying creatives should “understand that you can have more than one identity” and “people are complex and understanding their layers is important.”
He spoke about a few concepts that he finds to be crucial in creating great work.
See Me: Do people see themselves in your work? If people cannot relate, your work will not be impactful. It is important to bring in the right collaborators that make sense for the target audience.
Find Strong Points of View: Always look at personal work. It is where you will find people’s true self. Expressing who you are brings out better work. Be confident about what your point of view is, it makes it easy to find your spot in the industry.
He finished off by leaving students with some advice about staying authentic and transitioning from student work to the professional world.
Q: How do you convince large companies to stay authentic?
A: If you have a broad appeal the payoff is less impactful. There are benefits to being more narrow in insights.
Q: How would you suggest going about finding your point of view as a young advertiser?
A: Make it personal. Start small. You can’t be inauthentic, people will see right through it.
Q: How do you transition from doing student work to larger professional projects?
A: Approach things differently. Don’t blend in, you might miss out on opportunities. Stay authentic to yourself and offers will come to you.
Q: Advice on curating your portfolio?
A: Less is more. Curate your portfolio to represent you. Put things in your portfolio that aren't advertising.
