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OhHello - Bryan Simkins of Publicis
40 Plays5 months ago
OhHello! We took a lil OhHello.ai ☕️ podcast breather, but we're back w/ some Thanksgiving gratitude!
What happens when you combine decades of marketing expertise, the evolution of AI, and a unique perspective on mentorship? You get an unforgettable conversation with Bryan Simkins, a global leader in creative media solutions and all things hashtag#advertising at Publicis Groupe / Publicis / Publicis Production
In this episode, Bryan shares:
✅ Insights into the shift from digitized media to the digitization of creative and production
✅ His refreshing take on mentorship, breaking it down into “advisors” and “angels” who guide, protect, and inspire
✅ How leaders can ensure aptitude meets opportunity to drive growth and equity in today’s dynamic business world
This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating innovation, leadership, and personal growth in a rapidly changing industry.
💡 Discover Bryan’s wisdom on embracing change, empowering teams, and leveraging creativity for impact
📢 Shout-outs to Bryan's Advisors + Angels: (Bryan's brother) Steve, Merrill Squires, Todd H., Steve Pacheco, Karen Jacobs, Lisa Donohue, Andrew Swinand, Steve Katelman, Matt Spiegel, Sean Finnegan (in memoriam), Laura Desmond
hashtag#Mentorship hashtag#Innovation hashtag#Leadership hashtag#Creative
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Transcript
Mutual Admiration and Introductions
00:00:07
ohhello
Oh, hello Brian.
00:00:10
Bryan
Oh, hello, Jeremy.
00:00:12
ohhello
Bryan it's so good to see you. We've been industry friends for quite a long time. You have always come across and not just come across. I just appreciate your intellect. I appreciate your honesty. And you bring to the table a very unique skill set that I'm excited for our audience to to learn from you. So with us today, who am I speaking with?
00:00:35
Bryan
Hi. Yeah. Thank you. This is Brian Simkins. Um, I am currently working for publicists and on creative media solutions, and then personally married to my wife, Lorraine.
00:00:47
Bryan
And we split time between Chicago and Tampa, and I balanced my professional life with my personal interests in pursuits.
00:00:55
ohhello
It's amazing, amazing. Tell us
Creative Media Solutions at Publicis
00:00:57
Bryan
Yeah.
00:00:57
ohhello
a little bit about your role at Publicis
00:01:00
ohhello
You have done some really cool things throughout your career, Brian, but we'd love to hear more about what you're specializing in these days.
00:01:06
Bryan
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I, I probably the, one of the least specialized people in the industry. Um, I'm probably ah ah more of a mile wider an inch deep than I am an inch wide and a mile deep. Um, and that's kind of been my, my career.
00:01:21
Bryan
Right now I'm in a role where, again, creative media solutions and way I would articulate it is, you know, when I tell people, I actually was fortunate to be part of the early days of programmatic and building audiences and, you know, really the whole addressability of media that started in 2008, 2009, however you want to, wherever you want to snap the line.
00:01:43
ohhello
Yeah.
00:01:44
Bryan
And, ah know, I think we spent 10 years building an amazing addressable infrastructure of identity and audiences. And that was really fun but we kind of looked around and observed that the media or creative agencies were a little bit behind that in the sophistication of the media.
Media vs. Creative Agency Sophistication
00:02:01
Bryan
So the standing joke was you have 100 audiences that you're delivering the same piece of creative to, right? And so I think now we're we're reaching that inflection point where the transformation the media went through 10 years ago, we're at the impetus of that with creative and production.
00:02:21
Bryan
it feels very similar in our conversations, right? Like when we were walking in and talking about cookies and privacy in 2010, you got blank stares from what we would consider digital people who were used to issuing IOs, right?
Digitization and Idea Spread
00:02:34
Bryan
We have that similar response from creative and production people now when we go in with a data-first story and modular content and these kind of constructs that we're reinventing within the creative agencies season So that's what ah I'm tasked with. I'm not solely tasked with it. There's a lot of people along for the ride. But we're kind of moving on from the digitization of media and audiences to what I would consider the digitization of creative and production.
00:03:02
ohhello
It's a lot and as you explained, it's kind of like peanut butter where you're just spreading it all across the piece of bread. You can't get too deep, can't get too thick, but there's going to be some crunchiness to it. There's going to be some thickness and some goodness,
Business Transformations and Mentorship
00:03:19
ohhello
so to speak. But with that, when you think through just over your career, when you think through 25, 30 years of just being in marketing, being in tech, being in advertising, and the ecosystem has evolved, how your career has evolved. What excites you about mentorship? What excites you about when you look back, like just all of the change that has taken place?
00:03:42
Bryan
Yeah. I mean, I feel like business in general goes through cycles of transformation, right? Like all the way, you know, when you say word marketing, start with start with the industrial revolution, right? When we decoupled the person who made the product from the person that bought it.
00:03:58
Bryan
And that's really why we needed brands and trust, you know, outside of ah your Jeremy, I know you built this, I know your craftsmanship. When we pulled all that apart, we had to create brands and confidence and marketing and all that sort of stuff. I feel like, you know, we went through the whole digital uh internet revolution right and that was kind of the democratization of information and data and um i think the next one is is ai right i mean that's the next biggest one that i've seen there were some sub ones within the internet like read write and you know social and that sort of stuff but certainly the the next big one is ai um but but i think you know know yeah how that relates to mentorship is
00:04:41
Bryan
probably a heavy orientation towards interest and commonalities of interest and seeing these types of trends and how do we react to them and how do they impact business and business processes and the way in which we function. And you find those people that, like you, we have these similar interests or ideas and you lock horns and some of those people you work with, some you don't, right? But that crowd of people that you're on this journey with is really the ones that you're going through your career with, right?
00:05:10
Bryan
And that's how I think about mentorship. I will say I probably have a different definition of mentorship, personally, than some people do.
00:05:15
ohhello
share it with us, yeah.
00:05:18
Bryan
I think of it in terms of advisors and angels. Um, and to me, advisors are the ones who are in your kind of social circle, I would say, and maybe professional circle, but they don't have an immediate impact on your career. Um, and so they, you know, they're not in the trenches with you day in and day out, but they're people that you would reach out to and, and like, like I would consider you an advisor more than an angel, right? Um, because you don't have a day-to-day impact on my professional career.
00:05:48
Bryan
And then the angels is a term that my brother uses, which I absolutely love. He's a corporate attorney. he says the angels protect you and lift you up. Right. And so that's more the people in your in your grind and in your day to day and in the politics of your professional career.
00:06:04
Bryan
And to to to me, again, there are more angels than there are mentors where the dynamic of the relationship is little different, right? And so that's how I think about the mentor structure is kind of advisors and angels. And that's how I function.
00:06:19
ohhello
I love that, Brian. That's incredibly creative and being able to visualize the two different components, kind of like a left shoulder, right shoulder, so to speak. As we're looking into the cameras, being able to say, okay, angel, advisor, and understanding how each of them has an impact and and and provides that balance in here as as you're growing, as you're scaling, as you're experiencing different things throughout your career.
00:06:47
ohhello
Um, that was, that was fascinating when you think about, Oh, hello. And when you think about what we are trying to build in terms of our community, in terms of the platform, how would you relate the angels and advisors metaphor or just, um, situation?
Advisory to Angelic Mentorship
00:07:02
ohhello
Like, how do you view, Oh, hello.
00:07:04
Bryan
I think it depends on the nature of the relationship, right? I think by and large, it starts with an advisor that may evolve into an angel, right? So for instance, I had a ah ah young kid reach out to me.
00:07:15
ohhello
Love that.
00:07:18
Bryan
He's based in Germany, and he was interested in getting into the industry. And that point in time in the relationship, I'm an advisor. I'm friend of his father's. I have no influence really on his professional career if he's just asking me for advice of where he thinks he should go and what he should do. Now, that being said, if he gets an internship at Pubosis or that somewhere where he's in a working relationship with me,
00:07:43
Bryan
or with a company that I contribute for or I'm a client of or whatever, then the dynamics of that relationship may change or I could move in to more of an angel role for him where I could protect him and lift him up if he is a good person and it's high aptitude and all the things that we look for in in our employees and the people that we want to surround ourselves with.
00:08:03
ohhello
So one day when you become his angel, help us help us understand some of the impacts that mentors have made on you and who those professional mentors are. So tell us a little bit about mentors that have made an impact on you, Brian Simkins.
00:08:18
Bryan
Yeah, and you know, it's interesting. It's not always advisor to angels. Sometimes it's angel the to advisor, right? So when I look at some of my historical angels, they're still my exhaustive advisors, even though they don't have a day-to-day impact on my professional career, right?
00:08:25
ohhello
Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:36
Bryan
So, you know, I would start with my family, you know, for sure. I come from a long line of theologians and philosophers, which is very non-business. But just how to think, how to think, how to treat people.
00:08:50
Bryan
certainly comes from my my lineage. brother who I mentioned is certainly an advisor, super smart and also works in the corporate world so I can talk to him about those types of dynamics.
00:09:03
Bryan
And then along the way, it's been different different in different situations. I had a guy named Dan Hetzel who got me into tech, a guy named Merrill Squires who got me into big marketing, right? was certainly kind of these introductions along my path. Todd Hauser got me into media, Steve Pachico got me into client side. He's now the president of the AAF.
00:09:23
Bryan
When I was at STARCOM, i I would mention Karen Jacobs and Lisa Donahue kind of lifted me up within STARCOM and were my angels and are still some of my advisors at times.
00:09:30
ohhello
Sure.
00:09:35
Bryan
And then I would say Swinand was, and then there were kind of these iconic entities within our industry that had just aspired to being. it was like Cattleman and Spiegel and Finnegan and Laura Desmond and just these icons of industry that you're like, wow, they're kind of at the at top. and want to be a part of that, or I want to understand how that world functions. are all those change over time, right? There's cycles in which those those people change. some of them are already have already left or already gone, and new ones are are emerging. So that's kind of how I how I think about it and what my career path has been.
00:10:13
ohhello
That was a really eloquent way to give some thanks, to give some kudos, to give some praise, but also to shine a light on those that have played a big impact, and then also shine a light a little bit in an area of darkness where we don't know who's coming up, and you're basically saying, hey, these are people that made an impact then, but who knows what's going to take place in the future? There are a lot of up and comers, and it's really good to hear.
00:10:37
ohhello
especially when people don't live in the past when they're, when they're basically saying, Hey, this is ah ah an ecosystem of innovation. And there are a lot of up and comers that are making a difference. So that
Philanthropy and Leadership
00:10:45
ohhello
was awesome. Brian, as you know, we have 50 different charities that are integrated within the Oh, hello platform. What are some causes that are near and dear to you? If there's one, if there's two, just anything philanthropic, any kind of just non-work related cause that just, um, that really makes an impact on you.
00:11:04
Bryan
Yeah, i I don't know if I would name a specific entity. I can tell you the spirit of what I look for in philanthropy.
00:11:11
ohhello
Spirit works. Yep.
00:11:13
ohhello
Angels and advisors.
00:11:15
Bryan
Yeah, it's interesting. It's weird how just random things hit you that you don't expect. But there was an interview between our CEO and the CEO of Microsoft, and they were talking about creating opportunities for people. I'm not going to get the exact quote right, but the way he articulated it, I really appreciate it.
00:11:34
Bryan
is he was talking about as leaders, what do we have, and the obligations that we have as leaders within companies and that sort of stuff. And this was in the middle of the pandemic and all the things that were going on in 2020. And the way he said that we have an obligation as leaders to ensure that aptitude finds opportunity. really liked that. It's like, we don't have an obligation to, I'm not gonna get political into, you know,
00:11:59
Bryan
socialism and all that sort of stuff. But the idea of we as leaders have have an obligation to ensure that people with high aptitude and high effort find opportunities to create better lives for themselves is probably a guiding light or guiding force of my philanthropy is to ensure that people who may not have the opportunities that I had or that some of us had
00:12:00
ohhello
Yeah.
00:12:23
Bryan
they have the effort, the ability and the attitude that they're provided opportunities and we're ensuring that we're finding those people and giving them the opportunities that that they deserve and they're able to earn.
00:12:36
ohhello
I like that. Thank you, Brian. Thanks for sharing that. Any other parting words of wisdom or advice that you want to give to our Oh, hello community agreed agreed.
00:12:44
Bryan
Yeah. It's funny, there's no silver bullet in this world, right? I mean, there's no magic work, there's no silver bullet. And it's funny, even if you look back, I would say, first of all, go watch the, Oh, hello videos.
00:12:54
Bryan
Like there's some incredible, incredible just information and knowledge and advice and guidance.
00:12:55
ohhello
Thanks, Brian.
00:13:02
Bryan
told Jeremy, I just spent 30, 45 minutes watching, you know, historical videos and it's hard to even find new things and smart things to say because there's so much good content within this.
00:13:05
ohhello
Thank you.
00:13:14
Bryan
Again, I kind of lean on, you know, aptitude effort and attitude.
00:13:20
Bryan
Those are probably three big wins for me. As you get into your career at any level find opportunities to over-deliver, and people will always, the quality of your your work is good and your effort is over-delivery, you you will continue to
00:13:37
Bryan
We're all in need of good, talented people. And when you find the opportunities, take advantage of them. That's the biggest thing I would say. And all of that is just effort.
00:13:45
ohhello
Well, that's amazing.
00:13:48
ohhello
Brian, Brian, you over-delivered on this. I want to say thank you. Thank you so much for being a part of this. Thank you to our community. Thank you for those that are listening, those that are watching.
00:13:59
ohhello
Brian, this is awesome. Thank you.
00:14:02
Bryan
so
00:14:20
Bryan
Thanks so much. Thank you.