On My Radar: Rob Lambrechts

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently? 

Besides all the work Pereira O’Dell is doing for its amazing client list, it’s probably either KFC or Bud Light (damn you, Wieden+Kennedy). Both nail a unique tone so well that positions these behemoth mainstream brands in the language of today. I’m a big believer in simple ideas executed flawlessly and both of these do this. Let’s move to the next question before I help the W+K new business person any more.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Truthfully, right now it’s probably The NYTimes, CNN, Fox News and Breitbart. We live in a fascinating time in media history where anyone’s version of the truth can be confirmed at any given moment. 

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why? 

We got our daughter a little interactive robot called Cozmo [below]. The more you play with it the more it learns. She loves it. It sort of acts and sounds like WALL-E, but it’s basically an early iteration of Skynet, so there’s that. 

What’s your favoured social media platform?

The truth is, I don’t really participate in social media. I don’t have a Facebook or Instagram account. I had a Twitter account but deleted it after the election. For me, personally and professionally, constantly having my opinions confirmed by others can become a bad thing. 

What’s your favourite app on your phone?

Hmmmmm… favourite or most used? The most used would probably the DisneyNOW app by my children (don’t judge me… okay, you can judge me). My true favourite would probably be the United app, because of how much I fly, but upon re-reading, that’s the saddest sentence I’ve ever written so let’s go with Spotify because I’m always really impressed with how many songs on my “Discover Weekly” playlist I really like but had never heard of before. 

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

All time, it’s a tie between the The Wire and 30Rock. In recent history, I really loved Riverdale, Mindhunter and American Vandal. But from a writing perspective I thought The Marvelous Ms. Maisel was practically flawless. But if I’m being honest with myself my favorite show was probably The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. (Nerd Alert) I love history and nobody does a better job of giving the cultural context to historical events than better than them. 

What film do you think everyone should have seen and why? 

Dr. Strangelove. It’s funny, terrifying and extremely relevant in a tightly-wound 90 minutes. This will always be the gold standard for me in what you can do in a tight timeline. 

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

This is the snobbiest answer you’re going to get, but when it comes to inspiration I always think of this quote from Chuck Close:

“Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work.”

I actually find the quote to be super-motivating because it gets to the heart of what it means to be a creative professional. It’s not magic, it’s just hard work. 

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

You notice how you asked me for one TV show a few questions ago and I gave you four? The sheer explosion of content creation from TV shows to Facebook Live streams to Instagram Stories and YouTube videos is almost impossible to grasp. More importantly, each of those individual creations is competing for someone’s attention. This fracturing of the media landscape has made it extremely difficult for advertisers to buy an audience as they had in the past. Consumers now see their time as an investment and they have more investment opportunities than ever before. This makes it exponentially more difficult for brands to get their message into the world. 

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

Just one? If I had to pick just one, I’d change our arrogance when it comes to approaching our clients problems. For the longest time we saw ourselves as the high priests of creativity. Anyone who disagreed with us was just wrong. But the reality is that the marketing challenges our clients face today are so complex that creative solutions come from all kinds of people and disciplines. Advertising agencies can still play a vital role in helping clients grow, but we need to be part of a team that involves operations, data specialists, engineers and product teams. 

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

Unsurprisingly, it has to be PJ Pereira [below], but probably not for the reasons you’d expect. Yes, PJ is a creative genius with one of the most unique minds I’ve ever come across. But you’d be surprised how open he is to fostering ideas and beliefs that don’t exactly fit his. PJ gave me my first job as a creative in this business and from that first day he has allowed me to have opinions and challenge him (respectfully) whenever I felt the need - looking back I’m amazed he put up with it for as long as he did because I have a lot of opinions. This really gave me the space to think for myself, but it’s also an amazing example of leadership. As a creative leader having the self-confidence to allow yourself to be challenged empowers the people around you and makes the product we create together stronger.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know. 

On the side, I’m an endurance athlete. Although “athlete” may be too strong a word for it. I enjoy competing in long distance endurance events like Ironman and Ultramarathons.