The Egotist Briefs: Steve Kolander of Small Army

Steve Kolander, Executive VP & Creative Director at Small Army, is a former recording artist for Polygram Records, ex-Creative Director of JWT/Atlanta, cabinetmaker, world traveler and storyteller.

In fact, Steve doesn’t seem himself as an ad guy. Instead, he sees himself as a storyteller of brands. When he was writing songs for himself, the Dixie Chicks and R&B artist, Carmichael, he told stories in 3-minutes (often with his Gretsch White Falcon guitar in tow). As a marketer, he and his teams tell provocative stories in 30 seconds. Or 140 characters. Or as an experience in a place where you don’t expect it. He and his teams’ shenanigans have ended up on CNN news and the cover of Adweek. And as Steve puts it, “When your ads make the news, you’re no longer creating just advertising. Your clients are becoming part of the cultural landscape. That’s where it’s at!”

How would you rate the creative scene in Boston these days?

I went to SoWa this weekend and the creativity was outstanding. The music scene has plenty to offer with Berklee College of Music in the heart of Boston and plenty of other damn good bands and musicians that will rock your socks off. As far as advertising is concerned, is there a ‘scene’?

How does Small Army take advantage of the creativity that the city naturally produces?

We hire a lot of college grads oozing with creativity from the local universities. They turn the rest of us onto what’s cool. And I pretend that I understand exactly what they’re talking about. Then go home and have a drink and tell my wife I’m getting old.

What specific kinds of things does Small Army do to foster creativity?

For starters, we check out the web for those great nuggets out there. With 1,966,514,816 internet users, someone somewhere at any given moment is coming up with an amazing idea that makes you say, “Now why didn’t I think of that?” Also, we all have Kindles. (It’s standard issue at Small Army.) We read a lot and pass the books onto each other so we’re well read and well versed in many disciplines. We also encourage everyone to watch lots of foreign movies. They give us a different perspective on life and cinema than our own. And we try not to think in terms of advertising but in terms of storytelling. This makes us think of our clients in completely different ways. And when you think differently, you create fresh ideas.

Do you have a philosophy on creating great work?

Yes, stay busy living life. We draw upon our own experiences to think of our clients in ways they may never see themselves. And as stated above, we think in terms of storytelling. This helps us solve problems in ways that marketing classes never taught us. And the results are much fresher and more imaginative.

Where do you think the advantages lie in being a smaller agency?

Small agencies have the advantage of being able to change so much quicker than a well-established, large agency. Large agencies pride themselves in their tried and true processes. But these processes are from a bygone era and those large agencies are holding on to what has made them great. Obviously, not all agencies are this way. Edward Boches, the creative director at Mullen in Boston has really immersed himself in social media and has taken his agency into this frontier as a leader, not a follower.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re working on right now?

I have an interesting project that stand out at this time; it is an interactive webisode series for our client, SolidWorks. The series is about a guy who designs one-of-a-kind products on camera and at regular intervals, asks the global 3D community to help him decide what direction to take next. The global community votes via social media such as Tweets discussion forums. It’s extremely effective and very hard to pull off since social media has never been used to this degree before. It’s like reality TV for engineers but the whole world gets to vote!

What are some of the characteristics you want to see in great art directors or copywriters?

Fresh thinking. Breaking rules, but first understanding what rules they are breaking and then doing it anyway. I’m looking for creative people who don’t think like advertisers so they stop creating advertising and start creating stories about companies and their products.

We can all come up with a million ways technology has positively affected creativity. But are there ways it’s affected it negatively?

Technology has come so far that many tools once left to the professionals are now available to the masses; video cameras, digital cameras, garageband, dreamweaver, etc… Now many clients don’t want to pay the prices that were once reserved for professionals. They want a video shot for $5,000. A photo for $100. Original music for free. And a website for $2,000. It’s difficult to see that the tools aren’t the end all. The thinking behind the tools was always important and still is. But technology advances makes it appear that the creativity and thinking is easier, too. It’s not.

How do you sell interesting new technologies to clients who probably don’t understand them or see the possibilities?

It’s not about selling technologies, it’s about selling stories. Technology has nothing to do with it. Technology is simply the means to an end. When you go to a restaurant, you don’t care if they have a technologically advanced espresso machine, you just want your espresso to taste delicious. I never sell technology. I sell what the technology will do to the story we’re telling.

Favorite campaign of 2010 so far? Why? Care to offer up your least favorite?

I like the Old Spice Man’s tweets. Breakthrough stuff. It’s not about technology, but about ways the Old Spice Man could talk to the average Joe. Just happens that new technology was the answer. I also kinda like the “Never Say No to Panda” campaign, from Egypt of all places. If you don’t eat Panda cheese, a Panda with an attitude will show up and kick your butt. It’s really bizarre. But I like it. And from a very unlikely country.

What are three pieces of advice you’d give any creative?

Learn your craft really well so that you can break all the rules you just learned.

Don’t sit at home and watch TV, but get out in the real world and live. All the ideas for your stories in the office are out there beyond the four walls.

Find a mentor and study that person well. They will teach you things you can’t find in books. And if you read them in books, it would take so long to find the nuggets that you’d be old by the time you learned them. Stand on the shoulders of those you respect. Life goes by freaking fast and you don’t have any time to waste.