Interview with Nils Kajander, the Managing Director and Partner at BOND (Estonia).
What is the biggest challenge in your work today, what keeps you up at night?
I’m lucky enough to sleep well at nights. But what I can admit is that the part of my work that I find most challenging is simply running an agency – especially in today’s uncertain economic environment. The mundane stuff that still comes with a lot of responsibility, but lacks the highs that actual creative work provides.
How do you generate creative ideas? Please offer a tip.
Since in essence creativity is connecting “dots” – pieces of information you hold in your mind – in new ways, my number one recommendation is to simply collect as many dots as possible. And the more valuable the dots you collect, the more you have to connect. Read. Visit a museum. Travel. Engage in a conversation with someone smarter than you. At the same time, generating creative ideas is not only about strokes of genius, but sweat. The more ideas you generate, the likelier it is that at least one of them is something truly unique. It might be the first idea you got, but it might as well be the last one. Finally, in my experience a healthy amount of time pressure is better than no pressure – it forces focus that tends to lead to more crystallised ideas.
Please recommend a book, website or podcast about marketing/advertising/creativity.
Not sure whether I want to recommend anything that has to do with our industry directly, as at the end of the day it might be more fruitful to consume something seemingly unconnected. Go see “Oppenheimer” at the cinema. Listen to “The Naked Emperor” podcast (about Sam Bankman-Fried). Or if you insist, read Chris Bailey’s “Hyperfocus” – a practical guide to managing your attention, to become more creative and get stuff done. In fact, I highly recommend that.
Interview was conducted by Hando Sinisalu.
EXTRA INFORMATION
- Adwards creative competition win gives you points for Baltic Agency of the Year ranking! (read more about ranking)
- Winning any prize at BalticBest and become part of shortlist gives you more points for Baltic Agency of the Year ranking!
BalticBest 2023
You can find rules HERE.
Submission deadline: 09.08.2023
Shortlist published: 18.08.2023
Live judging and awards announced: 23.08.2023
