Interview with Creative Director Willem in the AD

Creative director Willem Bos (37): 'People think I spend all day being "creative" with colouring pencils'

WHAT DOES A… DO? Look at today's job market and you'll come across some unusual roles. A field service engineer, a lab technician or an assembly worker: apparently we badly need them, but for what and why? In this series, someone talks about their profession every week. Today: Willem Bos (37), creative director at sales and recruitment agency Pro Contact.

What does a creative director do?

"Because of the word 'creative', a lot of people think I spend all day playing with colouring pencils. They associate it with painters or illustrators. But a three-year-old can draw better than I can! What I can do is use my imagination to bring concepts to life. That's how I make sure our clients and their vacancies stand out."

How do you do that?

"For example, I create sales and recruitment campaigns, with the marketing concepts that go with them, careers websites and content calendars. Many SMEs don't have a creative department. They do fantastic things, but how do you show that to the outside world? That's what I come up with."

Give us an example.

"Take our campaign for a customer service agent vacancy. It's not a sexy job: in principle you spend all day answering questions with a headset on. So I try to look at that role differently: plenty of people work to live. We rewrote the vacancy as a job that gives you a good work-life balance. The campaign was about people with cool hobbies, like surfing, cooking and fishing, which they can pursue precisely because of that job."

What does a working day look like for you?

"I start the morning by reading the news, checking whether running campaigns are going well and researching new trends. In my view, you can only be creative if you consume a lot of information. I also divide my day into action blocks of one or two hours. Brainstorming fits in there too, of course. And I sometimes joke that my biggest client is our own recruitment agency. So I also work on getting attention for our brand, for example through mailings or the website."

My colleagues sometimes say: 'It still needs a dash of Willem sauce'

Do you come up with campaigns out of thin air?

"First I talk to the client to find out what kind of things the company or organisation does. What are they proud of? Then I start thinking about original ways to make that visible. We recruit a lot of people who aren't really looking, but who do keep an eye on the labour market. So you have to trigger readers so they think: 'I want that too!' My colleagues sometimes say: 'It still needs a dash of Willem sauce.'"

How did you end up in this job at Pro Contact?
"In a roundabout way. During my studies, first applied communication in Twente and later an MBA at the University of Liverpool in England, I did work on campaign-like elements. During my master's, when we had to write a report on the situation in America, I came up with the idea of doing it as a Hollywood production instead of a Word file. That was in 2003, long before the video era. We even had to rent a camera for it. After that I studied media and marketing in England; I wanted to get into the world of football."

We shaped this role while philosophising in the stands at Ajax

Did that work out?

"Definitely, I worked for UEFA and the KNVB for a while. I could come up with really cool things there, but I ran into limitations. I knew the director of Pro Contact, he was a friend. I'd sometimes brainstorm with him about clients, just informally, about how he could offer them something extra. That went down well. We shaped this role while philosophising in the stands at Ajax."

When do you have your best ideas?

"On my bike. I cycle half an hour to and from work every day. Along the way I think, and sometimes I even stop several times to send myself an idea on WhatsApp. Then I get to work with my team to develop it properly and make it concrete."

Are there times when being creative just doesn't work?

"People always ask that! There's always a eureka moment in the end. I often feel: there's something here. Then I go looking with my team for what that is. I start with something small, you add all kinds of ideas to it and eventually you arrive at one specific idea again. Lots of less good ideas fall by the wayside along the way."

What qualities are important in this job?

"Good empathy, so you quickly understand what someone else wants. And you have to be able to come up with something on command. When it's someone's birthday, for example, I'm often the one who thinks up the present. And for a new client I can throw out all kinds of ideas within half an hour. I'm also incredibly curious, energetic, and I draw inspiration from everything: bus shelters, buildings, you name it. "

When do you consider a project a success?

"As soon as there's conversion. So when lots of applications come in on a campaign I came up with, or when a sales campaign I devised generates lots of leads [requests for more information about a product or service, ed.]. You can come up with something, but it also has to deliver results."

Are there things you don't enjoy about your work?

"Planning, the status of assignments, schedules… I'm less good at those. I have to teach myself to use the right tools for them."

Do you want to do this until you retire?

"We're considering expanding Pro Contact abroad in the future. The content of my role actually keeps changing a little, so I grow along with the organisation. I won't be done developing here for decades to come."

This interview appeared in the Algemeen Dagblad on 20-11-20, on ad.nl