We were lucky to catch up with Benoît Oulhen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Benoît, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

The first thing is to love what you do and to be passionate about it. It all starts with this. It’s what will push you to work harder and that work won’t even feel like work. For me, advertising was a passion before it was a job. Of course it’s not all fun and games, you have the impossible deadlines, the (many) projects that will never see the light of day etc. but the interesting part of the work will keep you going.
You also have to believe in what you can achieve. Creating a great campaign is never an easy thing and you never know if it will be a success before it actually happens. But at least you have to believe that with the right amount of dedication, you’re able to do it. It may sound a bit arrogant but when I started in advertising, I was looking at all the best campaigns in the world and I was thinking: I can do this !
To start as a young creative can be tough. You don’t get the most creative briefs rightaway, but you also have opportunities to turn a small request into something more ambitious. That kind of opportunity happened to me in 2016-17 when Volkswagen came with a rather technical brief for films about their safety innovations. It was supposed to be instructional but I came up with a voiceover concept that was far more human and philosophical. The film ended up being my first Cannes Lion. It was also my first collaboration with art director Mickaël Jacquemin, who would be my creative partner for the years to come.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been an advertising copywriter at DDB Paris since 2012. Before that I worked in a few other parisian agencies, studied advertising at “Sup de creation” , which at the time was the only school to train creative teams exclusively. I also have a master degree in philosophy, but anything can lead to advertising I guess.
Basically, my job is to take a brief from a client (who can be a company, a NGO, the government…) and express what they have to say in a creative way that will appeal to the target audience. That can be films, print ads, posters, OOH, social media, events… the only limit is your creativity (and the brand’s budget, obviously). As a copywriter I will write a lot (scripts, ideas, concepts, baselines, taglines, punchlines, any lines) and work with art directors who will bring a more visual approach. I love the fact that it’s a very complete creative job in which you follow your project from the first draft to production.
My approach for a brief is always to find a message first: what can we say about the matter that hasn’t been said before? What’s the new perspective? What impact will it have on people? Then comes the craft (art direction, copywriting etc.)
You can have a glimpse of some of the work I’ve been proud of over the years here: behance.net/benoitoulhen (yes, I should create a site someday.)

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

As a creative, more than ever, I think it’s very important to read. Essays, novels, comics, whatever. I tend to think reading will leave a stronger mark on you than any TV-show you can watch (and I watch lots of them), and inspire you on a deeper level, bring new ways of thinking etc.
There are far too many to mention but I’ve been reading Jean-Paul Sartre again lately. In La nausée, the main character gets nausea from the very existence of things. That’s a radical idea, and that’s inspiring.
Mickaël (the art director I mentioned above) offered me “The color of things” by Martin Panchaud recently, I had never read a story told this way. All the scenes are seen from above, the characters are represented by circles, computer graphics and maps become narrative tools. A new perspective on things, literally.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being creative is about being unsatisfied with the world as it.
I may be a bit too optimistic but I do think advertising has the power to change people’s views and actions, because it’s a popular art, because it’s everywhere, because it lives in the real world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.behance.net/benoitoulhen
• Instagram: ben_oul
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beno%C3%AEt-oulhen-8b388061/