Why Work for 1 Amazing Brand When You Can Work for 10?

By: Christie Ruta

When I interviewed seven years ago, Chris Gasbarro asked me, “What brand do you associate yourself with?” I had never thought of that before; associating myself with a brand. I went the easy route with my answer and responded based on appearance and how I presented myself at the time, “J.Crew!” But the question tripped me up because so many brands have such an influence on your life.

As a consumer, we’re drawn to brands that resonate with who we are, what hobbies we have and even how we grew up. It was that moment in that interview, when I realized how much I wanted to work for an agency that understood the power of a brand. And I didn’t want to just work with one brand…I wanted to work with many.

Let me back up. Agency life isn’t for everyone. It’s not just a 9-5 desk job. You work weekends, you travel, you usually have a work “spouse” or “family” based on the time commitment you dedicate. It’s collaborative, fast paced, creative and even sometimes dramatic. It asks a lot of you, you wear many hats but as us agency lifers know, the sacrifice is worth the reward. Even though over the top creative ideas and last minute client requests may keep us up at night, it’s the delivery of a great event, it’s the energy a video brings to a general session, it’s the confidence of an amazing pitch and most of all, making our client look like a rock star, that makes this behind the scenes gig worth it. It’s visionary, it’s fulfilling and it feeds our creative souls.

As a producer, I had always prided myself in finding out how to make the connection, how to learn about the products and become a trusted member of each of these amazing brand-marketing teams. They had such synergy, creativity and each one was so unique. It was with this brand passion and inclusion of our team that inspired the great gathering ideas we brought to the table. It was “being an extension” of ten leading brands that sparked and generated further ideas that we could share across brands and even share across our vendor partnerships. It’s these ideas that keep clients coming back and it’s the execution that established trust to take some risks.

Of course, this synergy doesn’t happen overnight. Relationships and trust are earned and maintained over time, but it’s those great moments, diverse amazing brands and a team of passionate people at this agency that prove time and time again, why this has been home to me for over seven years.

Thank you to all of the brands who continue to inspire us. You make my dream job of working with multiple brands a reality.