Mayda ECD Ben Smith on Whalar's 'Everything is Better With Creators' Podcast

Whalar's Chief Client Officer, Emma Harman, kicks us off with a resonant observation, “In the '80s, we had superstar athletes. The '90s brought us supermodels and actors, and celebrities dominated the 2000s. But in this day and age, there's a new breed of trailblazers, creators.” Mayda ECD Ben Smith sat down with the Whalar team to unpack what it means to be a creator in the industry today. From uncovering what makes a killer campaign to the impact of AI tools on creators, this episode focused on creative marketing but, like any good conversation, left room for exploration.

Ben takes us back to the beginning when he was studying product design and fell in love with 3D animation: “I became infatuated with that technology, that world building blank canvas that you could do anything with.” His love for creating magical worlds didn’t stop there. He discusses how technology and new ways of creating those worlds shaped his career. While technology has been central to Ben’s creative development, he’s not restricted to the platforms he’s familiar with, “The future is... and well the present, but certainly the future is much more blended. You need lots of different skill sets and lots of different diverse types of thinking in order to be flexible enough to innovate on any platform in any medium. And that's something we talk about a lot is being platform agnostic. I totally agree with that sentiment.”

Ben’s track record of successful campaigns for brands like Google, NFL, IBM & Microsoft begs the question: what’s his secret sauce? Ben explains, "If you can cut through the noise and produce something that makes your audience feel something, whatever that is, humor, love, empathy in an understanding way, then you know you've done something right.”

To hear more of their conversation, listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts. And a big thanks to Whalar for having Mayda on the show!