WEBVTT - Rob Reilly: “Be a fountain of ideas.” 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:05.320 You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:10.440 I think you need be a fountain of ideas. So 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.600 I write down everything. Anything that sounds insane, I still 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.160 write it down, I still pitch it. And I try 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.320 to create environments where anybody can say anything without any judgment. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.239 And I think the best clients and the best relationships 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.040 are you've set that process up together where you've created 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:28.880 the environment for creativity to live. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.280 I am Bob Pipman, and welcome to Math and Magic. 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.760 Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing. Today, we have someone 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:38.879 who has been at the center of the magic of 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:43.280 advertising and has been a creative leader in the advertising business, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.720 from reimventing Burger King to the Fearless Girl statue of 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:51.159 Wall Street. He's Rob Riley, Global, Chief Creative Officer for WPP, 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:56.080 the massive global advertising, marketing and communications company. Rob started 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.760 out live ast Robert grew up in New Jersey, played soccer, 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.520 was in a band, was a fighting blue hen in college, 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.480 and even had an early job as a bartender. He 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.160 won a slew of awards and has been a part 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.640 of some of the greatest creative agencies. For a good reason, 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.440 he makes extraordinary creative, and for that same good reason, 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:21.759 he has chaired the can Lyons Awards show Jury four times, which, 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.399 for those of you outside the industry, is like the 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.280 Academy Awards of advertising. We got a lot to discuss today, Rob. 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.839 Welcome, Oh, pleasure to be here. 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:33.200 What I want to do now is get you in 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:34.200 sixty seconds? 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.160 You ready? Perfect? Yeah? I'm ready. Do you prefer capture dogs? Neither? 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.200 But if I'm forced to choose one cats, city or country, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.760 I think city, though we live out in Shelter Island, 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.160 which is a beautiful place, so getting to be a 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.080 little bit more of a I don't know if a country, 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.000 but more of an islander. Books are movies, I think. 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.960 I'll say audio books, amor FM. 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.600 Well, in college I worked at an AM radio station, 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.000 so I'm going to say AM for all it was 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:03.520 back then. 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.200 Don Draper or George Lois. 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.240 Don Draper, George Lewis. I met him once and he 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.640 cursed at me in an elevator favorite TV show. 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:14.720 I'm gonna say Bevis and butneat. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.000 Most exciting advertising campaign that you did not make. 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.239 Right the future, Nike, Let's jump into the meat. 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.760 Let's talk about developing creative ideas as we've discussed on math. 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:27.560 And magic before. 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.240 And I'll take my own personal experience that creative ideas 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.520 for me are just sudden epiphanies. I think about the 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.240 issue and then I forget about it, and in the 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.320 middle of the night or often in the morning, when 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.640 I'm taking that nice, hot meditative shower, answers just pop 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:45.600 in my head out of nowhere. And by the way, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.200 David Eagleman, the neuroscientists who's been on this podcast, it 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.720 has theories and talks about why that is. 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.560 But how do you. 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.440 Develop new ideas and what's your creative process? 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.480 For people like me my kind of creative process, it's 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.800 so much a process. It isn't just come up with 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.080 while the idea is the briefing part of advertising is 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:12.079 the thing that's most underrated for successful creative work. When 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.040 you have a brief that's clear and pointed in inspiring, 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.760 you have first and many steps of making great work. 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:21.120 I always tell. 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.240 Clients, listen, this brief is not for you or I. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.400 This brief is for that junior team that has to 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.160 show Rob Riley work at nine am and it's midnight. 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.560 And if that brief is convoluted long eight point type 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.280 on a page versus twelve point type. If it's trying 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.920 to do too many things, it's going to be a nightmare. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:40.880 How do we make that brief the best friend? And 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:42.600 the way you do that is you've got a very 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.040 simple ask. It's going to solve some tension that's out 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.960 there in culture. And when this idea lands in culture, 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.600 what's the thing that the press writes about? What's that 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.280 thing people love share and spread. That's the entire process. 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.000 It started years ago at an agency called Kryst and Bagusky. 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.920 We called it's the press release process. And when the 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:06.680 idea lands in culture, what's that story the press will 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.280 write about? And if you can't figure that out and 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.040 a sentence or two, there's no way you're going to 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.440 be able to make an entire campaign that's going to 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.720 pop in culture. And we did it to help young 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.040 teams compete with senior teams on big projects like launching 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.760 a Windows ten to the world. It's really hard for 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.680 young people to take that and figure it out. So 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.120 I try to simplify things by creating that process, and 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.120 I still use it today. It's evolved to what's that 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.960 thing people love share and spread through the Internet through 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.479 on social But it's a very simple thing. If I 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.719 can't imagine it what it's going to be when it 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:40.840 lands in culture, then it's probably not going to be 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:41.760 a great idea. 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.320 So you've got a really good process, and it sounds 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.240 like you're very thorough, very thoughtful about it, and you 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.400 wind people up and say, Okay, this is what we've 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.400 got to do. It's got to accomplish these things. It's 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.880 got to really impact culture. But the idea has got 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.960 to come from somewhere. How does that idea hit you 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:00.000 or hit other creatives? 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.159 People? Oh, fear that you won't have an idea. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.000 I don't like to use fear as a motivator, but 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.599 I think for each individual person, like you do wake 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.760 up thinking am I going to have any more ideas? 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:12.839 And I think you need to be a fountain of ideas. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.920 So I write down everything. Anything that sounds insane, I 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.560 still write it down, I still pitch it, and I 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.239 try to create environments where anybody can say anything without 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.880 any judgment. And I think the best clients and the 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.120 best relationships are you've set that process up together where 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.560 you've created the environment for creativity to live. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.320 We talked about George Lois, and you told me your 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.320 George Lois story. George Lois created Don't Want My MTV. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.520 And I had lunch with George when mad Men first 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.479 came out, and he goes, that's not me. We spent 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.080 a lot of time at lunch on me that wasn't him, 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.240 which meant it was probably more him than not. But 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.280 it was interesting with George Is. George was not afraid 0:05:55.360 --> 0:06:00.800 to revive old advertising ideas. As a matter of fact, 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.200 I Want my MTV was actually I want my Maypo 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:05.880 And when George pitched it to me, he said, look, 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.039 this was really successful for Maypo. I think this is 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.919 what we need because our goal was we had cable 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.120 companies that did not want to put MTV on because 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:16.920 they wanted us to pay them. We didn't have any 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.880 money to pay them, and we had this very crazy audience. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.520 We said, well, we can enlist them to go sort 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.720 of get consumer pull for this. And so he wasn't 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.600 afraid to go back and use it. But I saw 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.680 him throughout a lot of his work and others as well, 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.080 go back in mine great ideas from the past place 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:37.960 for you and that or do you have another point 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:38.320 of view? 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.599 Well, everything is rived of off everything, right, I don't 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:45.479 think there's too many original ideas. Years ago at Crispin 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.520 to promote a Burger King chicken sandwich, we came up 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.000 with this idea called the Subservient Chicken. But it was 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.840 a guy in a chicken suit responding to commands. There's 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.920 been a million things with people in chicken suits, right, 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:58.839 But until you do it and put a twist on 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.400 it and make it just that's weird enough, then that's 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:05.279 what it becomes special. So now what George did, I 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.440 don't know if you can get away with it now. 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.680 I mean he literally took the exact sam campaign he 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.280 made decades before and just put it into MTV. I 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.920 actually give him a lot of credit for not worrying 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.120 about what people might think of, like, oh, you stole 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.240 your own idea, because it was the right idea for. 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:23.280 MTV at the time. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.880 I mean, that campaign, you could say, is probably a 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.120 big reason why MTV was successful. I mean I remember 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.160 it like it was yesterday. I remember the first d a 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.720 MTV came was and it was a Saturday afternoon, I 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:36.920 believe I was in Long Island, New York at my 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:41.120 aunt and uncle's house watching this thing come on, and 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.000 I remember like it was yesterday. So in some ways, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.280 like I give George Lowis a lot of credit for 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.280 being brave enough or not caring enough. But I think 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.600 his style, but like the style of being gruff and 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.560 maybe yelling a bit more like those days are gone. 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:58.440 You can't get away with it now, Like you really 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.080 have to be more of a charming provouct You need 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.520 to charm your own people, your coworkers and your clients 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:08.280 with charm them with wit, intelligence, caring about their business 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.520 where that they care, knowing about their business more than 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.600 they do, then you could be provocative. The days of 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.400 throwing chairs at clients or at teams or those are gone. 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.480 It's a much different world and you've got to figure 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:23.320 out how can you be successful in that style of business. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.720 And I'm not necessarily a yell or screamer, but you 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:28.600 know I did a lot of coaching from ten to 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.840 fifteen years ago where you know, I was intense and 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.640 you know, didn't care about people's feelings as much. So 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.080 I think it's a new kind of creativity that you know, 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.600 would be interesting if George could survive in this day 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:41.000 and age. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.959 Let's take that note of the past. At the dawn 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.240 of the century, you were the acting chief creative officer 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.000 at Hill Holiday and you took up sixty percent pay 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.480 cut to change jobs and become just a copywriter at 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.160 Crispin Porter. Clearly it all worked out. Why did you 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.000 take that risk and what lesson did you learn? 0:08:58.679 --> 0:08:59.000 Well? 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.800 I had worked for this amazing boss named David Weekle, 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.920 and he was the chief graative officer and they parted ways, 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.800 and I was one of the more senior people there, 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.360 but not very senior at all, and they said, well, 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.320 maybe you can step in temporarily while we search for 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:15.520 a new CEO. Might have been some discussion if you 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:16.679 want to throw your hat in the ring to be 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.839 that person. And I kind of realized that I had 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:23.240 all the skills of a great creative director without maybe 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.840 the work of a great creative director. And I did 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.240 want to end up being a New York creative at 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.600 a certain age that kind a giant salary, but didn't 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.040 have the work where people would follow you. So I 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.880 ended up going down to Crispin Porter and Buguski at 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.000 the time probably one hundred and twenty people, sort of 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:45.080 getting known for doing some really interesting national work for 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.920 smaller clients, and I pitched Alex Buguski, now my current wife, 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.280 my only wife, but she was my girlfriend the time 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.520 she was working there, so I had a connection. But 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:55.840 Alex wasn't going to hire me just because I was 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.000 the boyfriend. Maybe in fact, didn't necessarily want some guy 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.760 from New York who had all the wrong sort of 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.880 closed and was a big creative director from New York 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:06.880 City come down to his agency in Miami. 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:08.640 That was really small type culture. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.480 But I knew that's the kind of work I needed 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.079 to be part of, because in the end, you don't 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.480 necessarily just follow people. You follow people because of the 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:19.680 work they've done. And I had all the skills of 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.439 being able to present and good with clients and maybe 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.040 good with teams, but I didn't have enough creative work 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.160 that I thought was like culture changing that was going 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.480 to get me to a long term career. So I 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.640 took a few steps back. But it wasn't the easiest ride. 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.800 When I got there, I was the guy from New York. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.439 Everybody's in flip flops and shorts. I'm here in the 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.960 produc boots in black. I stood out like a sore 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.640 thumb and about thirty days into it, Alex calls me 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:47.640 in his office said, listen, man, I love the work 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.960 you're doing. I think you're fantastic. Here's the problem. No 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.240 one else likes you. So I thought he would say, 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:55.280 it doesn't matter as long as I like you. He said, 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.360 that's the opposite. I can't have one guy who ruined 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:58.760 the culture. So you got to figure out how to 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.760 get people to like you. And long story short, I 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.120 ended up going back and deciding, like, you know what, 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:05.840 I'm just going to shut my mouth and sit in 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:07.240 the corner and crank out work. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:07.959 And that's what I did. 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.080 And then once you start making work, people respect. That 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.200 was the beginning of building a body of work that 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.480 I'm really proud of at every level. Copywriter, creative director, CEO, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.760 creative chairman. To down with WPP, head of a holding company. 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.120 Well, you know, let's go back in time for a second. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.480 Why didn't they like you? What were you doing? 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:29.040 Why didn't they like me? 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:29.520 Well? 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.200 I probably had the wrong clothes. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:36.720 I had an incredibly intelligent, smart, beautiful girlfriend who's now 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.240 my wife and doing all the amazing work. 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.680 And I was a boyfriend from New York. 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.320 I came from a big New York ad agency and 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.960 it wasn't quite fitting in the culture. And I think, 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.679 growing up in New Jersey like we're loud. And when 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:51.360 I went and told my wife that Alex said that 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.000 people didn't like me, her response was, why don't you 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.120 just try shutting up and doing the work, you know, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.679 like you're the problem. So I was taught a lesson 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.800 early on to shut my mouth and do the work. 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.120 And when you have the work, you get the respect. 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:08.840 Well that's a great lesson. And ten years later you 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.240 were the chief creative officer of Crispin Porter. So it 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.280 all worked out. Yeah, it all worked out. You continued 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.640 to succeed. You went on to be Global Creative Chairman 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.160 at a McCann, a worldwide group from twenty and fourteen 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.640 to twenty twenty one, and then on to WPP in 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.160 your current role. Everyone knows the Fearless Girl statue on 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:27.720 Wall Street. 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:28.400 What's this story? 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.559 It's a great story because State Street Global Advisors was 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.200 an account that McCann had for a few years and 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.719 hadn't been known for doing such great work. But when 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.000 I went to McCann, the first thing I did to 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.520 turn around an agency that maybe hadn't been doing as 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.880 well as they had hoped. Was let's put an attainable 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.000 goal in place, and we called it three for All, 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:49.920 and it was, how do we create three magical pieces 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.280 every year for every client in every office and this 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.960 way everybody is responsible for contributing to hopefully the creative 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:01.559 turnaround that McCann eventually achieved a process, and I think 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.319 three magical pieces a year is pretty attainable and you 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:06.840 don't rely on just one account making the famous work. 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.559 Every account has to deliver. And state ttreat was probably 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.480 one of the most challenged. It's because it's a financial 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.240 company based in Boston, a great company, but not known 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.480 for doing very bold work all the time. But at 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:20.160 the end of the year, we didn't really have three 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.080 pieces of work that we could hold up and say 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.760 these are our best three pieces of work for State Street. 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.600 And someone said, well, they got this amazing fund called 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.960 the She Fund, where you can invest in female lead companies. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.640 Because State Street realized they were part of the problem 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.560 with the lack of female leadership on Wall Street. They 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.120 created a fund where you can invest in female lead companies, 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.679 and they put pressure on companies to put more females 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.120 on their board. So of course an easy thing for 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:46.439 us to do was to do a print ad about it. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.040 But you know, we brought the print at but then 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.440 here's thirty more ideas and one of the ideas was 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.040 not necessarily a Ferals girl. 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:54.960 The idea is to put a. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.840 Female bowl in front of the male bowl. And amazing 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.040 team Lizzie and Tally came up with the idea with 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.720 the help of Eric Silver, who was the CECO of 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:07.040 North America. And you know, they kept coming in my 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.880 office saying, oh, we love this idea, and I'm like, okay, okay. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:11.440 Go for it. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.600 And of course the clients that we love the idea, 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:15.360 but you know, we're just not comfortable with it. And 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.080 the reason they're not comfortable with it because there's no 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.520 such thing as a female bull. It's a cow, right, 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.120 And that's why, you know, as a CEO, you really 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.680 have to let people, if they're so passionate about something, 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.600 go try and sell it. But what they didn't necessarily 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.120 realize was it wasn't necessarily the bull or the cow 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.640 that was going to be the thing people talk. It 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.840 was the standoff. It was the standoff to the charging bull, 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.200 which had become the sort of the symbol of the 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.120 misogyny on Wall Street, if you will, right, So I 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.200 said to him, go back and let's see if there's 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.600 another way to cut this. And they came back and 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.960 threw a lot of brainstorming and came back with little 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.000 girl or hands on her hips, staring down the bowl. 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.080 We called it Fearless Girl, to match the cadence of 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.720 charging bull meet Fearless Girl. And then we bought two 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:01.840 weeks of space in front of the bowl. We built 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.920 out cobblestone so to sort of match the cobblestone, and 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:06.160 we said we got two weeks for. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:06.680 This to hit. 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:09.480 And I knew that it would hit, and I knew 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.080 once the world and the city fell in love with her. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.240 And again, remember Hillary did not win the presidency, so 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.720 there was a lot of angst in the world certainly 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:19.600 around this. So that it came at the perfect time. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.000 We launched around International Women's Day, and the rest is history. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:23.360 You know. 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.360 The interesting part of this, Bob is that she was 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.560 causing a lot of traffic with the bull. The bull 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.120 itself always causes traffic, but then with feral Scirl, it 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.080 really was causing a bit of a traffic concern. So 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:35.880 the city came to us and said, oh, we need 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.880 to move feral Scroll and like we're going to move 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:40.600 her wherever. We want to move her to a park. 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.240 It's like no, no, no, no, We'll move her to Germany 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:44.680 or to Tokyo, to London. 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:45.480 They all want her. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.600 There's only one place she goes, and that's standing in 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:50.960 front of the New York Stock Exchange. And if you 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.000 go there today, she stands in front of it and 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:54.160 faces the entrance. 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:55.160 You know it doesn't front it. 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.880 So when those stockbrokers leave every day, they got to 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.360 see here and remember to do the right thing. 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.200 More of Math and Magic right after this quick break. 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.360 Welcome back to Math and Magic. Let's hear more from 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.400 my conversation with Rob Riley. I want to go back 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.640 in time a little bit to get some context on you. 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.760 You grew up in Jersey in the seventies and eighties. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.440 Can you paint a picture of those times and how 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:22.960 you grew up? What was your environment? 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.400 Just awesome, Bob News Jersey is awesome that you know. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:28.440 We get hit a bit sometimes. I don't know where 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:29.360 you're from, Bob. 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.400 But U Mississippi, Jersey wrote, Mississippi hitting New Jersey. Mississippi 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.680 gets Yeah, you get, you get. 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:36.760 A couple of a couple of shots. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:37.640 You know you've done. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.800 Quite well for a guy from Mississippis So Jerseys gets 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:41.720 a little bit of the same. 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:41.920 Uh. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.800 We always seem like we're scrappy and fighting. I'm actually 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.000 mostly Italian. My mother's side was all Italian and my 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.320 father's Irish and German. But even though my last name 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.800 is Riley, I grew up mostly Italian with my grandmother 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.120 ten minutes away and the sauce on the Sundays. 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:58.880 That whole thing is. 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:00.720 Very much a big part of my life, and I 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:02.880 grew up in an environment with that was very positive. 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.600 Grew up in the same house for my entire life. 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.480 My father worked for IBM. Years later I realized he 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.960 turned down probably ten promotions. IBM used to be known 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.160 for I've been moved. The only way he got promoted 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.080 was moving, and he turned down ten promotions so the 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.080 family could grow up in the same household. You know, 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.760 sacrificed a lot. So it's not lost on me the 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.359 sacrifices my parents made for their kids to grow up 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.600 in the same place with the same friends and same 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.920 sports teams and that comfortable environment that I don't think 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.960 a lot of kids often get, certainly these days where you. 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.439 Have to move a lot. Your parents clearly had a 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.800 huge impact on you. What lessons do you still use 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:42.959 today that came directly from your parents? 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.600 My parents and also my grandparents. My mother's father was 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:47.359 an artist. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.920 When he was young, he was a semi pro hockey player, 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.000 was in the Rangers farm system, and he was about 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.600 to go pro with the Rangers, and he chose to 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.000 be an artist instead because he thought it would be 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:58.399 a better way to make money. 0:17:58.520 --> 0:17:59.720 Isn't it ironic now? 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.880 But as an artist, you know, he was very talented, 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.159 but also it wasn't a guarantee that you're going to 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.119 make money, So he ended up working in an advertising 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.880 gains he's as a retoucher. He made money or support 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.040 his family by being a retouch or in advertising. That 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.280 story always stuck with me. Just because you want to 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.879 be an artist, or you train to be an artist, 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.280 doesn't mean you're going to be successful. You know, creativity 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:21.720 is to crashoot. Sometimes you need luck, you need people 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.479