The Human Future of Creativity with Mike Caguin

Justin Levinson (00:10)‍

Hey everybody. Welcome to the agency side podcast. I'm your host Justin Levinson. So excited to be here on the first show of the new year. And today I'm here with Mike Coggin, chief creative officer at Betty. Mike has spent decades building leading creative teams, including nearly 20 years at Collie McFoy, where he helped shape the agency into a globally recognized creative shop. Along with earlier roles at TVWA, Try It Day and DSS. He's deeply passionate about DEI, mental health, and creating agency cultures that support both strong work.

and the people behind it. Thanks so much for being here today, Mike.

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Mike Caguin (00:43)

Justin, so good to talk to you. Thanks for having me on the show.

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Justin Levinson (00:46)

Yeah.

So to get things started, maybe you can just briefly tell us like how you got into this particular creative space.

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Mike Caguin (00:53)

Yeah, it all began in high school, actually. I was drawn to art from a very early age. And actually, even before I can even remember, my parents would take us to art galleries, me and my siblings. And I was the only one of the four siblings, I was the only one who never got bored. I could stare at paintings and sculptures all day.

And that eventually translated into doodling during grade school, which translated into taking art classes in high school. And one of the most influential teachers in my life was a gentleman, the late Ed Smith. He was in my high school art teacher. And he was just so passionate about all things art, especially Italian Renaissance art, that he just drew you into his orbit and made you as passionate about art as he was. so.

I took a bunch of art classes in high school and coupled that with a little too much partying. didn't care too much about high school. got through it. And so at the end of the day, I didn't have the best test scores or the best GPA. So I used my art portfolio to get into a university. I grew up outside of Baltimore and ended up going to the University of Delaware. And I knew at the time my GPA and my SAT scores weren't good enough. So I used my art portfolio to get into the art school and

Which I did, and what happened was I ended up in my first year as taking basic art classes as an art major with the full intention of doing well and eventually transferring into the business school. Something like that. Well, in one of my drawing classes, my professor would look at the wall and critiques, and she would see, ⁓ I'd oftentimes couple visual drawings of still lifes with words and language.

And she's like, that's interesting. Cause I was the only one in the class that was doing that. And she's like, have you considered visual communications? And I said, what is visual communications? And she said, well, you should go. There's they have alumni nights a couple of times every semester where you can see what they do. It's in, know, our school has within visual communications, three paths. Commercial photography, graphic design, and art direction for advertising.

And so I went to an alumni night and because Delaware is so close to New York City, many of our alumni, especially at the time, would naturally gravitate to New York and begin these incredible careers in advertising, design, and commercial photography. And so they would display alumni work, what they were working on at the time. And it was everything from Superbowl spots to these incredible brand identity systems to amazing photo shoots for top tier brands. I, I.

came out of that alumni night saying that's exactly what I want to do. And so I submitted an application and portfolio to get into the visual communication school and got in. And a little bit of the rest is history. I originally thought I was going to be a commercial photographer because I was drawn to photography at the time. But then I realized, like, no, there's just too much equipment and it's not exactly my passion. So I thought I was going to take the graphic design track and be a graphic designer.

But then my junior year, I interned at Donor, which had an office at the time in Baltimore, co-headquartered in Baltimore. And I was seeing what they were doing for, they were doing ads for the Baltimore Zoo. And they were doing things that they were creating headlines around movies that were out around dinosaurs and things like that. And I was like, this is amazing. Like they're advertising can be in the minute culturally relevant. And I was like, that's exactly what I want to do. And so I.

changed, I came back from that junior summer internship and said, I want to change my track to advertising and studied art, focused on art direction. And the rest is history. Ever since I graduated from college, it took me a few months to find my full-time first full-time job, but I've been doing this ever since. ⁓

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Justin Levinson (04:53)

That's amazing. That's so cool. I'm a big art fan too. My parents got me really into the arts when I was a kid, especially my mom is really obsessed with the French impressionists. So she was always taking me to different museums and I got lost in that era. ⁓ That's really cool. So maybe you can tell me a little bit for those folks who might not know, at Betty, what is exactly you guys are doing over there and creating?

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Mike Caguin (05:20)

Yeah. So Betty is, is a agency that has been in existence for 18 months. Prior to that, essentially Betty is a part of So our parent company is Quad. And within Quad, they had several different creative units. So there was a team in Milwaukee, a team in Texas, a team in Chicago and a team in Minneapolis. And so what happened 18 months ago is brought all of these disparate groups together under one umbrella.

And we, we branded it Betty. And so Betty is named after, ⁓ Betty Quadracchi. And so Betty Quadracchi was the creative soul of Quad back, back in the day when they founded the company, she actually, ⁓ started the creative services arm of Quad back in the eighties, long time ago. ⁓ she had a passion for the arts. if you go to any of our offices across the country, there's amazing world-class art.

wherever you walk, it's incredibly inspiring. so Betty is the heart and soul of our agency, which is why we named Betty as such, because we are the creative spark, the creative engine of Quad. And so that's how the name came about. It's very inspiring. Betty passed away before I even got a chance to meet her, but everything I've heard about her is everything we want to want to embody as a creative agency. This commitment to creativity, having a high bar, being tenacious as hell to make things happen.

Even when you're faced with adversity, whether it's budgets or timelines or a client that you're still trying to build a foundation of trust with, all of those things require tenacity and never giving up. so when we are at our best, when Betty is at our best, we are tenacious, kind, but tenacious, and we just make things happen for our clients. And that's why I love working here.

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Justin Levinson (07:09)

That's awesome. ⁓ I'd love to learn about some of the projects you guys are doing. And this is obviously a great place for accolades if there's any awards or things you'd like to tell our viewers. I'd love to hear about it.

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Mike Caguin (07:22)

Yeah. So one of the things that we've been doing is, you know, as a creative agency, you're always in pursuit of, of elevating your creative reputation. And as I mentioned, we are, we were not Betty 18 months ago, we, there is creativity has been a part of Quad for a number of years. And so we've been, even before my arrival four years ago, we were in this pursuit of elevating the creative product on behalf of Quad and on behalf of our clients.

And so our mission is really simple, is to keep elevating the craft to help accelerate growth for all of our clients, regardless of who they are. And some of the things that we've been doing has been winning clients who are a little more bold in their creative pursuits and understand that breakthrough creative can drive sales more quickly. And so a big mission has been winning clients.

Over the last 18 months to two years, we've brought in really well-known brands like Gorilla Glue. We won that last year and so that was a huge win. We have some teaser work out there right now, but the larger campaign is breaking very, very soon. And so people can look forward to that. We're really proud of that work and proud of the relationship, great clients. We do work for a household cleaner brand.

The parent company is called Gelmar, but the actual household product is CLR brands. And a lot of people who grew up in the 70s, 80s, and maybe even 90s kind of knew it as the gray jug. CLR stands for calcium, lime, and rust. It's like an industrial strength household cleaner. And so we've done really, really good work for that brand. Over the last three or four years, we've had that relationship. Some bold, risky work that is very counter to what the category does, which is largely safe.

product demonstrations, we found a more interesting ways to do product demonstrations, which we're very proud of. We have a high end vanilla brand, Nielsen Massey Vanillas. This is a very expensive, high quality brand that eight out of 10 chefs and bakers use. And so we're introducing new products for them and, and giving people reasons to, ⁓ in higher quality vanilla, cause there is a difference. And so we've done really nice work for that brand.

And then more regionally, there's a beloved dairy brand called Kemp's. so many, many years ago, there's a tagline that anyone in this market in Minneapolis and Minnesota and Wisconsin would know it's, and the tagline it's the cows. And so we reintroduced that tagline. They had sunset that tagline for one that was a little more, less memorable. And we came, when we won the business in 23, we said, you know what?

What about it's the cows? Like there's so much brand equity with this. It's beloved. If as soon as you say that people will say it's Kemp's like it, the brand linkage to Kemp's is undeniable. so, uh, last year we, we created a really, really nice spot where a, uh, a convoy of cows marches up to a household and creates this delightful moment as the dad answers the door. And so that that's been fun. And then we have so many more new business wins and a couple recently where we got

the nod we want, we know we've won. And so we're in the throes of getting our contract signed so we can make the announcements there. So we're heading the 26 with a lot of momentum. And then one thing I wanted to mention is that the other thing that makes a Betty so interesting is we have a design practice within Betty called favorite child. And so, ⁓ I love the name favorite child. It's, it's so delightful. makes people smile every time they hear it. We have an expert.

expertise in design, specifically packaging design. And we're really, really good at it. And our niche within packaging design, where we have quite a reputation is within private label or owned brands. so in 2024, one pretty sizable design assignment from Aldi, one of the fastest growing grocery stores in the country. And we're one of their main design agencies. And so last year, a line of one of the first iterations of our work.

because it's a multi-year ongoing assignment that we have with them. They released some of the work that we had been doing with them and partnership with them. And it was so well received. You know when design...

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Justin Levinson (11:45)

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Mike Caguin (12:19)

Yeah, I'm a big believer in team and team chemistry. And so one of the things that I appreciate from our leader, Carrie Hewlings, is that she doesn't just hire smart, talented people. She thinks about personalities that are going to compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses, but also have the interpersonal skills to collaborate. And so one of the values that, that Quad has had since its founding is they call it obsessive collaboration.

And so values are only words on a page or words on a wall, unless you actually put them into action. And we put them into action every single day. are hyper collaborative, both within Betty and across Quad. We are not a holding company in the traditional sense. We are constantly interacting with each other, working with each other, and we are reviewed and bonused, ⁓ you know, with that and rewarded with that.

that notion of collaboration. so collaboration isn't just a cliche. It's something that we are pushed to do every single day. And so because of that, think our interpersonal dynamics are really, really high. And so when we get in on a call with our virtual or meet in person, you can feel the team chemistry in the room or across the screen and it's undeniable. And we're smart people. We always have a POV, but we're incredibly kind and we're good listeners. so I think

clients see that they see the creative spark, they see the strategic rigor, but they also see in themselves someone who genuinely cares about their business. And when you add all of that up, it's a winning recipe. And so you can have all the talent in the room. You could have the most talented, creative, the most strategic mind, the most business savvy account person. But if they don't get along and they can't work well together, it's really, really obvious. And clients can either intuit that or overtly see it.

And so we're just really good at working together and we work on that, right? Just like any other relationship, we work through the muck just like anyone else. And we work through our differences when they crop up. But at the end of the day, we act with good intentions and we help each other be better individuals to make the team as a whole greater.

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Justin Levinson (14:37)

Yeah, do you work remotely or do you guys collaborate in person?

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Mike Caguin (14:40)

We do both. There's good moments for in-person collaboration and then also moments where if you need to be at home just getting it done and without distraction, you can absolutely do that. And so in my review, it's the best of both worlds.

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Justin Levinson (14:57)

Yeah, I like that. CCO, what's the kind of scope of your role? What's your day to day over there?

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Mike Caguin (15:04)

Yeah, it's a great question, Josh. And so when I interviewed for this role four years ago, I told my boss, Carrie, I'm like, if you're looking for a CCO that's a hundred percent about creativity and that's lives, breeze, obsesses over it. like, I'm not your person. I have a different skill set. Like I care about creativity. Obviously that's, that's table stakes, but

There are other, I call it the four C's. It's creativity, connection, coaching, and compassion. Those are the things that make up who I am. And so creativity, like I mentioned, I care about it. I love it. I love ideas. I love the craft. I get excited about ideas. They're my favorite meetings of the day where we're ideas. I love it. That's my favorite part of the day. But connection, especially today, is more important now than ever. And what I mean by that is connecting with clients.

and your coworkers alike and across departments. so the creative team needs to be good connectors with media team and with the strategy team, et cetera. so connection is so important. Things are so complex and they're moving so quickly now that if you have good connection with other departments, you can move further faster. The next one is coaching. And so I love mentoring people.

regardless of how many years they've been in the business or if they're looking to crack into the business. And so I'll always make time to have conversations, to offer input, to provide feedback. I just love it. It feeds my soul and it's also helps people become the best versions of themselves at work. And then compassion. As you mentioned in the intro, I care about mental health a great deal. So excuse me.

Through personal experience and also through very intimate conversations with people about their own mental health struggles. It's something that I care about because at the end of the day, we're all just trying to do the best we can at work and at home. And generally speaking, we're all struggling with something or we know someone very close to us who's struggling with something. so having that mentality when I show up at work, I think allows people to bring the fullest version of themselves to work. And also.

feel free to say, you know what, I'm struggling today. And we can provide that help and support to help them weather the storm.

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Justin Levinson (17:26)

Yeah, I like that because you never know what people are going through. You know, you never know what's going on with somebody and everybody's got something. yeah, I think if you don't have compassion in the workspace, you don't have anything. So that's really, I like that a lot. Are you still, I know you come from an art director background. Are you still ever hands-on? Are you ever kind of doing any sort of design work yourself? Or is it sort of more of a, like you said, coaching kind of working, you know.

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Mike Caguin (17:51)

It's infrequent. So I actually do more writing now than I do art direction. And so part of it is just because of my role, there's so much communication and larger that communication is the written word. so, ⁓ and I do love writing. I wouldn't say that I'm a copywriter, but I do love writing. It's a passion of mine. And oftentimes when I'm doing the work, so to speak, it's

It's writing a script for a new business video or a case study that we need, that needs to get done. And then if I'm really in the weeds, I will art direct. would say I'm not nearly as talented as the team that, that is on, you know, the group that reports into me. They're way more talented than me as designers and art directors, but I will as needed. And it's usually things that are not very important or lower, lower level internal projects and there's no one to do it. And so I'll just jump in and do it. And so.

I like thinking of leadership as a bottoms up approach where, know, instead of that top-down mentality where you show me, you impress me, what I like to do is more like a coach and supporter. want to feel, I want the team to feel like I'm here to remove barriers, to provide resources. And if they need guidance, provide that guidance. So more of a foundational.

Role is how I look at it versus I'm large and in charge. That's just not how I operate.

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Justin Levinson (19:17)

Yeah. Is there a favorite part, like a favorite thing that you're doing?

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Mike Caguin (19:20)

Yeah, like, so two things, I do love the work and when people say, Hey, can I get your fresh eyes on this? And whether it's early in the process or, you know, we're reviewing an edit and they've been staring at it ad nauseam for eight hours that day and they just need a fresh set of eyes. love those moments. so those are incredibly fun. I mentioned, creativity in and of itself is this great gift.

that we all get to practice and get paid for. How amazing is that? Even though this business can be hard and fast and all that, and there's so much change happening all the time, at the very essence of it, we get paid to think of ideas and that's cool. So I will always, always love creativity and I spark every time we talk about creativity and also celebrating the great work that we're not doing. I love talking about outside inspiration as well. And then...

The coaching part of it is really fuels me as well. When people come to me where they're struggling with how to give feedback in a constructive way, in a way that uplifts someone versus deflates them, or they're struggling with an interpersonal or a personal relationship across departments and they're looking for guidance, or if they're just looking for career guidance where now we have a number of employees that have been here for a while and they're like, well, is

Betty my future, or maybe I should be moving on and I will have an honest conversation with people in their best interests. And at the same time, hopefully paint a picture where, where if I genuinely think they can grow and thrive here, I will mention that, but I'll do it in a way that feels really honest and sincere and in their best interest too. And so those are the things that I love to do is build strong relationships with people, regardless of their level of seniority.

where hopefully they feel comfortable enough to talk about things like their career with me, even though they might be considering leaving. And so I like that. I've had several conversations with people like that who are on the fence. And I think in all instances decided to stay because we were so open and honest about those discussions and their future here.

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Justin Levinson (21:35)

Two things I want to click on that you had mentioned. One, I'm interested in when there are conversations that are, you where you have to be critical. What is the strategy there to approach the person? I've always thought, you know, a lot of people that I work with, I always try to lead with a compliment before I sort of bring the criticism. I don't know if that's, you know, an effective strategy, but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts and not to combine two questions in one, but I'm also interested in.

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Mike Caguin (21:44)

sort of this.

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Justin Levinson (22:02)

You mentioned change and hearing about the changes in the industry since you started till now.

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Mike Caguin (22:06)

Yeah. So when I'm giving feedback to someone, tell, so I'm always myself, which is, you know, be open, be sincere, be caring and compassionate. So that, that doesn't change regardless of who I'm talking to. What does change is how I deliver it. And with some people, they just want it plain spoken, direct black and white. And, and so, you know, you need to bookend it a little bit. You need to say, Hey, here's what you did well.

Here's what could be better, but you're awesome at what you do. And so you bookend it with a compliment sandwich. And so I do tailor based on who's on the other end of the table, but do it in a way that's true to myself. And I've found I'm getting better at that over the years. And it's taken a while to understand the nuances. all very complex. Even the feedback and how I deliver it might even change to the individual based on the day they're having.

You know, I pick up the energy in the room. I'm like, okay, they're having a tough day. And so I might even hold the feedback for that day and decide to give it on a different day when they're in a, they're probably more receptive to it. So I try my best to understand like what is going on in that person's life right now, just based on their vibe, their energy, their mood, and tailor my, feedback accordingly.

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Justin Levinson (23:29)

I love that you got to read the room and kind of to think for you, ⁓ engage. ⁓ I appreciate that. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about like the, the changes that you've noticed since you've obviously there's been the AI revolution. Many things have happened. curious to know what you've seen.

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Mike Caguin (23:44)

Yeah, I think the higher order of that is the umbrella change that we're all experiencing is speed and AI is just an accelerant to that. I mean, it's all these other things too, but it is an accelerant to getting faster to market, getting to big ideas quicker, the expectations to turn around deliverables, the speed to version out things, to optimize things as we're, we're learning what's working and what's not working in market speed is.

I think the biggest change that I've seen and there's been a couple of milestone moments throughout my career. So I would say the smartphone was one of those big moments in time where you're like, I don't think we felt it necessarily. think we, as individuals, we felt the wonder and delight of your first iPhone or your first smartphone. You're like, this is amazing. What is happening right now? What's in my hand? This is incredible.

But from a work perspective, I think it took a couple of years for it really to take hold and how it impacted our work lives and deliverables and suddenly ⁓ what is needed in order to effectively reach the end consumer. And then the second one I would say is AI. it just, it's been so profound in how it's affected conversations, expectations, and also what's possible in exciting ways.

that it's undeniable. So, but speed is really the thing when I talk about the good things and the challenging things within our industry, it's the speed and how that can sometimes lead to burnout, but also it can lead to ⁓ these unbelievable moments where you're like, we just made a song for a pitch in 24 hours. And before you would have had to pay a bunch of people and you probably, wouldn't have been able to do it.

You just, cause you came up with the idea too late and to reach out to people and have it recorded, it's just not feasible. And so those things are now feasible with AI. So they're like with all great things, there are downsides, but they're also really great positives as well.

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Justin Levinson (25:53)

Yeah. Are there any tools that your team is using that you find have been really, really helpful?

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Mike Caguin (25:58)

Yeah, so there's a whole host of tools. The thing we've been talking about is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of tools in Gen.AI. so I think we're our level of understanding and obviously things are ever changing, but there are certain tools that are better for certain things than others. so there's a time where just hopping into chat GPT and doing a quick visual.

you need to convey an idea is quicker than trying to pull it off in mid-journey or some of these other things. And so I think we're getting to a level of complexity where we're like, okay, the nuances of VO, I know what to do. I know that's the right tool for this specific way to convey this proof of concept versus a Sora or a mid-journey video. so I don't know. mean, VO is definitely rising to the top right now. And then there's

There's this great platform that we're currently, some of us are utilizing it and it looks like more of us will start utilizing. It is called FreePic. And so it hosts a number, it's almost like an aggregator of AI. And so you have a dozen or even more different platforms that you can access through FreePic. And so essentially it's like take, it's almost like bundled subscriptions that's like, can get Hulu, ESPN and...

And so on and so forth in one package, free pick is that version of that for AI. And so that's where we're currently looking into for this year is to give access to free pick. so it enables access to more tools versus subscriptions for all these different platforms, for all these different individuals. It's very complex if you do it that way.

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Justin Levinson (27:36)

Yeah, it's hard because you can be subscribed to so many different things and you know, have to learn how to use them and then see if you're getting an ROI on them. can be a real, it can be really a thing. ⁓ Curious, while we have like another like five minutes or so, I was curious if you could tell me a little bit about like, you know, just what excites you? Like what, what do you like doing outside of, know, outside of, outside of work?

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Mike Caguin (27:44)

⁓

Yeah, so from a creative standpoint, back in 24, so the beginning of 24, I had two personal goals that kind of crossed over into work. One, the first goal was to lean more into AI to understand it, experiment with it, experiment with different platforms so I could, even though I'm not necessarily hands-on doing the work by and large, I still want to be smart enough to understand the possibilities and just be literate.

with AI. so that was like, one was a tech-based goal and the other one was an analog goal. And the analog goal was to come up with expressions that I would then write in black ink on online paper and post them on LinkedIn. I call them cognisms now, but they're basically themed ideas. And so I've created posts around inclusion, around mental health, about humor.

Like all these subject matters, just things that either are topical or things that I think about as I'm just going about my daily life. And so I started that project in January of 24 with the goal of posting one every week. Mission accomplished, did that. I did more than that in 2024. And I enjoyed it so much because the hard part is thinking of what to say. And then, but the part of pulling out the black ink and the what brush to use and what page size to use.

depending on how big the statement was, was this like artistic pursuit as well. But it was so fun to do it because if you messed up, you have to just start with a new piece of paper. There's no command Z, there's no redo button. You have to just have to start over. And so I loved those two different goals book on each other. And so I continued the, um, creating these cognisms in 2025. I didn't do as many, but I've enjoyed it so much. And sometimes it led to.

coffees with people who wanted to talk more about mental health and, other things I've been posting about. And so it's led to introductions to people in the community that I didn't know before. And in some cases, really intimate discussions around their own struggles. And so I'm going to get going to continue that into this year. I haven't posted anything yet, but you can look on LinkedIn for that to come. But that's, that's brought me joy. And then from a, ⁓

From a more sports or exercise related endeavor, I'm into endurance sports. so for a number of years, I've been running, cycling and swimming and oftentimes combining those all three into triathlon. so over the last 15 years, I've completed three Ironman triathlons and two ultra marathons. ran my first and probably last 50 mile ultra marathon. so that's been on my bucket list for.

Probably 10 years now and I finally created enough desire to do it and I did the training and I ran that in October. And so I do like beating up my body as another pastime. That's awesome.

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Justin Levinson (31:01)

So

I was looking on your LinkedIn page. I was aware of, and I have more context behind it, but I was aware of the Coggenisms. I was seeing those and I had also seen that you had done a lot of marathons and triathlon. So that's incredible. I don't think I could run a mile without like falling over, but yeah, that's great, man. ⁓ But yeah, Mike, thanks so much for being on the podcast today and, you know, offering some value to the community and telling us about your successes and your passions. I really appreciate the conversation today.

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Mike Caguin (31:29)

It was great talking to you, Justin. Really enjoyed it.

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Justin Levinson (31:32)

Awesome, Mike. Have a great rest of your day. I appreciate it.

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Mike Caguin (31:34)

You too. Take care. Bye. Bye.