One of the coolest things about New York is that there are a vast number of fields available to scientists, ranging from academia to the arts. So when I head that the CU Biotech Association had invited a speaker to talk about what a career in advertising is like, I thought I would check it out.

The speaker was Jim Joseph, managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi Consumer Health + Wellness (SSCH+W). SSCH+W is an advertising agency that focuses on consumer wellness, responsible for advertising many big name pharmaceuticals like Ambien CR, Plavix, and Nexium. They also advertise what Jim describes as wellness products, such as Transition Lenses.

Jim, a New York educated businessman, was really a master of his domain. In addition to his previous experiences at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Arm and Hammer, and Carnation, Jim stepped into SSCH+W when it was a failing pharma-specific advertising agency and rebuilt the company, transforming it into a wellness label.

While I don’t think advertising is the career path for me (a scientist wanting to transition into advertising must start at entry level), I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Jim (a successful businessman) and the successful scientist. He had a clear passion for marketing and advertising, a feeling that he described as love, that was there straight from the get go (and by get go I mean undergrad). Not to mention, he spent years becoming an expert in consumer marketing, developing the skills that aided in his transformation of SSCH+W. As a scientist trying to become an expert in the field of lipid metabolism, I could really appreciate his dedication. He most likely spent years developing his advertising lingo, perfecting the usage of works like brand recognition and consumer behavior. Is the development of his advertising vocabulary so different from my usage of words like intracellular sterol traffiking and subcellular lipid stores? Not really. Finally, he worked with clients in the same manner that a scientist would work with a collaborator, a colleague-type relationship where they are constantly in contact and sharing knowledge. I guess one could argue that elements such as passion for your career, expertise in your field, developing a field-specific vocabulary, and successful collaboration are required in for success in any career path, but I thought Jim really exemplified these characteristics within the consumer marketing/advertising domain.

There were also some clear differences. In describing his work, Jim was not nearly as detailed as a scientist would be. His explanations were less fact-based and a bit vague (by my standards), as a deep understanding of every product you advertise may not be applicable to advertising it. You only need to know that aspects of the product that are relevant to the consumer. I must also point out the obvious difference that advertising is primarily profit-driven, rather than knowledge-driven.

None-the-less, I felt Jim accurately described what a career in advertising is like and the skills necessary to succeed in the field. What he didn’t realize is that he also conveyed some of the more universal characteristics of success. Perhaps he picked them up in New York.