Whilst on our creative journey around the world last year Hungry Creatives managed to organise an interview with Pascal De Decker, Executive Creative Director of TAXI, Montreal.

Pascal, who’s originally from Belgium, has always loved advertising since he was a kid, as well as the fact that every day is different with new challenges, technologies and pressure.

“…we all love to have a great portfolio, but if your portfolio is amazing and your clients are closing their stores because you didn’t sell anything you’re a shitty creative. So you have to be able to sell stuff and build your portfolio at the same time.”

We also asked Pascal what skills and knowledge a creative needs to keep climbing the ranks within the industry.

“You have to know the consumer first, because if you don’t know the consumer it will just become about the creatives and you will be talking to yourself. You have to know your clients, their needs, what their issues are, who their competitors are. Then you have to know your creatives, their strengths, their weaknesses, what they like in life…because if they don’t know the subject of the brief then they aren’t going to come up with great ideas.”