Quincy Cherry joined Initiate-it in February as the firm’s new VP of creative services. Photos by Jonathan Spiers.
When Quincy Cherry arrived in Richmond last year, the New York native wasn’t sure if he was done with his 20-year career in advertising and marketing.
Burned out on New York, where he led 16 different creative teams in three different cities as senior VP and chief creative officer for Brooklyn-based Uniworld Group, Cherry explored his options in Richmond – and explored the city itself – by signing up as an Uber driver, giving rides to local executives and people in the creative industry.
Among his passengers was Helayne Spivak, director of the Brandcenter, who Cherry knew from New York and didn’t know was in Richmond. Another was Andrew Smith, founder and president of local ad shop Initiate-it, who in turn picked up Cherry this year as the agency’s new vice president of creative services.
In that role, Cherry is tasked with helping to create more buzz for the agency, which is upping its profile after a recent surge in growth that landed the firm on last year’s RVA 25, BizSense’s annual rankings of the area’s fastest-growing companies. When BizSense visited Cherry several weeks ago, the agency was in the process of moving into a larger space within the In Your Ear studio complex it calls home in Shockoe Bottom.
Cherry talked with BizSense about his escape from New York, how Initiate-it lured him back into the business, and his approach to the creative process, or what he refers to as finding “the center of the sound.” The following is an edited transcript:
Richmond BizSense: What brought you to Richmond?
Quincy Cherry: My girlfriend is a UVA grad, and Richmond to her was a great place that’s affordable. We were looking for someplace else to be, someplace to do our thing, and do it where the level of stress would be basically none. That was the biggest thing for me. I was beyond burnt out – doing board meetings, missing flights because I just couldn’t remember where I’m supposed to be the next day. I got to a point in my career where it was like I can’t keep doing this at this level. It was 250 miles per hour, nonstop. After a while, it’s like, what’s the reward? Even though you’re making the New York salary, you can’t spend it.
Why was Initiate-it a good fit?
QC: Number one was Andrew. It has a lot to do with the type of leadership at a company, and his traits just represent to me a true gentleman who believes in something, who is forward-thinking and also open-minded to navigating left or right to find the answer for a client – to find the answer even for himself, on growing a business. I saw myself in him.
It had to be a smaller shop, and it had to be digital first. I saw a shift in the agency model.
RBS: In addition to overseeing creative, you’re also serving as a pitch man. How do you separate those two, or do they go hand in hand?
QC: It’s actually pretty seamless. You get an RFP to work on a pitch, the thing that’s really key to me that clients always consider and want to know is how are you going to be able to capture the journey of their consumer. And through new business, I look at both disciplines as parallels, because if I’ve got a creative brief on assignment and I’m dealing with the journey experience, I want to know every touchpoint with that consumer, because I want to then figure out if the person wakes up at 8 o’clock in the morning, what’s the first thing they do? If I’m dealing with Colgate toothpaste or whatever their brand is, I’ve got to hit those touchpoints.
RBS: What attracted you to the industry? What about marketing and branding appealed to you?
QC: My folks had a company many years ago, and they used to send out, in their invoices to clients, the bill. And as a young kid, I just took the opportunity to include an 8½-by-11, folded-three-times message. I would put a custom message, and people would respond to these custom messages by, when you place your order the next month, you add another 10 or 20 percent of volume product that you ordered, because you like this company. Over time, my mom would say, “I’m actually getting more orders by you doing this.” So that was the beginning part of me saying there is something that’s really interesting to being able to share your voice with somebody that tells a story. I wanted to be that: to be a storyteller, and to be able to sell some product, which is kind of cool.
RBS: Talk about your creative process and how you approach creativity. Is there a fundamental approach for you? How do you foster it in your shop?
‘I still Uber,’ Cherry said, ‘because I still pick up people who continue the narrative.’
QC: Years ago, I was at a New Orleans Jazz & Heritage show, and Wynton Marsalis was about to play a really small set. He gets up and he’s got his band and he says on the mic, “We’re going discovering on this journey. I have no idea where we’re going, guys, but hold on and just hang with us for a moment.” They ended up with this really experimental music, which contradicted each other. They were fighting each other, but they were looking for something. After about five minutes, his father Ellis got up on the piano and started playing, and he says, “I know where we’re going. We’re going to the center of the sound.”
That “center of the sound” analogy has been with me for life. It is looking for the core, that sweet spot, on whatever. So when I approach an assignment, I’m looking for the center of the sound. I want to get as deep as I can and as close as I can to the soul of that audience, of that person. Once I’ve figured that place out, I’ve got you; I know everything about you. There are no more assumptions. I know you. Once you do that, it becomes second nature. It’s like the ideas just flow at the highest level.
RBS: What are your impressions of Richmond’s ad scene and the creative community here?
QC: I’m still trying to figure the ad scene out. From the Uber perspective, it was everybody saying: “Are you going to Martin? Do you know about Martin?” (The Martin Agency) was the conversation 9,000 times a day. And I started laughing, going, “There has got to be other agencies here.” And I started picking up other people along the way who were telling me, “I’m at this agency,” whether it was Fred Moore’s place (Big River Advertising) or other shops. I started figuring out there are other people who are really doing good things in this market.
Because of this halo effect of Geico and everything else that Martin is doing, it draws that attention to the city. I’ve got that. But there are other agencies – from their own perspectives, their own points of view – that are killing it too, that are doing really good stuff.
I still Uber. I don’t Uber as much now – I only do it on Saturdays – but I still do that, because I still pick up people who continue the narrative.
RBS: If you had the chance to ask one person a particular question, who would that person be and what question would you ask?
QC: If I had one opportunity to talk to somebody, it would probably be Martin Luther King Jr. And that question that I would ask would be: How did you believe? What helped you to believe? What helped you to trust that inner center of the sound?
I’d love to know his center of his sound.
Quincy Cherry joined Initiate-it in February as the firm’s new VP of creative services. Photos by Jonathan Spiers.
When Quincy Cherry arrived in Richmond last year, the New York native wasn’t sure if he was done with his 20-year career in advertising and marketing.
Burned out on New York, where he led 16 different creative teams in three different cities as senior VP and chief creative officer for Brooklyn-based Uniworld Group, Cherry explored his options in Richmond – and explored the city itself – by signing up as an Uber driver, giving rides to local executives and people in the creative industry.
Among his passengers was Helayne Spivak, director of the Brandcenter, who Cherry knew from New York and didn’t know was in Richmond. Another was Andrew Smith, founder and president of local ad shop Initiate-it, who in turn picked up Cherry this year as the agency’s new vice president of creative services.
In that role, Cherry is tasked with helping to create more buzz for the agency, which is upping its profile after a recent surge in growth that landed the firm on last year’s RVA 25, BizSense’s annual rankings of the area’s fastest-growing companies. When BizSense visited Cherry several weeks ago, the agency was in the process of moving into a larger space within the In Your Ear studio complex it calls home in Shockoe Bottom.
Cherry talked with BizSense about his escape from New York, how Initiate-it lured him back into the business, and his approach to the creative process, or what he refers to as finding “the center of the sound.” The following is an edited transcript:
Richmond BizSense: What brought you to Richmond?
Quincy Cherry: My girlfriend is a UVA grad, and Richmond to her was a great place that’s affordable. We were looking for someplace else to be, someplace to do our thing, and do it where the level of stress would be basically none. That was the biggest thing for me. I was beyond burnt out – doing board meetings, missing flights because I just couldn’t remember where I’m supposed to be the next day. I got to a point in my career where it was like I can’t keep doing this at this level. It was 250 miles per hour, nonstop. After a while, it’s like, what’s the reward? Even though you’re making the New York salary, you can’t spend it.
Why was Initiate-it a good fit?
QC: Number one was Andrew. It has a lot to do with the type of leadership at a company, and his traits just represent to me a true gentleman who believes in something, who is forward-thinking and also open-minded to navigating left or right to find the answer for a client – to find the answer even for himself, on growing a business. I saw myself in him.
It had to be a smaller shop, and it had to be digital first. I saw a shift in the agency model.
RBS: In addition to overseeing creative, you’re also serving as a pitch man. How do you separate those two, or do they go hand in hand?
QC: It’s actually pretty seamless. You get an RFP to work on a pitch, the thing that’s really key to me that clients always consider and want to know is how are you going to be able to capture the journey of their consumer. And through new business, I look at both disciplines as parallels, because if I’ve got a creative brief on assignment and I’m dealing with the journey experience, I want to know every touchpoint with that consumer, because I want to then figure out if the person wakes up at 8 o’clock in the morning, what’s the first thing they do? If I’m dealing with Colgate toothpaste or whatever their brand is, I’ve got to hit those touchpoints.
RBS: What attracted you to the industry? What about marketing and branding appealed to you?
QC: My folks had a company many years ago, and they used to send out, in their invoices to clients, the bill. And as a young kid, I just took the opportunity to include an 8½-by-11, folded-three-times message. I would put a custom message, and people would respond to these custom messages by, when you place your order the next month, you add another 10 or 20 percent of volume product that you ordered, because you like this company. Over time, my mom would say, “I’m actually getting more orders by you doing this.” So that was the beginning part of me saying there is something that’s really interesting to being able to share your voice with somebody that tells a story. I wanted to be that: to be a storyteller, and to be able to sell some product, which is kind of cool.
RBS: Talk about your creative process and how you approach creativity. Is there a fundamental approach for you? How do you foster it in your shop?
‘I still Uber,’ Cherry said, ‘because I still pick up people who continue the narrative.’
QC: Years ago, I was at a New Orleans Jazz & Heritage show, and Wynton Marsalis was about to play a really small set. He gets up and he’s got his band and he says on the mic, “We’re going discovering on this journey. I have no idea where we’re going, guys, but hold on and just hang with us for a moment.” They ended up with this really experimental music, which contradicted each other. They were fighting each other, but they were looking for something. After about five minutes, his father Ellis got up on the piano and started playing, and he says, “I know where we’re going. We’re going to the center of the sound.”
That “center of the sound” analogy has been with me for life. It is looking for the core, that sweet spot, on whatever. So when I approach an assignment, I’m looking for the center of the sound. I want to get as deep as I can and as close as I can to the soul of that audience, of that person. Once I’ve figured that place out, I’ve got you; I know everything about you. There are no more assumptions. I know you. Once you do that, it becomes second nature. It’s like the ideas just flow at the highest level.
RBS: What are your impressions of Richmond’s ad scene and the creative community here?
QC: I’m still trying to figure the ad scene out. From the Uber perspective, it was everybody saying: “Are you going to Martin? Do you know about Martin?” (The Martin Agency) was the conversation 9,000 times a day. And I started laughing, going, “There has got to be other agencies here.” And I started picking up other people along the way who were telling me, “I’m at this agency,” whether it was Fred Moore’s place (Big River Advertising) or other shops. I started figuring out there are other people who are really doing good things in this market.
Because of this halo effect of Geico and everything else that Martin is doing, it draws that attention to the city. I’ve got that. But there are other agencies – from their own perspectives, their own points of view – that are killing it too, that are doing really good stuff.
I still Uber. I don’t Uber as much now – I only do it on Saturdays – but I still do that, because I still pick up people who continue the narrative.
RBS: If you had the chance to ask one person a particular question, who would that person be and what question would you ask?
QC: If I had one opportunity to talk to somebody, it would probably be Martin Luther King Jr. And that question that I would ask would be: How did you believe? What helped you to believe? What helped you to trust that inner center of the sound?
I’d love to know his center of his sound.