The Business of Commercials!! 241MZ: Are there any words of advice that you would like to give to
people who would like to manage a music house?
Russo: I would not shy away from the other side of the fence and
try to work on the agency side. I think that for you to get to
know the animal you are trying to wrestle with, you are better
to know it from within than from the outside. My best advice
would be that instead of trying to trudge up and down Madison
Avenue looking for work as an outside supplier, I would rather
put together a very nice re ́sume ́and some good thought put in
introductory letters that really go to the point of how you would
like to be involved as an employee and a part of the actual indus-
try itself. This way, you can get a job as an assistant producer,
you can get a job in business affairs, you can get a job as an
administrator, you can get a job in contract law assisting—
basically an apprentice-type situation—you could actually make
some money rather than making no money, and you can learn
the workings of the mechanics within an agency and actually
take that as a three-prong initiative. Number one, you’ll be earn-
ing; number two, you’ll be learning; and number three, you’ll be
in a position to understand better how to create your best oppor-
tunity for yourself ongoing in a later stage of your career devel-
opment.
MZ: How involved do you get in the creative part of the business?
Russo: I get involved to a point where I understand the overall
scope of the assignment, the overall direction of the assignment,
the overall budgetary allowances of the assignment, the sched-
ule, and the players who are involved. After that, it is more my
partner and the creative director who run the actual jingle cre-
ations or demo submissions. I have found that you can’t be both
things in this business and do them both well. In other words,
my caveat is don’t be an artist thinking that you’re going to be
an artist and a business affairs executive and vice versa. It’s very
hard to do sales and run a job from an administrative point of
view when your job is already demanding from a creative point
of view. So what happens is that one will suffer. Whichever that
one is, is the one you don’t pay enough attention to. So, if you
don’t do enough of your homework in making sure your work
is excellent, then you are not going to get a next job because you
are going to lose—and if you are spending too much time on the
creative, you are not going to have a chance to get a leg up on
what your next assignment is going to be because you are too
busy doing the job you already have. So, there has to be a sepa-
rate, divide-and-conquer-type message that one person cannot
be all things to this business.
MZ: Is there any other advice you would like to give?