Time for another visit to Creative Leaders Corner. Pull up a seat for insights from industry leaders as they share their creative journeys and how they guide others on theirs.
Next, we speak with Khoa Pham, Creative Director at The Friday Vietnam.
Khoa reflects on moving from hands-on creative work to guiding others, and why the most fulfilling part of leadership is watching people around him fall in love with advertising. He also shares his approach to client risk — not persuading clients to take risks, but making them feel there is no risk at all.
He also discusses the Viettel 5G Uncle Badass campaign, which he describes as the kind of work he had always wanted to make — feeling more like a sequence from a feature film than a commercial — and how AI supports the team’s workflow across research, design, copywriting, and more, while remaining, in his view, simply a very powerful tool.
What do you miss about being a creative without the leadership role, and what do you enjoy most about creative leadership?
What I miss most about being creative is being fully hands-on. I used to do almost everything myself — the ideas, the scripts, the mockups, the edits, and more. I loved getting lost in all those details. As I moved into a leadership role, I had to let go of some of that, spending less time making things myself and more time guiding other people.
I also think the industry has changed a lot over the past 10 years. It has become more focused on quantity over quality, and a lot of what we create today feels more like commodities. I don’t think anyone wants to spend their career making commodities every day. That’s also why advertising doesn’t feel as attractive to young people as it used to.
So the most fulfilling part of creative leadership for me is seeing people around me gradually fall in love with advertising. That’s also what I want to do most as a creative leader — grow more ad nerds who are obsessed with making truly creative work.
Was there a particular ad or ads that inspired you to focus your creative talents on the ad industry?
Probably The Man Your Man Could Smell Like and all the other Old Spice ads. They were completely unpredictable. They made no sense, yet felt absolutely right at the same time. That kind of creativity — bold, weird, entertaining, and impossible to ignore — is exactly the kind of work we aspire to make.
I also believe that’s what the industry needs right now. Today, we’re not only competing with other ads — we’re competing with everything else on people’s screens. So creating work that’s impossible to ignore is something I always push my creative team to focus on.
How do you persuade clients to take creative risks?
I never try to persuade clients to take risks, because I think most clients are naturally afraid of risk. Instead, I approach it from the opposite direction. My job is to make them feel that there’s no risk in choosing the idea or campaign.
That means giving them confidence — showing a clear strategy, explaining why the idea will work, and making sure the execution feels thoughtful and controlled.
I think it is not just about selling bold ideas. It’s also about making people feel safe enough to believe in them.
What are your strategies for inspiring and motivating your creative team to push boundaries and challenge the status quo?
I think the first step is understanding what the boundaries actually are before trying to push them.
The taste of younger consumers has changed a lot compared to the past. People today are much more allergic to advertising and tend to avoid anything that feels too much like an ad.
So for us, the biggest challenge to overcome is creating ads that don’t feel like ads. The work needs to feel similar to the kind of content people already consume every day on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. Only then will people stop scrolling and pay attention to our work.
I think it is not just about selling bold ideas. It’s also about making people feel safe enough to believe in them.
That’s why we often look at content creators’ work and ask ourselves: “Would people share our work the same way they share this?” If the answer is no, we push the idea further and keep developing it.
One of the most fulfilling feelings is launching a campaign and, just a few hours later, seeing friends and people around sharing it, talking about it, and reacting to it naturally. That’s when we know the work has broken through.
How is AI influencing your team’s creative process and the way you approach creative work for clients?
AI has genuinely supported our team a lot. We use many different AI tools across research, design, copywriting, treatments, VFX, and more.
It has made our workflow much faster and more efficient, especially when it comes to visualizing ideas. AI helps us demonstrate ideas more quickly, so clients can fully understand and experience what we’re trying to communicate.
I actually have a pretty simple view of AI. For me, it’s just a tool — a very powerful one — that helps us work faster and more effectively.
What advice do you have for people making their way into the creative industry for the first time?
Consume as many great ads as possible. Watch the classics, study the work of the best creatives, and build your obsession with creativity.
What are some campaigns you worked on during your career that you are most proud of?
It’s Viettel 5G – Uncle Badass, a campaign we created for Viettel, one of the biggest and most well-known brands in Vietnam. The main film from the campaign is actually the kind of work I had always wanted to make in my career. It feels more like a sequence from a feature film than a commercial.
If someone only had five minutes to understand modern Vietnam, I think they could watch this piece. It’s a humorous road-trip journey that captures different people and slices of contemporary Vietnam in a very authentic way.
Quick Hits:
Most useful app or tool you’ve started using recently:
I honestly haven’t thought of any yet. I’m quite old school in the way I work, and I don’t depend too much on tools or technology.
Book everyone in the industry should read:
Hegarty on Advertising.
Something you want to learn or wish you were better at:
Drawing. I’ve always wished I could draw exactly what I imagine in my mind, as fast as I think of it.
