5 Questions for: Jeffrey Buntin, Jr. of The Buntin Group

Jeffrey Buntin, Jr. President, CEO of The Buntin Group
Jeffrey Buntin, Jr. President, CEO of The Buntin Group

 

4A’s members are on the front lines of managing through what can only be called rapid-fire digital change. As part of our 5 Questions for … series, we ask top agency leaders what keeps them up at night and how agencies can remain relevant in the decades to come.  Here, Jeffrey Buntin, Jr. of Nashville-based The Buntin Group, weighs in. Bunting is a founding member of Nashville’s Davidson Group, an active Board Member and former Chairman of Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee and a Board Member of the AAAA’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) River States Council Board of Governors.

1) What’s the biggest challenge or opportunity facing the ad industry right now?

The challenge of how to balance creativity with data—meaning whether the science leads the art form or the art form leads the science. If we strike the right balance, I feel the value of our work has the potential to multiply significantly. If we get it wrong, I worry we might strip the craft, unexpectedness and magic right out of the business.

2) What is the single most significant change you need to make in your agency in the next 12 months?

Radically accelerate the avenues for our very best young people to gain a key voice in how we structure our agency—and then give them opportunities to lead the functions that result from their view.

3) What products, services and unique skills do ad agencies offer that guarantee the industry’s survival for another 100 years?

The ability to see the invisible—the underlying emotions, emerging trends or hidden business opportunities so often missed—and then have extraordinary ideas on how to help clients take advantage of them.

4) What attributes do you look for in the next generation of leaders and managers?

Adaptive. Students of people. Ask the unasked questions. Self and outwardly motivated. Strong ability to follow-through.

5) If you weren’t working in advertising, what would you be doing as a career?

Something that allowed me to be outside and around people who work outside—likely involving acreage, horses, rivers or growing things.