"Creativity and speed, that suits me".

Advertising Week: Dennis Lück, congratulations for the record! Pride ?

Dennis Lück: Wait, I'll have to put the jumbo bubbly to one side first. (laughs) Of course, I'm mega, mega proud.

On what exactly?

I am proud of the teams behind it, the customers who have gone along for the ride, the partners who have made the impossible possible. This has been going on for five years now. That's crazy! That's hundreds of projects, and the radius of people involved in the record, I estimate close to 1000 people. The stories are also so wonderfully diverse. With FCB, we became invincible out of nowhere. With JvM, the story was to keep the top constant. And the fact that this has now become such a record is of course terrific. I hope that helps me with my naturalization (laughs).

Creativity seems to come out of all your pores How does creativity go under pressure of expectation? Isn't that a killer?

Diamonds are created only under pressure. I need the pressure. The greater the pressure, the faster the machine runs. I'm just like any other creative person. If we don't have pressure, we let it slide and watch the flowers grow. In the meantime, it has even been scientifically proven that creatives work more efficiently under pressure and with tight guidelines. I also function best when I'm told you have one hour. After all, superheroes don't need 6 weeks of lead time, 15 shoulder looks and 23 feedback loops before they save the world, do they? Creativity and speed, that fits for me.

What do victories mean to a creative mind like you?

In every truly creative mind there is also a competitive spirit. Ambitious musicians want to be number one in the charts, ambitious artists want to get into MoMA, and driven creatives just want to get to the top of the rankings. Creativity is a team sport, and those who play sports want to win. The best clients are also the ones who want to get to the top. Then great things are created together. I also don't like all this modern and hip chatter about telling everyone that you're also good at losing, and that that's such a great quality, too. Ew. At #2, you're king of the horns. And quite correctly, of course, king*in of the toots. I don't want that. I like the will to win around me.

Columnist, political campaign manager, stage actor (the death at the SWA annual meeting). Where is the most Dennis Lück soul in it?

The most soul is in creative work, no matter where, no matter in which role, no matter with which title. That's why I've taken the path I'm taking now. I have to be operationally creative, that's where my soul lies, that's where I belong. I can do that as a columnist, as a keynote speaker, or as an operational copywriter for clients. As soon as the soul is involved, something sensible usually comes out of it.

What can you learn from your children in terms of creativity?

They're not afraid to try things out. That's the best thing you can learn from children. After a failure, they approach the second attempt with the same enthusiasm. Grandiose.

You said goodbye to Jung von Matt and are now at the start with BrinkertLück Creatives. How's it going?

First of all, you have to remember in which phase we founded BrinkertLück Creatives. Out of the lockdown, so to speak. More anti-cyclical action is not possible. If you take that into account, we have had a sensational start. On average, we receive one new customer per week. We are working hard to keep it up and look forward to reporting and showing more soon.

Will you also submit to awards with the new agency?

This is not an issue at the moment for two reasons. First, we will want and need to invest every franc we win in ourselves. Secondly, the award circus will certainly change now. There is a real inflation of awards, and inflation always leads to devaluation. Let me make a comparison: In athletics, there is no national competition just for long jumpers. And another national event only for discus throwers. And then another event only for sprinters. And another one for the javelin throwers. But we in communications are doing that. We have tattered ourselves. I would like - please understand as inspiration - a radical simplification. National championship and world championship. Period, out, finished. Two hard competitions, each with all disciplines. Would that be logical? But it's not possible, because you would have to merge all the federations. But one can dream. And I'm good at dreaming. So, where's my bubbly? (laughs)