In conversation with Yessica Yeti, creative director at PEIX Health Group
If you’re expecting the ultimate guide to being creative, you’re about to be disappointed. Yessica Yeti is a copywriter, author, musician, music journalist and creative director at PEIX Health Group. And yet, she doesn’t have the ultimate technique or recipe to do any of these things. Creativity permeates Yeti’s life like a common thread.
Adlershof Journal: Are you the most creative person in Adlershof?
Yessica Yeti: I hope not! Above all, I’m a creative with a broad range of interests, working across very different disciplines. I might summarise that using “creativity” as an umbrella. I’m a musician, I write books and songs, I think strategically and conceptually, and I’m an advertising copywriter. The great thing is that I don’t have to choose just one discipline. Every day is a challenge, and I’m lucky enough to be able to pursue all my passions at the same time. I like that. I need input.
What do you do at PEIX?
I’ve been working in advertising for 17 years, and for the past three I’ve been creative director for copy and concepts here. Going into advertising wasn’t my idea. Back then, I was actually a music journalist and columnist. While doing that, people approached me, saying that I had a way with words. At PEIX, we create advertising for the healthcare sector. Some of the subjects we deal with are highly complex, and we have to communicate them to the public, including obesity, early detection of breast cancer, menopause, or cancer screening for men. My job is to think complex topics smaller. I distil and simplify—that’s my job.
There are currently around 80 of us at PEIX. Concepts are developed by the creative teams, which bring together copywriters, art directors, and people from other disciplines. When a new topic comes in, we have medical specialists in-house who explain how a drug or therapy works during an onboarding session. When the final briefs come through from the account management team, I often ask a lot of questions. Some probably find me quite demanding when that happens. But it’s impossible for me to begin without having understood everything—and then I can translate all that into advertising that’s “on point”. Then I open a blank presentation and start thinking.
What’s special about PEIX?
The people. We are “radically human”. That’s our guiding principle. We want our work to help people live better lives. If I can encourage people to take care of their health—prevention is a good example—then I’m making a difference. We also support one another as a team, which sets us apart from many other companies, particularly in the advertising industry. How we behave and what we leave behind matters to us. One example of this is that we donate one percent of our annual turnover to charitable and social organisations.
Let’s talk AI: curse or blessing for the creative industry?
At first, we thought it was going to change everything. We’ve just produced an entire advert using AI. But in our line of work, AI remains one tool among many. It’s an essential part of agency life, particularly when it comes to research. I now take a rather dispassionate view of it, seeing it as a “dead sparring partner”. If you ask me, penicillin has changed the world far more profoundly.
What do you recommend to people who are stuck in a creative process?
I don’t really have technical tips. I am not even sure how I do it myself. Every circle of friends has one person that people ask for advice—regardless of what the problem is. Every company or research group has that person, too. Find that person!
Peggy Mory for Adlershof Journal