Family, Flynn, and the Future: A Conversation with Chris Flynn

Speakers: Katie Flynn, Chris Flynn

very special guest on the podcast today a man I have known literally my entire life and I’m gonna I guess I’m gonna call you Chris during this Like I usually call him dad, but we’ve got Chris Flynn. Welcome to the Flynn effect.

Yeah, it’s great to be here finally

Yeah, and you are right now presently the longest tenured person Here because this is true Kevin Kevin has sort of stepped back a hair

But I thought that would be a really interesting place to start is you know, Kevin came and told his story And how he joined the family business But I think it would be really interesting to hear how you how you got your start and what that was like for you

It all started in a fifty thousand watt station. No Um You know, I really was kind of born into it as far as the Flynn history goes You know my dad Well, Jared there We brought stuff home. It was always like hey, what do you think of this? How about this? Do you like this and play things and we’d always kind of look at it and do it So I kind of I knew really from an extremely young age. That’s what I want to do is kind of it’s interesting I get to learn a lot about all kinds of different businesses and And it keeps it interesting. Yeah, so I

Honestly, I think I was eight or nine years old when I did my first voiceover for Radio commercial for Ralph Pontiac Honda

So I started off very early doing that and then even in high school in Decca doing radio Radio spots for that as far as marketing goes. Yeah and then continued on with it within in college and working at the radio station there at college and and learning and I went to school for broadcast communications So I knew that’s what I was gonna do. I’m one of the rare people that actually am doing what I studied to do

I went to school for anthropology. Yeah, it really applies

But you have an English minor which makes it good communication and that’s what it’s all about But so I did do that and honestly I was working at the agency the last two years of college because we all had the opportunity to work in the business So it was it was like, okay Here’s $25 a week for gas. Yeah, go out and sell So I would go to school back then in a suit and tie believe it or not in the morning And then I was able to work my schedule so I could work at the agency in the afternoon And I got a couple of counts. So I was able to start eating You know, so so that’s what it is. I’ve really always been in this industry You know, I mean apart from my bartending and jobs of that nature earlier earlier on in my life and

that was late 80s

Yeah, that was late 80s. I graduated so it would have been 86 to 88 that I was doing both school and and working at the agency and then you know bartending at night to Until I was able to sell enough to get enough counts to be able to yeah an income and and do it

That’s that’s awesome. And then you and Kevin Started the buyout from Jair in the 90s.

No In the early 80s early 80s that was part of it. It was a long-term Kind of buyout so I did have some responsibility for that sure during when I did finally come on But yeah, so, you know, it was tough and things changed.

I mean, yeah,

different business back then

very different You know, I mean if we talk about the evolution and the innovations that have happened through Advertising both in the advertising agency industry, but marketing is as a whole I mean if you really you go back to I’m gonna go back to 1950 because in 1950

Jerry was the host of the first local television show here in Rochester, New York He was my dad the game show host right that but it was it was there It was all live television and and and it was once a week and sponsored by you know, Blue Bell ice cream Oh my gosh, I know Yeah And it was all the big lights and he told the story of that went to commercial break and they had to do it So quickly because the lights were so huge. The ice cream would just be melting So, you know it grew up there and that time was really print radio television was really coming in yeah on the 50s, but

Then you get into the whole madman era of like a lot of bank pow boom pow Madison Avenue

actually never seen it. But like I know the vibe you’re talking about.

Yeah, it was very much, you know entertainment That’s you know, two martini lunches and all that kind of stuff. Sure, but but it also was an era that You know now we are tracked like Results based everything needs to be results based and it’s got to be based on data. Yeah, so

Back then there was a lot of what I would like to say of Creativity from a standpoint of doing something very beautiful and memorable But we would present and we would kind of go, huh? What do you think? You know And that was really what it was in the feedback would come from what they liked and then what they would hear out in the community Right, you know as as that changed but 70s 60s 70s and 80s television production Became, you know, it really Accelerated and it also

The quality the production value. Yeah, really went through the roof

Yeah, well and

starting to do it even on a local basis, right where it’s like, okay We’re gonna we’re gonna really invest in the brand and really tell our story

And I feel like that’s a good place to start too So you’re our CEO and you’ve long, you know been sort of a visionary as it relates to Stepping into the next phase or iteration of the agency And so one of the places I want to talk about was actually video and editing In-house because that wasn’t something that people always had and yeah, what did that look like for you? I know you were at the helm there

Well, you know I’m gonna go back a little bit to understand that, you know, everything used to be shot on film and everything that was edited Was I mean I can go back to? Two inch tape that was this big and enormous machines And you know, the room was a million dollars at least, you know to get the television production done But as time progressed and the innovation and the digital digital is really what switched over video

Being able to digitize it and to be able to work with that

Really changed it you didn’t need we were working, you know with good friends of ours and very large expensive rooms

But we got to the point where I was like, okay We can digitize this and create an EDL and edit decision list Yeah offline doesn’t mean it’s broadcast quality at the time, but we could take that and we could output take our EDL To the big room. So all of our decisions were made so we went from what needed to be five hours to okay Let’s go, you know, let’s compile this and it’s an hour So our cost structure came down and that became like, okay now we have the time to play How do we make this better and and that’s really kind of where it’s shifted. I mean I Truly do believe we’re one of the first agencies in the country to actually Buy an avid and have a system in-house to do editing like that And then as it as technology progressed and we you know, we always refer to Moore’s law Which is like it’s just gonna get faster cheaper faster cheaper and that happened and then we were online and being able to do it Everything in the house right and provided all the broadcast specs to the stations Yeah, and do that and that was that was great and still is great We still have our our editing suites and we still have a studio Yeah, and we utilize it as much as we can.

Yes, and it’s enjoy it It’s what some of our clients know us for it, too, right? We have a couple of relationships that are very production focused But I you know, I think it’s a it’s a really good point, right? You were kind of on the cutting edge there in terms of making that jump over and I know that that’s also happened a few Other times here

a web perspective. Yeah analytics perspective. I guess as a as an owner entrepreneur like

How do you make those decisions? Like you are you just keeping track of where things are going is a little bit gut feel a

lot of for me It’s been gut but it really is trying to look around corners, you know, where where is it going to be in two years or three years? Yeah, and when stuff comes out it’s like when we talked about Digital, I mean, yeah, which seems like an outdated term but digital as far as when that started happening And then when we got into we had the video capability What I kind of saw like, okay, there’s gonna be a lot of video on the web Mm-hmm Streaming wasn’t didn’t exist. Yeah at the time but in 96 or 97 we made a full Okay, we’re diving in and to working and with digital assets and building web and building applications You know back then there used to be a thing called a CD-ROM, which we would do interactive

You know programs for clients that they could send to their customers And provide that with both with video and with you know, an interactive portion of it, but but that really changed it And the acceleration continued to change

We just knew that digital was gonna be Taking over and it wasn’t you know, none of this is ever

The change happens, right, you know, it’s like Recently I was talking about as innovations happen For anybody who might be listening realize that years ago when you know desktop publishing It was called but the Adobe suite came out and it was like, oh every art directors gonna be Absolutely. No one’s gonna need it. Well, I can give you a grand piano if you don’t know how to play it

It’s gonna sound pretty bad. Yeah The same is true for marketing If you don’t know what you need to accomplish and the sensibility for art direction Yeah, it’s not gonna come off polished and it’s not gonna get your end result. Yeah Now it may change the process and it may change the pricing structure for our clients we may be able to do more and sometimes Do more for the same amount or we might be able to provide the same thing with more efficiencies for us, right? So it’s ever ever ever changing. Oh, yeah, and we’re entering it, you know,

I was gonna say especially now

We’ve entered a whole new right?

I think to your point you it doesn’t happen overnight, right? So like the big generative AI came on to the scene in the last whatever it is a year and a half two years Yeah, and there was some trepidation at first, but we all played around with things and whatever and now we have it a lot more Integrated into our daily systems and there are a lot of different types of tools you can use There’s also eight thousand different offerings available out there So it’s it’s becoming sort of crowded to the point where it’s difficult to even know where to where to begin but I think we’re in another time where it’s like that reinvention or the you know adoption of those types of Tools to your point like Adobe back in the day is going to be really important and I think agencies are gonna be that much more important on the Beginning portion of a project right that upfront strategy the concept the big idea sort of stuff and that may be some of the more, you know, like Slicing and dicing into different assets and stuff will become a little bit easier. Yeah It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Anyways, cuz it’s tedious Oh, yeah

I You know and we forgot I mean as far as evolution goes you also have then data analytics And you know now prove it to me, right? How is this working prove it to me a be testing, you know always constantly trying to improve and that’s where I think it’s going To be helpful. There’s still gonna be a lot of work, right? But okay, this didn’t do it. How do we tweak it? How do we tweak it? How do we tweak it? How do we get okay? This is it? Yeah, this is the gold standard every test that we do is against that And we keep moving forward and and the thing that I would say We’ve been blessed. I mean we have been very fortunate you know 1967 was the first year the shingle went up for Flynn and Part of it was looking at innovation. Where is it going?

Right?

What’s changing if you’re not innovating?

You’re gonna be off the list. Yeah, people aren’t gonna call you and they’re gonna look other places.

So you’ll become irrelevant

Yeah, very quickly But you know AI I think if I could give any advice to anybody’s kind of

that was gonna be my last question Right.

My advice would be Play play play You’re gonna look at something and you’re gonna go well, there’s this is digitized that that image is wrong Yeah, if you think like an old dog can’t adjust you’re gonna be left behind Because what today when it says when you look at it and you go well that that’s not quite good enough That’s not that six months. Oh, it’s good enough Yeah, right because probably going to get better and better and better and the speed of change is no longer 18 months It is every day.

Yeah, so 18 minutes.

Yeah, you really have to Just play with it. Mm-hmm because once it is ready, you will then have the skills To utilize it and implement it Yeah And it make make it successful for your clients And really as long as we can innovate and make it successful for clients Then we’re doing our job and we’ll be successful and they’re happy. Yeah, and the best thing is happy clients

Yeah, and it’s more fun, too You know, it’s it’s not fun to do the same thing every single day We’re fortunate enough to get to do different stuff all the time Yeah Now you had mentioned at the beginning of this the sort of stuff that you know was brought home when you were a kid I thought it would be you know, kind of fun to end on one of my favorite memories Memories that I have obviously like we would come to the office and we’ve been in this building for what 25 years Yeah, so like I remember this building primarily many iterations of it However, my favorite like, you know, take-home work thing was and will always be casting

casting videos Oh, I knew you’re gonna say that I know Yeah Well with the exporting goods we did do a lot of casting and we were shooting a lot out in LA and in New York and and and We would have to cast and I will say sometimes agents and agencies talent agencies To such a disservice to people by sending them to things that they’re just not appropriate And those are usually the ones that are like what what is going on, but some are pretty humorous

Yeah, there’s there’s some there’s some good stuff.

There’s some overacting.

There’s a lid for every pot. But yeah Yeah, it’s one of my favorites. Yeah any last words any final advice

Yeah, I think

the best that I could give to anybody in the industry would be always be learning always be inquisitive And always ask what if you know, what if we tried this would it be great? You know, you’re not gonna hit everything right, but every once in a while you’re gonna go.