Whit Hiler is having a year. A creative director at local ad agency Cornett—where he’s worked since 2010 conjuring moon-shot ideas for brands like A&W and VisitLEX—Hiler’s been racking up industry accolades at an impressive clip. The latest is his recent inclusion on Adweek’s respected “Creative 100” list next to the likes of Lizzo and LeBron James.
He’s also a co-founder of Kentucky for Kentucky, the official unofficial retailer/hype machine for the Bluegrass State.
In just about every way, he’s the total opposite of the virtuoso trope—introverted, inflexible, preferring to work alone. Hiler has a big family. He’s beyond gregarious. He’d rather stand on common ground than fly alone. The world, and especially Kentucky, is like a bellows on his fire and he returns the favor. Business Lexington chopped it up with Hiler to see how he found his secret blend of herbs and spices, and if he’d share the recipe with the rest of us.
Birth of a salesman
After eeking out of high school, Hiler headed to community college in Colorado, but that was just an extended snowboarding vacation in disguise. He “didn’t exactly graduate,” whatever that means, and wound up back in Kentucky selling cars. He liked it. The money was good and he had a knack for salesmanship that the job enhanced.
“Features and benefits. That’s the key to sales,” Hiler says. “Being different isn’t enough. You’ve got to explain to people how they’re going to benefit from a product or an idea, how it’s going to solve their problem or make their life easier somehow.”
Bouncing back
After cars, Hiler started a short-lived clothing company. After that, he was a partner in a Vespa scooter dealer. Neither was a runaway success, but they were fun and educational in the way a classroom can’t be.
“Those things all taught me about sales and social media and PR,” he said. “It sucks that they didn’t work out, but they did sort of push me toward advertising and gave me a different perspective than a lot of people in the business.”
That perspective came with an unusually thick skin.
"If you want to get the big hits you’ve got to keep swinging."
“It’s kind of a cliche, but it really is the truth. If you want to get the big hits you’ve got to keep swinging. And that’s something I’ve noticed that young people who get into the business straight of school struggle with. They have a hard time bouncing back from the misses. You really just have to brush those failures off and keep trying shit until it hits.”
Is a Kentucky address a disadvantage in the world of advertising?
Inclusion on Adweek’s “Creative 100” list came with a trip to France for advertising’s Oscars, the Cannes Lions, where Hiler was the lone Kentuckian amongst the best creative professionals from around the world. But he doesn’t see geography as a hindrance.
“Being in Lexington, we’re kind of outsiders. But with the way things are connected today I think you can make great work from anywhere. I think we can compete with anybody,” he said.
“That was a big takeaway I had from Cannes. The best work, no matter where it came from, was rising to the top and being rewarded. I came home energized, ready to put my head down and start looking at everything as an opportunity.”
How do you think of this stuff?
Monogrammed prison jumpsuits, billboards for beards, a horse dressed like Mr. Rogers, gold-plated Kentucky Fried Chicken bone jewelry. What’s the genesis of a big Whit-style idea?
“The best ideas I’ve been a part of have started as jokes,” he said. “If something makes the team laugh, then chances are it’d make a lot of other people laugh, too. And if my dad thinks it’s going to get me sued then it’s probably a good idea.”
There’s also a simpler explanation.
“Honestly, the biggest breakthrough for me personally and creatively was when I really stopped giving a [flip] what people thought about me. I just decided I was going to be me and be weird. That was a game changer.”
Earned media: Try it! You’ll like it!
Earned media is the free publicity a business garners organically by, basically, doing something worth talking about. Hiler and Cornett have mastered the game. It can take some doing to get clients to think beyond traditional advertising, but when they get a Super Bowl-sized amount of attention on a shoestring budget they become quick converts.
An inexpensive ASMR parody video Cornett produced for VisitLEX featuring the soothing sounds of an eating horse, for example, recently took top honors at the Destinations Council Destiny Awards and has over half a million views online.
“Once clients get a taste of [earned media] and see the benefits, they want more of it,” Hiler said. “It’s so effective. It injects your brand into the conversation and makes it culturally relevant. It drives sales. And it’s fun. Those are the kinds of things that make this business exciting.”
Now what?
Advertising changes overnight. Lately, big brands have been severing long-standing “agency of record” relationships with ad shops, opting instead to work on a project-by-project basis with whomever is lean and mean enough to win their business. The uncertainty is a challenge, but Hiler sees this shift as a chance for Cornett to expand its portfolio and flaunt its creativity.
“With the team and the experience we have here, I just think there’s a ton of opportunities,” he said. “So many industries still rely totally on traditional advertising—and we do that really well, too—but I think we can start to apply the success we’ve had with nontraditional campaigns to other industries and get some great results for anyone who’s interested.”