It is inevitable to compare and the temptation is just as irresistible. So let's just get right to it. Let me tell you, they definitively play ball. They are our top-notch players living abroad. They are recognized for their dribbling talent overcoming tough scenarios and always playing in a field that is not their own, they are professionals of skills and tricks. They are the first string players of Brazilian advertising. A team which is all about offense, after all, when abroad, one must be twofold better to find their space in the market and reach positive results for agencies and advertisers - those who buy their rights.

Brazilian creative advertising professionals who work abroad are a role model with their spirit and perseverance which could excite any hard work midfield player as Dunga. Otherwise they would have come back home by now.

As highlighted by Darlan Moraes Junior, creative director of Domino/BBDO in Lithonia (check out Darlan's tips on how to face hardships when abroad on page.136), "a foreigner here is someone stealing jobs from a native. They keep an eye on you. Work hard; show them what you can deliver. You must really be worth it".

Or, as described by Andreas Toscano, also with experience in East Europe (former editor of Euro RSCG in Kiev, Ukraine, today works at Lowe Adventa, in Moscow), "the first big challenge to overcome is to no longer be seen as an intruder by your own team at the agency".

There are some Brazilian professionals that as in soccer, they have never stepped on their home country's fields. As mentioned by Rodrigo Butori, today associate creative director of TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles, "I know so many extremely talented Brazilians who have never been to a Brazilian agency. They are professionals who came out of great schools (VCU, SVA, Portfolio Center, Art Center, etc.) and went directly to Mother, Wieden, Ground Zero, etc. Every now and then I hear about a Brazilian who is just making it big and no one has ever heard of the guy back in Brazil".

Either for those who come from schools or for those arriving with a portfolio under their arms, the challenge to adapt is not really a friendly game. Right in the beginning, as described by most of the 50 professionals interviewed by Revista da Criação, every day is Super Bowl.

Our tradition in the creative field abroad had its utmost high with Marcio Moreira, who packed and left to New York City 30 years ago and never came back. He reached the top of the heap as the best

positioned creative Brazilian professional in the international market as global creative vice-chairman of McCann.

Today, the fame of the Brazilian creative talent definitively helps. It is a long distance pass. One which gets their first and announces in several markets that if Brazilians are good at it in Cannes, they are also a professional with a competitive edge.

"There are always two sides to a story. Brazilians have the great benefit of being regarded in the international market as an exceptionally creative professional and with high productivity level", analyses Cassiano Saldanha, art director of Ogilvy in the United States, who is always flying between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Having been awarded Lions in Cannes, in addition to some awards in the NYFestivals and London Festival, Saldanha takes this time, however, to send out a warning: "The American market is traditionally result-oriented. All that is created go through tests and focus groups and may get a last minute red card. In other words, it is not enough to have tons of highly creative and daring ideas if the client can simply not grasp it. Those who come from Brazil to this market must keep in mind that awards like those from Cannes are second place priority around here. The agency must see results in terms of client's pocket".

Davi Charles, senior editor of AKQA, also based in San Francisco, where he works for clients as Xbox and Nike among others, adds that in the largest advertising industry in the world the trend is integration of different mediums, multidiscipline and convergence - that is the real name of the game: "Here the professional who is concerned with building integrated cases for brands is highly valued. If you have five or six strong campaigns comprising of many mediums within a consistent concept, you're it. That is more important here than having a folder with 20 stand-alone ads, even if half has been awarded a Lion in Cannes".

It is a whole different world. There are unique challenges demanding from each creative Brazilian professional the Robinho's step-over move in order to overcome each and every one of them.

Get to know a little about these moves. It is a good lesson of soccer - oops, I mean of creativity and definitively, a lesson in life.