What type of agency is responding faster to the transformations that the communication world is going through and, at the same time, manages to produce really innovative works? I have been looking for an answer to this question for a long time and I must confess it is not easy to find it. For some years I have been noticing that there are some agencies in the global market that are quicker in adapting to the current context of change and, for this very reason, they stand out.
This Special Reportis the materialization of a project I have had for quite some time to visit the headquarters of these agencies to go directly to the source. More than interviewing the partners, presidents or key people, the idea is to see how they work from the inside, what their model of operation is, what is their structure, their atmosphere. The first trip was last November, when I had the opportunity of visiting Santo, in Buenos Aires. In February, another trip, including Miami, New York London and Amsterdam, consolidated the project with my going to the headquarters of the agencies whose reports could be followed up via the News Onboard.
The proposal was to approach a series of agencies with different profiles so that the sample would be wide-encompassing and, at the same time, rich in terms of models to be analyzed. Some are small, new and nimble, the celebrated hotshops; there are other ones that have already gained muscles, with operations in several cities around the world, but remain independent; still other ones have remained in a hybrid model, associated to a global network, but faithful to their origins.
There are some common characteristics to them all that make us arrive at some conclusions about what makes the new hallmarks of the advertising market different. First of all, most of them emerged during the second half of the nineties, therefore under the sign of change that the digital revolution provoked in the market place during the last decade.
Another very important characteristic and common to all of them is the fact that some hefty global clients - chiefly companies such as Coca-Cola, Nike and Unilever - encourage the creation of this type of agency. Several of them developed specific projects to some of these brands that may be specific and local, but other ones have been translated into global creative concepts and are now exported to several countries.
And in this relationship there is an inverse ratio between the size of these global clients and that
of the agencies. Many of them are small or medium operations, with 60, 70 people, sometimes even less. In other words, the mega structures are no more a guaranty of response capacity and efficiency. In many cases, it is exactly the opposite.
It is important to highlight that all agencies analyzed operate in markets whose advertising model provides for the separation between creatives and the media, different from the Brazilian model and, for this reason; their structures are leaner and focus exclusively on creation.
There is only one formula for the standing out of these agencies in the current environment, and it has to do with a lighter internal atmosphere, more informal, that really encourages individual freedom, creating a virtuous circle between pleasure, innovation and success. A production model that is much more in tune with the Google style than with 20th century Fordism.
It is clear that we have space for several models of agencies and that there is no one single model which will be the most competitive in the future. But a quick look at the companies featured in this Special Report points clearly to the fact that today agencies in Brazil face an ever greater difficulty to stand out.
The fact that our business model is different from the agencies under the spotlight here cannot be the main reason why the creative aspect has lost ground in the process that leads to picking a winner in competitions, as seems to be the tendency lately.
There is room for Brazil to rescue the sparkle it still enjoys in the global market-fruit of a solid reputation built during the last two decades of last century and which has been a little bit softened in the years 2000. Looking more to the world outside and not closing ourselves into our own market may be the only way not to run the risk of becoming mere adaptors of global campaigns, as it has already happened.
The good news is that one of the most strategic areas to build a more competitive scenario for the next years, namely the digital field, is exactly Brazil's strongest, not only in creativity but also with new vintage professionals with a less frozen stiff profile and, exactly due to this reason, more innovative. It is no wonder that we have been exporting this type of professional to several countries.
@2008 MEIO & MENSAGEM