Diego Wallach, CCO Publicis Mexico, participated in the two events hosted by Publicis Groupe Romania, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, respectively Global Product Committee and Creative Academy (more on that, here).
Diego began his presentation with the observation that the countries of Eastern Europe resemble Mexico, when it comes to social issues, especially corruption. In this regard, he presented a campaign on Twitter, which brought to life the voices of murdered journalists, a phenomenon that those in Mexico are forced to face.
The accounts of these journalists are still active and it is worth noting that they are used by other journalists to publish their own investigations, while maintaining their anonymity.
Another campaign Diego presented, was for BMW:
We spoke with Diego about his take on team work in the agency, about how Mexico has assumed its own culture in advertising and about the challenges of the agencies in 2019.
Latin advertising
Latin advertising has differentiations in Latin America: for example, Brazil has superpowers in illustration and design, Argentina has always brought storytelling and humor, and the rest of Latin America has now, in recent years, been trying to find its essence, because at the beginning, they have followed a bit more the big players. I worked in Mexico for 17 years and I can say that it has changed a lot. Mexico is now on the verge of being more honest and proud of what it represents, because Mexico is a very proud country when it comes to culture, but advertising has not expressed it. However, when it realized that being true to the Mexican culture works, it went in that direction.
Team management
I learned how important it is to create a great team of people. What I'm looking for, when I hire a creative in the agency, is not only the portfolio, but I personally interview each one and try to see how these people fit into our environment. I always try to cultivate the feeling of belonging to a team. There are some CCOs that try to put each team in competition with the other. I avoid that. Of course, there is natural competition everywhere and it is okay, but I prefer to be part of a large family, to know that the other one will help you, if you ask something it will improve your idea - it gives you another perspective.
Challenges
The main challenge for agencies in 2019 is how we integrate new tools - data, technology - and how to accelerate their integration to provide different solutions for our clients. Now, all over the world, customers are reducing their budgets to advertising agencies and devote more to innovation. But innovation budgets do not go to agencies, they go to other players. So we have to change quickly. Now, without these budgets, we cannot maintain the teams and we all suffer. So, the idea is how we change our offer to get big budgets again.
New talent
I identify a problem with new talent. The older generation people all love this job and this industry, but young people are no longer so passionate about advertising. It is a perspective confirmed by colleagues everywhere. It is a problem, because if the young people do not fill the spaces and if we do not have big budgets, this combination will destroy the structure. Also, often, those who run the agencies do not know exactly what the abilities of the new people are - the data people, the UX people, so they cannot direct them properly, because they do not know about them. So we must change this culture quickly.
