shots 156 by Media Business Insight

156 MAy 2015

shots

turning up the heatâ&#x20AC;Ś

Steve Stone Martin Stirling

Portrait of the artist

StĂŠphane Xiberras game changer

Brazil Special

from boom to gloom and back again

Leader 03

“But while there are obvious problems, the country’s advertising elite are still at the forefront of creative marketing and are embracing Brazil’s changing landscape – the rise of the middle classes, the growing influence of digital and mobile – to produce powerful and creative work.”

PHOTOGRAPHS: DAN ESCOBAR, LINDA BLACKER

hen you think of Brazil you probably think of a few key things. Football, of course, would be one of them; the Brazilian national team has a long and distinguished history as one of the best, most entertaining, successful and skillful teams in the sport. Ebullience is another word that springs to mind; the Carnival, the colour, the seemingly unwavering exuberance of the Brazilian way of life. Then there’s the economic achievement of the country; the ‘B’ in the BRIC quadruplet that has dominated business pages and garnered jealous looks from other, less financially high-flying countries across the globe. But, as our special report in this issue shows, those heady days seem to be drifting all-too-quickly into the past. Last year’s World Cup, held in Brazil, was seen by many as a nailed-on Brazil victory, but an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Germany quashed those hopes, and the spirit of many. The economy too, far from being buoyant, is stagnating, with the country’s president embroiled in a US$8.9 billion corruption scandal. Add to that a drought and growing power shortages, and it seems like the Brazilian bubble may have well and truly burst. But while there are obvious problems, the country’s advertising elite are still at the forefront of creative marketing and are embracing Brazil’s changing landscape – the rise of the middle classes, the growing influence of digital and mobile – to produce powerful and creative work. From page 48, shots’ contributing editor, Carol Cooper, explores the challenges faced by Brazil’s advertising industry and talks to some of the people and companies facing those challenges head on, including NEOGAMA/BBH’s Alexandre Gama, who tells us the way he sees it [page 68]. Elsewhere in this issue we speak to BETC Paris’ creative chief, Stéphane Xiberras, about regenerating an area of Paris and reimagining how brands and agencies approach their business to become more about talking and less about stalking [page 34]. We clap along with music video visionaries, We Are From LA, who discuss

Above Danny by illustrator Chris Ede, who also depicts the creative chaos of the country for our Brazil special (page 48) 1 Heat’s Steve Stone gets under the hood of advertising on page 30 2 Partizan director Martin Stirling earns his stripes on page 18

working with Pharrell Williams to create the most successful interactive video of all time for the insanely catch track, Happy [page 24], and on page 74 our new features editor, Selena Schleh, talks to editor extraordinaire Jonnie Scarlett (a moniker the entire shots office is jealous of) who reveals why editing is less about kit and more about contemplation. We also take some time to talk to Martin Stirling, a director who, in a relatively short space of time, has created a number of affecting and effective campaigns for charities such as Save the Children and Greenpeace, and who talks to us about being disruptive, but making people care [page 18]. And then we have our cover star, Steve Stone. From page 30, Heat San Francisco’s creative founder talks about founding his agency, not because the industry needed another one, but because it needed better ideas… Danny Edwards Editor @shotsmag_dan

04 Contents | magazine shots 156

May 2015 News Inspiration Insight shots.net

shots 156 front cover

Steve Stone was photographed for shots by Dan Escobar. The Heat head honcho talks to Iain Blair on page 30. MaY ��

156

MaY ��

shots 156

shots

shots.net

42 TURNING UP THE HEAT…

We Are From LA Jonnie Scarlett Alexandre Gama

Steve Stone Martin Stirling

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Stéphane Xiberras GAME CHANGER

Brazil Special

FROM BOOM TO GLOOM AND BACK AGAIN

shots 156 contributors

Words: Iain Blair, Carol Cooper, Tim Cumming, David Knight Illustration & photography: Romain Bernardie-James, Linda Blacker, Vasilly Bobylev, Leão Branco, Christian Castanho, Chris Ede, Dan Escobar, Chris Madden, Mauro Moura, Mauricio Nahas, Georgia Pendlebury, James Sheehy, Karina Vallesi, Parker Whipple, Leo Williams

shots 157 / July 2015

Here we go again; it’s time to gear up for Cannes. Issue 157 of shots will be our annual Cannes Special in which we’ll be talking to a host of jury presidents, predicting what will come away with a tower of trophies and asking the industry to reflect on the 12 months past, and forecast the year ahead. We’ll also be talking to adam&eveDDB’s Ben Priest about the way he sees it, delving into the world of political advertising and focussing our creative spotlight on New York City.

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Inspired

Insight

Places

Al MacCuish, co-founder and chief creative officer at Sunshine London, insists on only the most fine of high-design comestibles

08 new work

essages in a bottle, M at the Super Bowl and on the high seas offer inspiration this month

12 going global

pots with a lighter touch S from around the world, with wet weather men, parodic odes to the poor toilet brush and wi-fi-ready wee ’uns

14 opinion

KQA’s chief technology A officer Ben Jones, on not judging an awards show by its cover

16 the source

48 Brazil

39 creative spaces

aked London has a N suitably stripped-back space for collaborative creativity

76 favourite tech

Alex Hesz of adam&eveDDB London would love to be Belgian underneath

ax Geraldo & Joanna M Monteiro of FCB Brazil urge you to only connect; director Vellas can’t stop telling stories; AlmapBBDO’s Luiz Sanches wants everyone to get happier (and faster); and Marcelo Reis of Leo Burnett is excited by the power of change

66 GOING NATIVE

Y our Mama’s Mayra Auad offers her guide to the 20,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that is São Paulo

| Contents 05

magazine

79 People

People

Pictures

Spanish iPad artist Jaime Sanjuan demonstrates the joys of anytime, anyplace, anywhere artistry

18 director Profile

hings started going well T for Partizan director Martin Stirling when he started pissing the ‘wrong’ people off, and campaigning for what’s right

34 ad icon

68 the way I see it

24 promo Profile

e Are From LA aren’t. W But the Parisian duo have a US-style can-do attitude that saw them through a 24-hour promo shoot, eventually making everybody Happy

30 creative Profile

eat San Francisco’s H Steve Stone shares his life-in-the-industry lessons

ETC Paris’ Stéphane B Xiberras on sex, animals and underwear EOGAMA/BBH’s N Alexandre Gama talks brushes with death, dreams of speed and advertising as a weapon

74 post profile

Jonnie Scarlett contemplates editing

79 new directors

pair of duos, Parabella A and ZEUGL, get animated

42 digital mobile art

82 SNAPSHOTS

Marianna Souza of Film Brazil takes a tour of Brazil’s tastiest treats

62 54

06 Information | DVD / SHOTS CONTACTS shots

shots 156 May 2015

This issue’s top work on the accompanying DVD

shots 156

May 2015 News | Insight | Inspiration shots.net

Creative Showcase 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Heineken The Match Honda HR-V Dream Run Honda Keep Up Audi Service Mechanics Tena Men Tips; Control GEICO Unskippable: Cleaning Crew; Family; High Five AICP Rob Reilly; Tiffany Rolfe; Ted Royer Parisian Gentleman Ladies Laminex Peacock and Diamond; Midnight and Moose Viacom Velocity The Social Influence Mentos NOWMints Tiny Fresh Things MTS India Baby in Heaven Carlsberg If Carlsberg Did Supermarkets Coca-Cola Tale of Contour KFC Family IKEA Everyday Heroes Facebook Our Friends; Friend Request; Girl Friends McDonald’s Forever Young Interflora Odd Love Evolve Ready or Not The Prince’s Trust Learn the Hard Way

Promos 22 Royal Blood Out of the Black 23 Jungle Julia

New Directors 24 Twinings Drink the Day 25 Amarillo Breaches

Brazil 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Leica 100 Kiss FM Exorcism TNT Energy Drink Rhino Budweiser The Greatest Show On Earth Budweiser #BeSpider Coca-Cola Signs Mix Festival Brasil Everyone’s Gay Itaú Bank The Great Transformation Global Commission on Drug Policy War on Drugo Brazilian Ministry of Transport Collision Samsung Ballet John Frusicante Sat-JF14 National Organ Donation Bury My Bentley NIVEA Sun Kids Protection Ad CCSP The Fall and Rise of the Mole

shots facebook.com/shots.net @shotscreative Editorial material to be submitted to shots on DVD or emailed to spots@shots.net Post to: Ryan Watson, shots Zetland House 5-25 Scrutton Street London EC2A 4HJ Many thanks to those companies that submitted material for consideration on shots 156. If your work didn’t make it this time, please do not be discouraged from sending work in again. If you feel that your company has produced anything that would complement the Creative Showcase please let us know. © shots. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted, either by conventional means or electronically, without written permission of the publisher. All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of facts and figures, which to the best of our knowledge were correct at time of going to press. shots accepts no responsibility for loss or damage to material submitted for publication.

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Contributing Editors Carol Cooper Tim Cumming Sub Editors Carol Cooper Kirsten Foster Art Director Sarah Watson art@shots.net Designer Cath Mackenzie Group Commercial Director Alison Pitchford alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com (44 20) 3033 2949 International Accounts Manager, Advertising Luke Heywood luke.heywood@shots.net (44 20) 3033 2934

Senior Marketing Executive Andrea Petrides andrea.petrides@mb-insight.com (44 20) 7391 4511 Production Manager Jon Cooke (44 20) 3033 4926 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Chief Executive Officer Conor Dignam conor.dignam@mb-insight.com

DVD programme credits Post production Envy, London Graphics Why Not/Clear, London

Sales Executive, Advertising Lucy Tibbitts lucy.tibbits@mb-insight.com (44 20) 3033 2924

Super Bowl 41 mophie The Phone Upstairs 42 Weight Watchers All You Can Eat 43 T- Mobile Save The Data 44 Kia Sorento Perfect Getaway 45 Skittles Settle It 46 Avocados From Mexico Draft Day 47 NBC Sports/Nascar America Start Your Engines 48 Nissan With Dad 49 Coca-Cola #MakeItHappy 50 Bud Light Coin

SH156_p6_Flannel_1.indd 6

19/03/2015 14:03

08 Inspired | new work 1

shots dips into a selection box of tasty treats, including charming tales of Coca-Cola’s cool bottle, a blind girl’s re-imagining of The Wizard Of Oz, a seafaring story of champions on the high seas, superb spots from Super Bowl 2015 and a wee bit of silliness over male seepage 6

Coke’s message in a bottle TV & ONliNe Coca-Cola Tale of Contour; Together To celebrate 100 years since Coca-Cola’s iconic bottle design was introduced in november 1915, the brand is launching a year-long haul of advertising campaigns and content throughout 2015. To begin the onslaught, Parisian agency ogilvy & Mather released two new pieces of work at the end of February – a beautiful animated film, Tale Of Contour, directed by Passion’s Jon Saunders, and an integrated campaign, Together, shot by David LaChappelle. with the charm of a Disney classic, Tale Of Contour offers an amusing, fictitious look at how the brand’s bottle shape was formed and travels land and sea to tell the story with the familiar red theme and logos present along the way. The LaChappelle-shot Together, however, takes a more minimal approach, stop-frame-animating hands of different communities and colours coming together to form the iconic bottle shape, in a message of peace and love to the world. “we want people to remember how iconic this amazing piece of design is,” says eCD Baptiste Clinet. “At ogilvy Paris we are really proud of having the opportunity to do an ad as simple as this for one of the best brands on earth.” RW

1 Coca-Cola, Together 2 Super Bowl XLIX 3/4/5/6 TENA Men, Keep Control

Having a laugh over male leakage TV & ONliNe TeNA men Keep Control Personal sanitary products. Apart from Always’ #LikeAGirl campaign, it’s safe to say they don’t generally inspire brilliance. raising the bar from stock ‘absorbency’ shots (who produces blue body ﬂuids, anyway?) is Keep Control, the latest campaign from TenA Men, which tackles the issue of male incontinence with wit and advice from a ‘man of a certain age’. Created by AMV BBDo, the campaign introduces Stirling Gravitas – a smoothtalker with a tip of the hat to old Spice’s Isaiah Mustafa. exercising supreme control

over every aspect of his life, Stirling won’t let leaks get in the way of Thai massages and yoga, as shown in two droll spots directed by Jeff Low through Biscuit Filmworks. Creative team Jeremy Tribe and Prabs wignarajah knew that humour was the only way to address men about the issue: “once we’d got the jokes about ‘manpons’ and ‘manitary towels’ out of our system, we knew it was going to be a challenge,” they admit. “we aimed to take the stigma out of urine leakage and position TenA Men as the solution to a common problem.” ss

Top touchdowns in shots pick of spots TV

super bowl XliX Various

The passes have been thrown, the tackles made and the foam fingers retired to the back of the wardrobe, but the 2015 Super Bowl isn’t forgotten about that easily. You will hopefully have seen our extensive coverage of the oscars of US advertising on shots.net, which was published in the run-up to, and immediately after the game, with interviews, insight, analysis and our own choice of what impressed across the commercial breaks (if not, just head to the site and search for ‘Super Bowl XLIX’). But as this is our first printed issue since the event, we felt it only right to bring the best of the Big Game’s ads to you on shots 156’s accompanying DVD. we have the highlights of the broadcast, including work for alcohol brands (Budweiser and Bud Light), automotive manufacturers (kia and nissan) and, slightly more randomly, avocados. De

| Inspired 09

new work

Juicy couture-made spots examine big blend theory Web Films J2O J2O Blends

“The schedule has been intense. James [Massiah] has been through choreography and performance coaching so that when he turns up on the day he nails it every time.”

o promote the joyful blend of ingredients in soft drink J2O, the brand teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and spoken word artist James Massiah, combining their respective talents in 20 web films released throughout February. Created by digital agency TH_NK and shot by director Zaiba Jabbar through production partner Partizan, the ambitious project saw a new film uploaded to YouTube each working day. For lead man Massiah, it was an exciting opportunity: “This was 20 pieces, so it was a challenge, but one I’ve risen to and I think it’s definitely enabled me to step my game up as a poet, writer and artist all round.” The wordsmith spent most of the Christmas break working on the project, and his talent and commitment impressed TH_NK creative director Phil Wilce. “The schedule has been intense. James has been through choreography and performance coaching so that when he turns up on the day, and we have our tight window of shooting, he nails it every time. He’s turned it on like he’s been doing it for years,” says Wilce. The campaign concept sees spoken word mixed with classical music to form a new mash-up and TH_NK was charged with the job of communicating the concept of blending in the digital realm. “We arrived at this concept through lots of rigorous brainstorming and trying different things. It’s one of those [ideas] where you don’t know if it’s going to work until you really start putting it together,” comments Wilce. “First, we took a piece of YouTube footage of a poet and put it together with some classical music on Spotify. That’s what we sold to the client. It took a leap of imagination for them to buy into it and we’re so grateful they got it and saw the potential.” The campaign’s clips were plugged

“We arrived at this concept through lots of rigorous brainstorming… It’s one of those [ideas] where you don’t know if it’s going to work until you start putting it together.”

throughout February on the brand’s YouTube channel. Each spot’s lyrics focussed on current events to add resonance for consumers. “If we were going to create 20 films over 20 days, the campaign needed to feel fresh and we had to give people a real reason to want to watch the next one. There are lots of roads into the campaign, so if anyone joins us halfway through our run, then they’ve got a whole back catalogue that they can go and take a look at,” adds Wilce. “We’ve been aiming for a mass appeal,

like talking to Hull City Football Club for one video. There’s a poem for Valentine’s Day, the BRITS, the BAFTAs and London Fashion Week. We’ve also got key pieces written for celebrities like Derren Brown and Professor Green.” Wilce recalls that the atmosphere on set was progressively boosted by the fact that the artists and production team could see the fruits of their labour emerging online. shots was invited along for the second day of filming to see the last 10 clips come together and you can view the final films at youtube.com/j2ojuicedrink. RW

10 Inspired | NEW WORK 1

“We try to start with an insightful idea and then we work our asses off to make it the most crafted work around and the most entertaining to watch. And we don’t give up till it’s done” 1/2/3/4/5 Heineken, The Match 6/7/8/9/10 XFINITY, Emily’s Oz

Andreas and Emily’s wizard ad TV & WEB FILMS XFINITY Emily’s Oz Andreas Nilsson is behind a host of memorable spots, but he can’t take all the credit for directing the latest one for Comcast’s XFINITY. The ad is the result of a beautiful collaboration between the Biscuit Filmworks director and Emily, a seven-year-old girl who was born blind, and it’s all to promote the brand’s innovative TV service for people with disabilities. Taking inspiration from American musical fantasy The Wizard of Oz, and recreating the classic film through the youngster’s imagination via Goodby Silverstein & Partners New York, the result is a colourful spot featuring The Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion as you’ve never seen them before. “We promised to watch out for each other and not to add stuff that wasn’t Emily’s vision just because we perhaps thought it ‘made more sense’,” explains Nilsson, who worked with production designer KK Barrett and Legacy Effects. “We wanted this to be 100 per cent true to her vision and make sure we had a lot of fun when working together. I honestly feel that Emily is the auteur of this film.” Nilsson says that the chance to break away from the usual production model for the unique project was part of the appeal.

9 “We have all experienced political, analytical, overly processed marketing discussions when creating commercials and very often they damage a project’s creative potential. On a project like this everyone had to calibrate their way of thinking a lot, which I think was a refreshing, educational and emotional experience for everyone.” Working with the young girl to decide on the materials, colours and designs for everything from what would be used for the characters’ various features down to the set design, the result is a wonderful commercial that was aired during this year’s Oscars ceremony. RW

Yo ho ho and a bottle of Heineken TV & CINEMA Heineken The Match Heineken’s recent TV spot, The Match, launched to celebrate the return of the Champions League, is an epic tale of the lengths to which some people will go to make sure they don’t miss the big game. Following a handsome and resourceful ship’s captain and his band of eclectic men who have pulled out of the harbour just before the match is due to kick-off, the 90 second film is a beautifully manic tale of how they engineer the vessel to pick up a TV signal and enjoy the contest. With an ice-cold Heineken or three, naturally. Created by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, the ad was shot by Sonny’s Fredrik Bond, who has helmed his fair share of Heineken spots, as W+K creative director, Thierry Albert, attests: “Fredrik’s shot so many of those Heineken ads that we’re always surprised he still wants to read the script. But he’s not one of the best directors in the world by accident and he always manages to re-invent the wheel.” Albert and his creative partner, Faustin Claverie, have been working on the Heineken account for more than two years and, when creating something new for the brand, believe they have a head start. “It’s always a challenge to come up with fresh and noticeable work in such a cluttered world,” says Albert, “but Faustin and I have a pretty good understanding of the brand. We always try to start with an insightful idea and then we work our asses off to make it the most crafted work around and the most entertaining to watch. And we don’t give up till it’s done.” DE

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12 Inspired | NEW WORK

GOING GLOBAL US

Memories… of the way we were WEB FILMS AICP 2015 Awards Craft Your Legacy

ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS MADDEN

Everyone wants to be remembered for something. For advertising creatives, what could be a better memorial than getting your best campaign into New York’s MoMA? And when you’re a sad old has-been you can rest smugly on your laurels knowing your early brilliance will be preserved for all eternity. That’s the premise behind AICP’s 2015 Awards campaign, a savagely funny quintet of web shorts promoting the fact that winners’ work is permanently archived by MoMA’s Department of Film. Set in 2050, the doc-style interviews feature today’s top CDs in 35 years’ time, and needless to say the years haven’t been kind. We see McCann’s Rob Reilly reduced to flogging off his trophies to fund a double hip replacement. Gerry Graf has had to sell Barton F. Graf 9000, but got a ‘sweet deal’ by keeping an office in the building – the janitor’s closet. Unluckiest of all is jumpsuit-clad Tor Myhren, CCO of Grey, jailed for kidnapping the E*trade baby who launched his career. Yet despite their current lots, all take comfort in knowing that their legacy has been protected. While the shorts were scripted by the subjects themselves, the overall concept was by Reilly and Graf together with AICP president and CEO Matt Miller. “These films remind all sectors of the industry that now is the time to shape how they’re remembered.” SS

“Making Sexton explode into butterflies was our greatest challenge. We had to balance what’s technically correct and what’s visually suggestive.”

AUSTRALIA

Shake your tailfeathers TV & ONLINE Laminex Peacock & Diamond Some products naturally lend themselves to advertising. Fast cars. Cool gadgets. But kitchen counters and work surfaces? Not so much. In fact, the watchability of a campaign about ‘new and unexpected colour combinations’ from Australia’s premier surface provider could have been on par with paint drying. Hats off, then, to Ogilvy Melbourne, and its genuinely witty campaign for Laminex, its first since winning the account last year. The two spots, Midnight and Moose and Peacock and Diamond (named after new shades in the Laminex palette) were directed by The Sweet Shop’s James Haworth, who was tickled by the unusual subject matter. “You don’t often get scripts that include a moose and a peacock,” he says. “The idea was to tell simple, comedic stories with a touch of absurdity.” While both ads are comic gold, Peacock gets our vote for playing on the modern-day meaning of the word. The spot opens on two men making small talk at a house party. As an attractive woman sashays by them, both burst into unanimous, stunning displays of plumage – only for their feathery fans to shrivel away when it transpires she’s engaged. So far, so funny, but the real kicker comes when an attractive passing male inspires a similar reaction in one of the guys. SS

INDIA

Baby basics: a womb and wi-fi TV & ONLINE MTS Homespot Internet Baby From gorging on pineapple and braving an off-the-scale hot curry to a last-ditch session of rumpy pumpy, there’s a wealth of old wives’ folklore on how to encourage a baby to make its long-awaited entrance into the world. If all those methods have failed, then it might be time to reassess your wi-fi situation, according to Creativeland Asia’s latest ad for Indian telco giant MTS. Directed by Ayappa through Early Man Films, Internet Baby is a prequel to last year’s Born For The Internet, which featured a smartphone-savvy newborn snapping selfies and uploading them to social media from the minute he pops out. Set a little further back in time, the new spot has a similarly cute-butunnerving premise and sees our precocious protagonist refusing to exit the womb unless the household he is bound for is granted mobile internet access: “No wi-fi, no go!” It’s down to God, who transforms himself into a fast-talking MTS salesperson, to save the day. With the original spot garnering more than 30 million YouTube views and global media attention, the MTS Baby clearly struck a chord with the new generation of digital natives, says Sajan Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman of the agency. ‘[He] personifies the ever-demanding internet generation that sees wi-fi as a basic necessity, just like food and shelter.” SS

| Inspired 13

GLOBAL ROUND-UP

IRELAND

Johnny gets the butterfly effect TV & CINEMA Three All It Takes Is Everything

SWEDEN

Time to laud the loo roll holder TV & ONLINE IKEA Everyday Heroes As a proportion of one’s life, how long does the average person spend sitting on the lavatory? Apparently, it’s a bum-numbing three years, making the humble toilet-roll holder one of the hardest working items of furnishing and fittings in your home. So isn’t it about time you gave it the respect and appreciation it deserves? That’s the premise behind IKEA’s latest campaign, which is one long paean to the homeware giant’s more prosaic household wares. Created by Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg, the spot is a humorous departure from the poetic flight of fantasy that characterised Mother’s recent offering for IKEA, the flamboyant tale of homing T-shirts that is The Joy of Storage, but it is no less beautifully crafted. Directed by Anonymous Content’s Joachim Back, who did extensive character research (“To really get under the skin of these everyday heroes, I lived with them for 42 years. I’m full of admiration and it feels good to be part of this tribute.”) the ad tells a story of epic resilience and scant thanks for years of servitude: taps are spat on; bath mats are crushed underfoot; coat hooks nobly bear their heavy burdens in silence. A dramatic voice-over from venerable British actor Terence Stamp (best known for playing arch-villain General Zod in Superman) adds to the feature film visuals, with lines such as “Here’s to… the fearless soldiers who serve in the trenches,” delivered in tandem with a cut to a forlorn loo brush, standing in a dank bathroom corner. Go home and give your coathanger a hug. SS

SPAIN

Toyota’s fun with faulty forecasts TV & ONLINE Toyota Aygo The Weather Challenge When it came to announcing Toyota Aygo’s new carbon sunroof, Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi Madrid CCOs Maxi Itzkoff and Mariano Serkin had their work cut out. “The truth is there was nothing terribly interesting to say, so we had to try to find a way of turning something that wasn’t newsworthy into something that was,” explain the pair. “We gave the new Aygo to three famous weather forecasters in three different European cities [Paris, Milan and Madrid] for a month. The roof of the car was synchronised to each forecaster’s weather prediction and if they predicted rain, the canvas roof would stay closed. But if they predicted sun, the roof would remain open, no matter what the weather.” After the experiment an amusing Weather Challenge campaign film was put together and backs up the ad’s thesis that the weather man isn’t always right. The broadcasters were also given clothes to match their predictions, so incorrect reports of cold weather saw them boiling in hot, padded clothes, and failure to forecast rain saw them soaked and shivering in summer gear. “We chose cities of some meteorological contrast, in order to get different types of climate and different forecasts,” add Itzkoff and Serkin. “It was really difficult to find forecasters who were up for the challenge. Especially because they knew they were putting their reputations on the line. But, at the same time, there was a little performer in each of them.” RW

When mobile phone company Three Ireland tasked Dublin-based agency Boys and Girls with the inaugural campaign to raise awareness of their sponsorship of the Irish national rugby team, the 2015 Six Nations tournament was an obvious place in which to ground the concept. All It Takes Is Everything is a stunning, VFX-heavy spot which features Irish players Johnny Sexton, Paul O’Connell and Robbie Henshaw variously bursting into flames, exploding into butterflies and even tackling a rhinoceros, all accompanied by a stirring voice-over from Ireland head coach, Joe Schmidt. The spot is stylishly shot by Brett Foraker through RSA Films. Inspiration came from the players themselves, says copywriter Kris Clarkin: “Everyone is familiar with what [the players] do on the pitch, but little is known of the huge efforts it took to get there. We did a lot of research to ensure the campaign was grounded in ‘reality’. This gave us licence to create something visually intriguing that felt true.” The effects were created by London’s Electric Theatre Collective. “Making Sexton explode into butterflies was our greatest challenge,” says Giles Cheetham, lead flame artist. “We had to balance what’s technically correct and what’s visually suggestive. We worked on realistic sims for butterfly movement but weren’t conveying [Sexton’s] pain or determination. So we made the butterfly movements more frantic, like disturbed bats. Having a great relationship with the agency and director enabled this to be a truly collaborative and creative process.” DE

Sweden gives a big hand to the bog brush, there’s some meteorological mirth from Spain and from the USA, five wicked little films for the AICP Awards feature potty predictions of ad industry celebs 35 years from now

14 Inspired | opinion Judge not lest ye be judged opinion Ben Jones

AKQA’s chief technology officer Ben Jones was surprised to get the call to be a British Arrows juror, assuming a tech guru such as himself wouldn’t be welcomed by an old-school TV ad crowd. Thinking he’d be teaching these old dogs new tech tricks, instead he found an industry keen to get their teeth into the opportunities offered by new technology…

ack in early January, I received a request to become a jury member for the British Arrows. Surely a random, misaddressed email, I thought. Probably a case of mistaken identity. What possible value could the chief technology officer of a digitally-focussed company like AKQA bring to an organisation devoted to an industry that has been disrupted by the very thing I’ve championed for so many years? Technology has changed the way we act, the habits we form, the devices we use and the social scenarios we love and enjoy. It has moved us away from our living rooms and the boxes we used to stare at. Want proof? A study by Enders Analysis reported that between 2010 and 2014 TV viewing by four-to-15 year olds declined by 22 per cent and viewing among 16-to-34 year olds went down 15 per cent. I see it in my own children, who only really know Netflix and their iPads.

Out of the box In my opinion, television advertising has simply been (for the most part) pointless – a convention we’ve had to endure. It’s been a format that was forced upon us, and now we’re in a world that has dramatically changed: where people expect everything just the way they want it, when they want it, where they want it. Today, an ad has to be exceptional and completely original to do what it’s meant to do – resonate with the audience, be shared with loved ones and gain brand affinity. Do you really watch every ad on TV and enjoy it? The answer is no. Does

each ad make you want to run out and buy the product? (I say ‘run out’ in the old-fashioned sense of ‘popping to the shops’, which is not quite the case any more). The answer again is no. TV advertising is being left in a potentially desolate landscape. The family at home is simply fast-forwarding through an agency’s labour of love and a brand’s marketing budget.

The future’s bright

“The family at home is simply fast-forwarding through an agency’s labour of love and a brand’s marketing budget.”

I know this naysaying is going to piss a lot of you off. You might think I’m ridiculing your very existence. You might want to hunt me down on the Cannes Croisette in June and punch me in the face. But wait. Before you resort to violence, read on – I might just have seen the light. I believe the future is an exciting one, full of fresh thinking. It occurred to me that perhaps the legendary British Arrows hadn’t made a mistake; they weren’t frightened, but excited about technology and how it can contribute to today’s resonant formats and ideas. How technology, if harnessed properly, can make things bigger, better and more interactive. So I accepted jury duty because, like so many millions of people, I used to love TV advertising and hoped I could bring a different perspective to it. In my naive and arrogant world view, I thought I could help move it forward. The truth is it didn’t need me. I came away from the judging with the realisation the industry gets it already – big time. From the executive producers to the creative directors, the lack of acceptance

of mediocrity is rife – and the desire for the industry to capture new thinking and formats abundant. The thinking about how to harness technology within the ads of today, and especially tomorrow, is really exciting.

Tweaking TV I have always believed in reimagining experiences for different digital channels. For example you don’t just take an iPhone app and put it on the iPad. It’s clear the leaders of the advertising industry believe that formats don’t transcend from channel to channel either. They realise changes in technology also mean changes in context, which need to be taken account of. The industry is not holding on to the past, in fact it’s doing the very opposite. This acknowledgement of change, this new wave of thinkers, mean the ad will reappear as a topic of conversation down the pub. People will be saying ‘Have you seen this new ad?’ not just ‘Have you seen this new app?’ For many years I have been saying that advertising needs to add value; it needs to entertain. Generic TV advertising, which the traditional marketing director commissioned to push a product, needs to go. The new breed of advertising executive with their new way of thinking and their new understanding of the differences and opportunities that technology brings, offer hope that the ‘ad’ will entertain once more. S This article first appeared on shots.net, where Jones writes a monthly column.

OPEN FOR ENTRIES

INSPIRED 5 November 2015 | The Brewery, London

Entry deadline: 14 August 2015

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@shotscreative #shotsawards

16 Inspired | the source

the WONDER STUFF Al MacCuish, co-founder and chief creative officer, Sunshine London, can’t get enough of the carefully curated and crafted, whether it’s the background story of Bowie at the V&A, Mark Rylance’s Cromwell, Chipotle’s history-making The Scarecrow, Shinola’s lovingly engineered timepieces, or Perry Haydn Taylor-inspired designer groceries in his kitchen cupboards

What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently?

What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen in the last few months? Chipotle’s The Scarecrow by CAA Marketing blew my mind. It’s a perfect piece of work. From the script and grade on the film, to the beautifully engineered app, and how it was activated socially – wow! There are very few brand campaigns that have won an Emmy – it’s the only one that I know of that won an award in the Entertainment category rather than the Marketing slot. What’s your favourite website? Acontinuouslean.com. I love finding out the stories behind how products and objects are made, their history. This is the ultimate geek site for that. Warning: you can get completely lost on their blog roll. It’s like going through the looking glass. What website do you use most regularly? The Guardian: national treasure. Mac or PC? Mac. What’s your favourite magazine? Wallpaper.

What product could you not live without? My Shinola watch. Kit [Hawkins, Sunshine CEO] and I went to their factory in Detroit last year and we were blown away by what they’re doing. The attention to detail that goes into their products is incredible. What product hasn’t been invented yet that would make your life/job better? An electronic twin who is much better than me at all the things I’m terrible at (which is a great many). What track/artist would you listen to for inspiration? That changes by the hour! It’s totally driven by how I’m feeling or what the task is. My top five at the moment are: Exile by Hurts, Love Will Never Tear Us Apart by Paloma Faith, the soundtrack to Waltz With Bashir by Max Richter, Fever To The Form by Nick Mulvey, and Ice Cold Daydream by Shuggie Otis. What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year? I’m watching more television than films at the moment. I’m obsessed with Wolf Hall – from Mark Rylance’s performance to the cinematography, it’s extraordinary.

The David Bowie exhibition at the V&A. I know the music backwards, but being able to see the history behind that and understand how all the chapters of his life stitched together was transformative, especially the circumstances around his time in Berlin. If you could live in one city, where would it be? Tokyo. I mean LA. I mean Paris. Oh, okay then, London. Yes. London. What fictitious character do you most relate to? Sherlock. I wish. Probably Tom Hanks in Big would be more honest.

“I love finding out the stories behind how products and objects are made, their history. Acontinuouslean.com is the ultimate geek site for that. It’s like going through the looking glass.”

Who’s your favourite photographer? Jane Bown, whom I was lucky enough to meet. Her story is an inspiration. Simplicity, humility, humanity. Who’s your favourite designer? I can’t pick one. I have favourites, plural. When I think about the designers that mean the most to me, I think about the people who have designed things we have in our house or lives. Anthony Burrill – who my wife introduced me to – is a genius. Never has one man done so much to reintroduce us to the wonders of typography in a digital age. Michael Mast – one half of the Mast Brothers – is responsible for their insanely good packaging. Talking of packaging, Perry Haydn Taylor at Big Fish is another big favourite. He’s created more beautifully designed household brands than any man I know. Our cupboards are full of his work. The list goes on and on. The team at Partners & Spade in NYC are also heroes of mine – the care and craft they put into their projects is inspiring. If you could have been in a band, what band would you choose? The Monkees. S

| Inspired 17

AL MAccuIsh 1

What inspires Al MacCuish: 1 Tom Hanks in Big 2 Shinola watches 3 Artist/designer Anthony Burrill’s work 4 The Monkees 5 Michael Mast’s chocolate design 6 Photographer Jane Bown 7 Wolf Hall

18 People | director profile

“I remember my first meeting at a big agency… I started making stuff up… I could see them smiling and nodding their heads and I realised they were dumber than I was.”

| People 19

martin stirling

Once the class clown, charities’ director-of-choice Martin Stirling now uses his cheeky creative chops to make people cry – and think – rather than laugh. Tim Cumming follows the mixed-up career of this maverick storyteller from the West End stage to the Syrian border

Martin Stirling

20 People | director profile

he viral mechanics that dictate whether your short film is seen by a handful of people or a global audience of millions is about as hard to read and predict as the movement of particles in quantum mechanics. Take it from one who knows – a master of hard-hitting, eye-opening viral charity ads for Reprieve and Save the Children, Martin Stirling. “It’s really unpredictable,” he says. “There’s no formula. You have to go by your instincts.” He’s talking about his 2013 Mos Def spot for Reprieve, out of digital agency Unit9 and socio-political guerrilla agency and specialist in ‘contagious ideas’ Don’t Panic. As it turns out, pretty well everything about it was happenstance. If you could derive a formula from the experience it would be: take the most direct route to the heart of a story and stay there. Oh, and get a famous rapper to be your star. “I was at the agency for something else,” recalls Stirling, “and their clients burst in and said ‘We’ve got Mos Def, he wants to do something about Guantanamo but he’s only here tomorrow, what shall we do?’ They’d recently sneaked out this document, Standard Operating Procedure, basically a manual for force-feeding at Guantanamo. It’s horrific. It’s meant to be a medical document for doctors, but it reads like a military handbook, the language they use. So I piped up with the idea of using that as a script. Ask Mos Def if he wants to be force-fed, follow each step, and you have your story there. You don’t have to make a comment, you don’t have to force it down anyone’s throat… no pun intended.”

photographs: linda blacker

Making it up as you go along Stirling has recently signed to Partizan, and we meet in its Soho offices, where, with the beaming expression of a schoolboy prankster, he talks about the pitfalls and pick-me-ups of short-form storytelling and of his route into the industry. Born and raised in Northampton, Stirling had no template or direct route to follow into the world of film, advertising or media. “I always knew I wanted to be a filmmaker but had no contacts and no idea how I could do it,” he says. “The closest I got to production was elaborate pranks at school.” These weren’t simple water-bucket-over-the-door japes. “I had this idea that we could steal school science equipment, one piece at a time, over the course of a school year.” He laughs. “So it was a very drawn-out, sustained prank, and at the end of the year we took a photo and wrote a ransom note to one of the teachers.” Luckily for Stirling, the staff appreciated the boy’s sole creative outlet. Another prank had the 13 year old recreating an old Twiglet advert by persuading schoolgirls to give him the odd unused tampon so that he could super-glue 200 of them above the teacher’s desk in class. “We were there sniggering for a long time before he realised.” Luckily, he soon got a camera in his hand, which led him, in 2004, to film school – in Kansas, slap bang in the heart of Middle America. “I was obsessed with Pixar and wanted to do live action and animation, and they had a really good school for 3D animation.” After a year he transferred to university in Bournemouth, found that unchallenging, and completed his third year in Toronto. “Which was amazing,” he says. “We worked on loads of film sets and proper sound stages. Hollywood shoots there for the tax breaks, and because our campus was downtown, we had these action scenes going on outside our classroom. We started running and volunteering on set, and made our own short films.” They were, he says, “mostly crap” but the lessons he learnt were invaluable building blocks for the work to come. “I was fascinated by telling stories in different ways and dissecting the anatomy of stories,” he says. “I was interested in how your choices and decisions in filmmaking can affect the way it’s read by an audience. I wasn’t academic, so I learnt by doing things, by making as many mistakes as possible, as soon as possible.” He laughs. “I wouldn’t want anyone to see them but I learnt a lot from doing them.” While studying he had also been painting, regularly taking portrait commissions (he still paints). He’d also enrolled in the National Youth

Theatre, when he was still back in Northampton, and he started working there, after returning from Toronto, as an actor, writer, and director, ADing on numerous West End shows. “That’s where I honed the craft of storytelling,” he says, “by being around directors and theatre people.” The biggest lesson he learnt there, he says, was to think about the audience and what they’re going through. “In theatre, you get feedback as it’s happening, and that’s great. You see what works and what doesn’t. I put a lot of time into listening to the audience. That was a turning point for me.” His move from theatre to advertising came when he entered a competition mounted by M&C Saatchi and HypTV to produce a 60-second cinema ad for the ICA in just 24 hours. Stirling’s spot, The Staring Man, filmed at night with a long lens across Piccadilly Circus, won the prize, and he was asked to pitch on a Doritos spot featuring youth TV presenter Mequita Oliver. Here, he learnt more invaluable lessons: “I remember at the meeting the agency asked me how I was actually gonna do it, and I started making stuff up because I was quite nervous, it was a big agency and my first big meeting, round a boardroom table with 12 people looking at me, asking me how I was going to do this. So I started bullshitting, and I remember the moment I knew I was going to get away with this, because I could see them smiling and nodding their heads. And I realised they were dumber than I was…” There followed a plethora of TVCs, “some pretty bad ones, too” while freelancing in the industry, before joining Unit9’s roster to do live action executions for their interactive work. “I’d figure out how to shoot a story with 158 different endings so they’d look seamless,” says Stirling. “It was really interesting to break away from that very linear way of storytelling so that, as an audience, you’re in two worlds running parallel. You get to influence where the story goes, and you can get the audience – their name or picture or character – to be part of the story.”

“We’ve got Mos Def, he wants to do something about Guantanamo. He’s only here tomorrow. What shall we do?”

Career progress through pissing people off The most ambitious production was UP2U for Mentos Gum, featuring eight genre-specific stories filmed across eight huge sound stages with a crew of hundreds and a cast of 40 or so in each film. The rookie director trying to fool the board prior to his first shoot had come a long way. “You have to take command, as a director,” he says, “but my goal is to know as much as possible about all the different processes and departments of filmmaking, and then to be the stupidest person on set, because you want to be surrounded by people who are better than you. It’s all about decisions, the right ones, figuring out which decisions are the best, and that means working out what ideas are the best and listening to people.” Come the summer of 2013, he moved into charity work, with the Mos Def spot for Reprieve first off the block. It’s a tough film to watch and, in its simplicity of purpose, magnificently effective. “I had one picture in my head,” recalls Stirling, “which was a tweet saying ‘Mos Def being force-fed’ – and who’s not going to pick up on that? What the fuck! You’re going to look.” Those who did look included the Pentagon and President Obama, who had reneged on campaign promises to shut down

| People 21

wayne martin mcclammy stirling

Martin Stirling is inspired by… What’s your favourite ever ad? Mr. W for Epuron. It’s stunning. Sad, funny and beautiful all at the same time. What product could you not live without? Anything with crack in it. What are your thoughts on social media? They’re pretty unsocial. How do you relieve stress during a shoot? Fluffers. What’s the last film you watched and was it any good? Does a rewatch count? Paris, Texas. What was the last gig you went to? Hanni El Khatib. Bruising blues in a dirty little Hackney sweatbox. What film do you think everyone should have seen? Being There by Hal Ashby. What fictitious character do you most relate to? Chance [from Being There]. Or the baby from Rosemary’s Baby. If you weren’t doing the job you do now, what would you like to be? Stuntman. Or an ice hockey player. Or private detective. Skydiver. Astronaut. Toy-maker… Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know… I was born with a tail.

Martin Stirling Representation Commercials UK, US, France: partizan.com Music promos, animation, content partizan.com Film & television UK & US: curtisbrown.co.uk

Key work • Save the Children Most Shocking Second A Day; Childhood In Reverse • Greenpeace Everything Is NOT Awesome • Reprieve Force-Feeding Mos Def • Philips Hue How Many Years Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?

22 People | director profile

Guantanamo. “The whole point of it was to get in Obama’s face, to get up in his grill, you know, and cause a bit of trouble for the White House. And it did. The video came out and 10 hours later the Pentagon had to release a statement because there had been so much pressure off the back of the video. That was when I realised that online storytelling can be really powerful and you can immediately see the effects of what you’re doing.” Stirling says he moved into hard-hitting charity campaigns at a time when his own freelance career was drifting. “I was still seeing the same shit briefs,” he complains, “so I made the decision to make bad decisions. And the moment I did that, things started turning around. I thought, maybe it’s better to piss people off and see how that goes.” He laughs. “And it went really well.” Most notably, he set about seriously pissing off Lego and Shell – hardly miniscule brands – with Everything Is NOT Awesome, comprising a glass case containing a diorama of an Arctic landscape built using Lego’s Arctic Explorer kit, complete with drills, oil workers, oil platforms… but no resultant slicks of chronic pollution. Hmmm. Stirling’s diorama remedies that by getting filled to the brim with crude. “The main thing was Shell and Lego had partnered up again so Shell could piggyback off Lego’s brand to target children, which I think is terrible. There’s this phrase, cradle-to-grave brand loyalty, which is probably one of the most disgusting phrases… I thought I’d get blacklisted but at the same time I believed in what we were making, and I don’t think people should target children.” He laughs. “It’s great to piss people off sometimes, especially people like that who hold so many of the cards.” He pauses. “I’ve always wanted to make something out of Lego, too.”

“I made the decision to make bad decisions. And the moment I did, things started turning around.”

1 Philips Hue, How Many Years Does It Take… 2 Greenpeace, Everything Is NOT Awesome 3 Save the Children, Childhood In Reverse

How many ads does it take to change the world? Either side of the Shell/Lego project, he delivered two powerful spots for Save the Children, Most Shocking Second A Day and Childhood In Reverse, both of which had a massive viral impact, and won numerous awards, including a gold Cyber Lion for Most Shocking Second…, which is set in a Britain that’s gradually torn apart by civil strife, mirroring the situation in Syria. The narrative unfolds via incidental visual and audio tells (newspaper headlines, TV news footage…) unfolding behind the little girl, who’s shot close-up and in portrait mode. We follow the gradual disruption of her life from happy carefree existence to the shocking violence of civil war. “I cared about it, what we were making, and that was really important,” says Stirling. “And that’s the difference between shocking for shock’s sake and shocking for a purpose. You have to care about the things you’re making and you have to make the audience care. That’s the part that’s difficult.” The second Save the Children film, Childhood In Reverse, was made while Stirling was working on the 500-plus set changes required for his remarkable Philips Hue spot, How Many Years Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb? This time, filming took place on the Syrian border. The premise was simple: reverse the action. “I thought that could be awesome,” says Stirling. “It was something I hadn’t done before.” So he wrote a script, reversed it, storyboarded it, and the charity loved it. They needed it done

in two weeks. Given the go-ahead on a Thursday, the team flew to Turkey on Saturday, drove to a town on the border with a special effects team from Istanbul, did street casting that day, shot the next day, flew back to Heathrow, cut it in two days and sent it to post house CherryCherry to complete the VFX for the main explosion. “It’s still playing with time, but it’s different enough from the first film,” Stirling says, adding: “When I started out, I thought I’d be a comedy director. It turns out I’m much better at making people cry. The final note of the second Syria film has a sense of hope, though. It’s more uplifting.” Later this year, he begins shooting his first feature in Detroit. “It’s one of my favourite places on the planet right now,” he says. “I’m heavy in prep and development on that.” But the short-form storytelling of advertising remains a potent medium for him. “I really believe in the short format,” he insists. “And I’m still doing commercials work. You can make really interesting things.” And he’ll keep pushing boundaries, too. “Advertising people talk about taking risks and being brave but you rarely see them doing it,” he says. “Being disruptive and shocking is quite easy, but doing it in a way that makes people care is much harder, and I’m much more interested in doing that.” S

24 People | Promo ProfIle

WE ARE FROM LA

| People 25

we are from la

They’re not, of course, they’re from Paris, but the directing duo responsible for Pharrell’s Happy creates work with a universal appeal. David Knight feels the joy

26 People | Promo ProfIle

PHoToGraPHS: leo wIllIamS

t’s London in late February. It’s freezing outside and in the office where We Are From LA are working on a new commercial, the wall heater is blowing out cold air at them. It’s enough to have most creative types in tears, but not these guys. Although they are in chilly London in body, they’re somewhere else in spirit. Two weeks previously the duo – Clement Durou and Pierre Dupaquier – were in LA picking up the award for Best Music Video at the 2015 Grammys, for their video for Pharrell Williams’ Happy. Not just any song, and not just any video. In its standard version the video, featuring Pharrell performing in various locations in LA, together with equally joyful contributions from other performers of all ages, shapes and sizes – has amassed over 600 million YouTube views. But the true wonder of the Happy video is to be found with the interactive version. A visitor to 24hoursofhappy.com can explore over 350 performances of the song accessed from a 24-hour clock – with the times of the performances approximately matching the time at which the user views them – and then share their experience. Figures for views and shares on 24hoursofhappy. com suggest that it’s the world’s most popular interactive music video site. And now the first ever 24-hour video has become the first interactive video to win a Grammy. This isn’t their first work to break records and post awe-inspiring stats. Their cute Evian commercial Baby & Me – in which a group of young adults find their infant selves reflected back at them in mirrored windows on a city street, copying their dance moves – was (according to YouTube and Adweek) the world’s most viewed and shared commercial of 2013. YouTube rated it the most popular ad shown in the UK that year, and now it holds the record of being the mostshared baby-featuring ad of all time.

It’s not easy doing happy All evidence suggests that WAFLA really do know how to make people happy – lots of people. Which is good news for their latest clients Converse and Air France. The new spot for the latter, France Is

In The Air, is a beautifully designed and choreographed affair in which the experience of flying is expressed, in cool Gallic style, as a joyful ride on a swing. It looks like it’s going to be another crowd-pleaser. When shots meets We Are From LA the two new ads are days from launch, and the directors are delighted to have won the Grammy – and joined a stellar rollcall of previous winners, including David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek and Tony Kaye – but also amused when they recall their difficulties making the Happy video. “It was hard to get people involved,” reveals Dupaquier. “When we told them we were making a 24-hour video, the reaction was: ‘Okay… bye!’” he laughs. “In LA everybody was telling us the same thing,” Durou continues. “‘It’s very… ambitious’ and ‘I’m not sure if I’m free…’” More laughter. “It wasn’t easy.” Filmed over just two days Pharrell had to perform the song 24 times – with a different location and outfit. They then spent eight more days filming everyone else, from professional dancers, to handicapped people, from very young to extremely old. Mostly unknowns, but also film star Steve Carell, Pharrell’s celeb friends Jamie Foxx and Magic Johnson and the ‘minions’ from the film Despicable Me – the song first appeared on the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. The casting and logistical challenges were immense – and it’s safe to say that it could only have been made in LA. “In LA you have people who are policeman-slash-actor, doctor-slash-actor,” notes Durou. “So when you give them four minutes in the spotlight, in front of the camera, and they know that will end up in a Pharrell video, they give you 100 per cent energy.” Of course, We Are From LA are actually from France. Both growing up in the Paris suburbs, they met about a decade ago at a Parisian art school and have been working together ever since. On graduation they joined ad agency La Chose as a junior creative team, where they worked on major campaigns for brands such as IKEA. But after a smooth move from art school into advertising, they began to get frustrated, seeing their ideas watered down beyond recognition, or not getting made at all. That encouraged them to

start making their own films in their own time. The first results were a couple of entertaining cut-and-paste animated music videos – a fan video for Kanye West’s Power, and then a video for French artist Yelle – both featuring the copious use of cutout stock images. These videos got them noticed, and they then made an impressive entrance into the burgeoning field of interactive marketing with a project for the Cassius track I Love You So. An accompanying app featured a selection of mouths singing the song; users were invited to hold their phones in front of their mouths and film themselves singing along.

Watch with your eyes closed Though the duo’s own video for I Love You So proved less successful than some of the risqué fan videos it spawned, they were still emboldened to take the risky step of leaving their agency jobs to become full-time directors. “In France you have a lot of job security, so when you quit your job, everybody thinks you’re making a big mistake,” says Durou. So they were making a statement when they adopted the name of We Are From LA. Even with a possible element of irony involved, it reflected where their heads were at. “We decided to change the way we work, so we wanted to change it all, even the name. It was a way to reset our lives,” says Durou. “And for us, America is a place where everything is possible,” adds Dupaquier. “You can do stuff quicker there than you can in Europe. And all our references were American pop culture.” Born in the mid-80s, their heroes were the great American mainstream filmmakers of their childhoods – Robert Zemeckis, Chris Columbus and, the daddy of them all, Spielberg. Their upbringing in the French suburbs had more in common with those of the kids in Spielberg’s movies than anything they saw in French films. “We used to say that we lived in The Goonies – the French Goonies,” says Durou. Signing to French production company Iconoclast, their first post-agency job was another interactive – and remarkably counter-intuitive – project for the track Cover Your Eyes, by French

1/2/3/4 Pharrell Williams, Happy

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we are from la

We Are From LA are inspired by… What’s your favourite ever ad? Durou As a kid, I fell in love with advertising after seeing the Oliviero Toscani ads for Benetton. I still recall them, the one with the three hearts, the one with the black woman breastfeeding a white child, the nun kissing a priest, the arms of a white man and a black man handcuffed together. All those ads from the 80s and 90s made me want to work in communications. Dupaquier The Cadbury ad Gorilla, orchestrated by Fallon, might be my favourite ad because it represents a turning point in advertising; more respectful to the viewer because it offers free entertainment and the fact that it was an ad completely disappeared. We could find that DNA again in Jean-Paul Goude ads, which affected me a lot, just as much as the Toscani ones. What product could you not live without? Durou My iPhone. I spend a lot of time on it. I sleep with it, I get up with it, and when I get up during the night, I also check it. Dupaquier My laptop. My phone’s too limited to have Photoshop on it or to compose some music. I prefer big screens. How do you relieve stress during a shoot? Durou The only way to relieve the stress that comes with shoots is to prepare them well. But what happens is that we take up smoking during shoots, and then try to quit again till the next one. Dupaquier Me, I’m stressed by nature, so you can imagine it only gets worse during shoots. In general I don’t sit still, I walk around a lot during shoots saying: “Eh, Clément, do you have a cigarette? Ultra-light menthol pleeease!”

“We used to say that we lived in The Goonies – the French Goonies.”

What’s the last film you watched and was it any good? Durou I’d love to tell you about Birdman by Iñárritu but Pierre will take care of that. Actually my girlfriend made me watch Groundhog Day not that long ago. It became one of my favourite films. The concept is so great.

Clement Durou, above with cap

electro-rock band The Shoes, in which viewers are required to actually cover their eyes if they want to hear the track. “We wanted to make a video that you don’t want to see,” says Dupaquier. On the video’s website, users are invited to use their webcams to get involved, the video then plays but without any sounds apart from strange voices and rumblings. In order to listen to the song the webcam must detect the user has covered their eyes; once done the track starts. “It was like we were saying, ‘We have footage, but it’s disturbing. So cover your eyes and just listen to the music.’”

Requiring complicated web development, the project went on to win the Innovation Award at the UK Music Video Awards in 2011. “Our generation love to play video games, to interact with stuff,” says Dupaquier on the attractions of interactive. “We like to have one experience, and then another different one.” Durou adds: “When you are on the internet now, and you’re looking at a video, you’re still clicking. The idea is to accept you will click, but let’s make sure you stay clicking in our video.” In fact, WAFLA have still only made one entirely

Dupaquier I’d really love to talk about Birdman too, but now that it has won several Oscars, everyone talks about it. But it really is a film that had a big impact. Otherwise, the last film I watched was Horrible Bosses 2, it was quite fun. What fictitious character do you relate to? Durou Indiana Jones for the energy, Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop for the style, James Blunt’s sense of humour on Twitter and Ghost Dog and RZA for the playlist. Dupaquier It’s going to be hard to beat that. Oh, I know! All the kids from the 80s movies: Alan from Jumanji, Choco from The Goonies, Rufio from Hook, Kevin McCallister from Home Alone.

28 People | PROMO profile

“Pharrell was very engaged in the project. He arrived on the set with perfect energy.” Clement Durou

WAFLA Representation Worldwide iconoclast.tv

Key work • Converse Made By You • Air France France Is In The Air • Pharrell Williams Happy • Evian Baby & Me • Cassius I Love You So

non-interactive music video. True Romance from the British indie band Citizens! features couples engaging in public displays of affection in highly unusual, and sometimes dangerous, situations – such as while being arrested or on the edge of a high building. The inspiration came from the famous photograph of a couple lying in a passionate clinch during a riot, which is recreated at the start of the video. “We wanted to do a real-life music video,” says Durou. “If this image is real, with a couple kissing during a riot, then all the other couples kissing each other could be real too.” With such sunny positivity it’s not surprising that their progress in commercials has involved youth-oriented brands, and quirky but strong visual ideas. For Eastpak’s Spak, Eastpak-wearing youths leap off a rooftop in a human Tetris Facebook advergame; and for French Virgin Radio’s Louder Is Better, an old woman berating some kids in a car starts to look like she’s singing the lyrics to a tune on the radio station.

Hot babies in Buenos Aires In the winter of 2012-13 they made their major breakthrough in commercials, with Evian’s Baby & Me ad. The script, out of BETC in Paris, required

them to make babies copy the movements of eight adults. That turned out to be a painfully difficult task, magnified by problems on the shoot. They claim that at no point did they think they were making a viral sensation. “Everything was really hard to do,” recalls Dupaquier. “Filming babies is horrible – and we filmed a lot. And we shot the ad in Buenos Aires, in the middle of summer. It was so hot for the dancers to dance. By the end we didn’t imagine the commercial would be so huge.” The babies’ dances were actually created by the real dancers wearing fat suits. But all the hard work paid off with a beautifully executed, spectacularly uplifting ad. Released in April 2013, by the end of the year Baby & Me had been viewed 63 million times on YouTube. And the good karma kept coming. Shortly after its launch, discussions with their friend, the French music video director Yoann Lemoine, resulted in them starting production on 24 Hours Of Happy. WAFLA reveal that the 24-hour music video was something they had proposed as part of other previous treatments, and been rejected every time. “The first idea was to do a 24-hour music video on a rooftop in Greenwich in England, on the Meridian,” says Durou. Lemoine – who under the moniker Woodkid, is also a successful musician in his own right – was working as creative director for Pharrell and suggested they propose the 24-hour concept for Happy. “A few days after we sent Pharrell the treatment, he said: ‘Okay, let’s go,’” Dupaquier recalls. “One week later we were in LA.” They soon realised the scale of the challenge. With the track being exactly four minutes long, they needed 360 performances to fill 24 hours – and figured out they didn’t have time to shoot anything twice. But Pharrell’s own performances – delivered impeccably in one take time and again – would provide the project’s pivotal backbone. “Pharrell was very engaged in the project,” says Durou. “He knew it wasn’t possible to do it two or three times, and he arrived on the set with perfect energy.” It was the same for all the other talent, who were told to keep moving, keep dancing, and have fun. “We told them: ‘If you fall on the floor, or if you die… whatever happens, you will be in the video for four minutes.’” Nobody died, but some people fell – and it all stayed in there. “The real idea was to show that it’s possible for everybody to dance,” adds Durou, “even if you’re an old woman, or handicapped. There are people in wheelchairs, people who are 300 kilos, people who are skinny… It’s very universal.” The duo also ended up walking 100km over 10 days – backwards through

the streets of Los Angeles, creating quite a scene. Durou recalls: “Thousands of people in LA watched this crazy thing of one person in front of the camera, and 20 people walking backwards watching the mobile monitors – and singing and clapping, communicating energy.” The DP on the project, Alexis Zabe, mostly shot with vintage anamorphic lenses and used available light for both day and night shoots. The video also has a widescreen look which exudes warmth. Shooting in LA certainly helped – but WAFLA reject the idea that the gorgeous look of the Happy video is intrinsic to their own style. “It’s funny because for us, we don’t have a specific aesthetic,” says Durou. “We try to do the most universal aesthetic we can. Our biggest reference is Spielberg, and Spielberg is always thinking about how to communicate to everybody. And our choice is always about how to speak to everybody.”

Unhappy in Ukraine That appeal to the universal has certainly had some unexpected outcomes – like the Happy video being adopted and reworked by protesters during the Ukrainian revolution in Kiev last year, and protesters against repression in Iran – a political dimension that the directors never dreamed would happen. And they declare that their new commercials for Air France and Converse see them move into new directions, and doing new things. “We were curious to do something we hadn’t done before so for Converse we shot only feet,” says Dupaquier, referring to the spot Made By You, which highlights the individuality of Converse wearers as they describe themselves while their actions – captured from knee level and below – speak louder than words. The Air France ad was a much bigger project and “totally different from the other projects we’ve done,” according to Durou. It entailed the creation of an airplane cabin in a studio, with all the cast – including, at one point, child ballerinas – on swings. It’s a triumph of design and choreography that has actually played a part in their relatively low output as commercials directors, since they’ve been extending their range, doing fashion photography for Air France’s inflight publication, and the French magazine Jalouse. Occasionally returning to agencies as freelance creatives, they say that their Evian and Pharrell work means there is extra pressure on them now. “We have to find good ideas and good projects,” says Durou. But as directors, We Are From LA are in no real danger of losing their ability to generate delight. S

o l k e r i ’ n u g o for y f THE

Voice of a

Generation then you’ve come to the right place

SueTerryVoices

30 People | creative Profile

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED Steve Stone started his first agency because of a drunken offer at a party, deciding that the world didn’t need another ad agency, just better ideas. Iain Blair finds that 20 years later he’s still coming up with those, leading the second incarnation of his shop, Heat, a home for great creatives, great clients and great work, all aiming to do one thing – surprise

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steve stone

32 People | creative profile

PhotographS: dan escobar

an Francisco has long exerted a powerful – and often underestimated – influence in the advertising world, not just on the West Coast, but throughout the US and internationally. A central contributor to that hub of creativity is Steve Stone, chairman and ECD of agency Heat. An industry veteran with more than 30 years in the business, Stoney, as his colleagues dub him, has the final say on all creative decisions for such A-list clients as Electronic Arts, Dolby, The NFL Network, Kendall-Jackson, Teva and Bank of the West. Stone sums up his company’s mission and philosophy as: “We make commercials, films, tweets, posts, print ads, digital ads, outdoor ads, radio commercials, experiential pop-ups, deep digital experiences – and shallow ones, too. Before we make any of that, we make sure we have a strong strategy based on real consumer insights. And along the way we constantly remind ourselves what gets people to remember advertising – surprise. We use the filter of surprise to judge the work. We believe in the power of surprise to build brands, solve problems and turn ordinary customers into raving fans. We’ve studied this quite a bit and found that people feel most comfortable when they hear or see something they’re used to. But they feel most alive when they’re surprised. And we believe people who feel more alive are more likely to be loyal to a brand and spend more money.” But Stone doesn’t define ‘surprise’ as doing “something crazy or unexpected like shooting gerbils out of a cannon”. For him, it’s about “being relevant in new and unexpected ways. It’s about a brand reacting to something in real time. It’s about a brand being somewhere it’s not normally seen but blending in effortlessly. It’s about taking your entire Super Bowl budget and putting it all on one celebrity tweet. Our definition of surprise changes

from client to client but the results are all the same. This is something that works.” Stone’s original vision for Heat was to create a different kind of ad agency. “Yeah, everyone says that,” he admits, “but few really do it. We wanted to start not just a business, but a home for great talent and great clients to do the best work of their lives. We wanted to create a place that brings high concept, great storytelling and craft to digital. Mostly we wanted to create an agency that didn’t force clients to choose between great work and great people to work with. We’re 75 like-minded people who want to make stuff and make a difference. We believe ideas can come from anywhere. We attract talent and keep them. I hoped to make a great place for people to work when I started Heat 10 years ago, but I never dreamed we’d be named by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the best places to work in the Bay Area. We’re doing something right. And the best part is it feels right. Over the years we’ve developed into a truly strategic creative agency with outsized digital chops.”

Sounds like a great idea Current and future projects at Heat include breaking two new campaigns for iconic brand Dolby, a new client. “They have a saying – ‘Sound matters’ – and that’s something I’ve believed for years,” says Stone. “Sound and music have always played a strong part in our work. And will continue to.” While one campaign is “top secret”, Stone can talk about the other, for Dolby’s new Atmos system, which he terms “surround sound on steroids. It allows directors, sound designers and mixers to place sound physically in 3D space. We’ve got outdoor, print, digital video and social media running throughout the summer. We also have some experiential events that will demonstrate the power of Atmos. Fantastic sound design combined with the ability to place it anywhere can tell a better story. We even have ideas where sound alone can tell a better story than sound with pictures.” Heat is also currently working on EA’s soon-to-be-announced largest mobile game launch, as well as several of their biggest console franchises, including Madden NFL. “We also have work breaking in a month for Hotwire, another new client,” he reports. “We’ll be creating commercials and programmatic/real time digital ads that will change the online travel category. I can’t give you much detail on that yet.”

The company is also in the final stages of perfecting three proprietary tools for clients, geared to winning new business. “All three prove data and creativity can work together to build brands and help them build business faster,” Stone says. “The Heat Index is a measurement of advertising’s contribution to business results. The Heat Radeator [sic] is an approach to creative and media that uses small bets in earned media to guide big bets in paid media. And the Heat Reactor is a programmatic content engine that generates real-time personalised content.” Growing up in Ohio, Stone had a “really intuitive and honest art teacher” in high school to thank for his initial interest in advertising. “She said, ‘Look, you’re not very good at painting or fine art, but maybe you should think about commercial art or advertising,’” he recalls. “She helped me get a scholarship to the Columbus College of Art & Design. Four and a half years later, I had two portfolios – one for design and one for art direction. I loved the conceptual part and liked to write as well, so advertising sounded better to me.” Stone interviewed at design firms and ad agencies and landed a job at Ketchum Advertising in 1983. “I met Rich Silverstein’s girlfriend at the time who said ‘Call him, he just started an agency – I think he’d like your work. Back then, San Francisco had these double-decker billboards where one ad would be stacked on another. As luck would have it, an ad that I designed for the California Egg Commission was posted under one that Rich had designed for KGO, a local radio station. So I went out with my camera, took a picture of our billboards, printed it and made a poster which said something like ‘Steve Stone is already working under Rich Silverstein.’ Pretty lame,” he laughs. But that inspired idea, combined with his portfolio, got him hired at Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein as their 16th employee. “I worked there for three years, then went on to New York to work for Ammirati & Puris where I had the chance to work on bigger brands,” he says. “I came back to Goodby a couple of years later, for another three years, before I went out on my own. I had my own thing for a year called The Stone Group – there was no group, just me.” He then took a CD job at Hal Riney & Partners for a year before a drunken night out changed everything. In October 1995, Stone was on a shoot for Eddie Bauer, “and the client, the account guy and I got drunk on Halloween and went to a party

“People feel most comfortable when they see something they’re used to. But they feel most alive when they’re surprised. And we believe people who feel more alive are more likely to be loyal to a brand and spend more money.”

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steve stone

the photographer was hosting,” he recalls. When the client suddenly suggested that they start an agency – and said that she’d give them her business, Stone didn’t hesitate. “John Yost, the account guy, called Mark Barden, a planner who worked on Eddie Bauer, and asked him if he was into it,” he says. “And I called Bob Kerstetter, a writer I worked with at my second stint at Goodby, and asked him. They both said, ‘Let’s do it.’ But first we asked ourselves, ‘Does the world need another ad agency?’ No. We believed the world just needed better ideas.” Black Rocket started in January 1996 with Eddie Bauer as its founding client. “We pitched and won Yahoo! a few weeks later,” adds Stone. “After four successful years during the dot-com boom, Yahoo! wanted to run our work worldwide, so we needed to team up with an international network.” After meeting some holding companies, they decided to go with Euro RSCG/Havas. “We worked under Havas for a few more years, building the company to about 45 people, until one day Yahoo! switched CEOs and decided to make a

change. A year later my partners decided to move on too, and I had the crazy idea of buying the company back and renaming it Heat. That was 10 years ago and we’re approaching 80 people now – and not stopping anytime soon.” Heat was forged in November of 2004 and 10 months later Stone brought in John Elder as partner and president. “John was a terrific account guy from Goodby who started the digital department there. We both shared the same optimism in this crazy, ever-changing business.”

Advertising? That’s entertainment! So what does Stone think of the changes over his 30 years in the industry? “In a way it’s better,” he states. “It’s still all about the work here in SF, but obviously it’s a whole new ball game these days. Gone are the days of crafting type on print ads until the cows come home. Gone are the days of TV being king. But an interesting thing is that the high concept/low budget scrappy stuff that helped put SF on the map for creativity would make for great viral content today. It has come

full circle. It’s still about content and storytelling. Only now there are many more channels for it. Entertaining our consumers has never been more relevant and now there are more opportunities to do so. One thing I have noticed and I’ve been talking about for years is a lack of craft in digital. Yes, a lot of it’s disposable but there’s still room for craft. “There’s never been a better time to be in this business. There are more opportunities than ever. There are more places than ever to experiment. I also think advertising is going to become more explicitly entertaining, as brands realise that they can’t just pay for attention any more, they have to earn it from consumers. We’re not in the information age any more – we’re in the entertainment age. Entertainment is driving behaviour. If you look at how people make decisions, entertainment is integrated at every stage of the purchase process. Combine those thoughts and you get brands producing a huge volume of entertaining, relevant content, tailored to virtually every aspect of the consumer’s life.” S

34 People | ad icon

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Stéphane Xiberras

Stéphane Xiberras BETC’s quietly spoken, reluctant creative chief may have cut his famous long locks, but he hasn’t lost any of his award-pulling power, as his work on Evian and Canal+’s record-breaking campaigns attests. The former satirical scriptwriter talks to Tim Cumming about the ad industry’s role in society, advertising as stalking and the importance of production… and lunch. His recipe for success? Animals, sex and underwear

36 People | ad icon

y first glimpse of Stéphane Xiberras is of a compact, short-haired figure waving, cigarettes in hand, from the other end of the roof terrace of BETC’s office in Paris’ 10th arrondissement. Given the exuberance of his work, you’d expect Xiberras to be a larger-than-life firecracker of a personality, but the man I meet is self-effacing, humble and quietly spoken. Our meeting may be at heady heights, but Xiberras is quick to assure me his feet are firmly planted on the ground, despite his position as president and ECD of BETC. “I have to stay very connected to real life, to real people,” he says. “I’m not able to live in planes, going to Romania, New York or London to have big discussions about advertising or big data or whatever. I have to live with my family and my friends and to smell a little bit.” However, his success is perhaps less to do with personal hygiene and more to do with the man’s clarity of thought and concept, or his innate ability to hold in his mind myriad details across dozens of campaigns, clients and creative colleagues, honing in on the point that holds it all together. Xiberras is the creative motor that’s generated iconic campaigns for the likes of Canal+ and guided the work for Evian, Air France and the hundred-plus other brands represented by BETC. He’s also behind the notorious ‘ad-creating’ software Creative Artificial Intelligence, made as a joke to highlight the poor quality of some unimaginative work in France. Some didn’t get it and actually saw it as a useful piece of kit.

PHOTOGRAPHs: romain bernardie-james. stylist: georgia pendlebury

Breaking out of jail

A client meeting delays our conversation, so head of international communications Ellen Broomé shows me around the building with its rooftop bee hives (producing sweet, runny, delicious honey) and a huge screening, exhibition and performance space. BETC’s gargantuan offices were originally a furniture emporium. In World War Two, the Nazis requisitioned the building as a sorting depot for valuables from Jewish households; the workforce of interred French Jews may have seen their own belongings pass through their hands. After the war, the site remained empty and derelict until BETC moved in 15 years ago, when the area was still a dolorous patch of multicultural, workingclass inner city – not the sort of place you’d take blue-chip clients for lunch. Initially, some even refused to attend meetings there. Now it’s the heart of BoBo Paris, all design ateliers and biodynamic wine bars. At the end of 2016, BETC will be doing the regeneration thing all over again. It will move its 800 or so employees to what is currently a pair of derelict, heavily graffitied industrial warehouses in the north-eastern Parisian suburb of Pantin – the iconic Les Magasins Généraux, an art deco-cum-modernist superstructure, built

between 1929 and 1931. The agency’s latest move seems to be a part of BETC’s basic philosophy – the rehabilitation of industrial buildings and a commitment to reviving rundown urban areas, spreading the money around. They’re not doing it single-handedly. The area is part of a major urban renaissance project, creating new neighbourhoods and revolutionising the relationship between central Paris and its suburbs. “It’s about being part of this society, not a few people in the industry,” Xiberras says of the Pantin project when we resume our chat. “It’s about social projects. Shops and businesses are involved. There is a big project called Grand Paris, because Paris is like a jail. London is London, but with Paris you are inside, or you’re outside, so they’re trying to open the jail. We’re trying to open Paris and get some air.” Which brings us to the role agencies and the industry as a whole play in the social environment – a rising theme in a world where the interaction of the real and the virtual is continually reshaping what that social environment actually is. One of BETC’s latest pieces of work features a Kickstarter campaign to send a Parisian shop mannequin to LA, reuniting him with the lady mannequin he fell for during Paris Fashion Week, as fundraising and promotion for French underwear brand Le Slip Français to open a pop-up store in Los Angeles. This kind of real-world interactive campaign is part of the future as Xiberras sees it. Not for him the creep of big data and what he calls ‘stalking’ rather than ‘advertising’ – the banner ads and notifications that spring up on your smartphone as you walk through the city, the kind of creeping algorithm that knows where you are, where you’ve been and what you like in your sandwich. “If you cross content with technology, you have a business model,” says Xiberras. “The limit is ethical – that thin line between big data and propaganda. Advertising that’s spying on you, trying to sell you something – ‘Hi, you’re in Paris!’ – is that advertising? No. It’s stalking, I hate that. We have to fight that, as advertisers. It’s the wrong path. The dark side. If you have the content and the respect of the consumer, it’s OK. But big data and technology? Welcome back to 1984.” Xiberras (a self-confessed hardcore gamer) put his big data concerns to creative use in a striking real-life street-hack campaign for Ubisoft game Watch Dogs, convincing unsuspecting stooges their new phone app could hack LA’s streetlights and ATM machines, as well as in the eye-popping We Are Data site, which maps live social media activity, CCTV locations and wi-fi hotspots in London, Paris and Berlin. “This is the world we live in,” he says, simply. “I’m not selling a video game, I’m trying to say something about the pitch of the game – hacking,

1984, cameras everywhere. I prefer to sell something with an idea, rather than say ‘This is the most amazing video game ever seen.’ That’s not the way I think. There is a bigger purpose.”

Animals, sex and underwear

Xiberras joined BETC as a copywriter in 1999. Before that, he’d been freelancing in the industry and working as a scriptwriter on France’s equivalent of puppet-based political satire show Spitting Image, Les Guignols de l’info, and a short-format, fly-on-the-water-cooler comedy series, Camera Café. “I wrote satire scripts for four years. That explains the way I work.” His voice falls to a whisper. “I’m a storyteller, I’m not a real advertiser, to be honest.” He was lured into advertising by BETC’s founder Rémi Babinet, but not without a struggle. “I said, ‘No, absolutely not, you’re completely crazy. You’re working all night long, all day, all night. Not for me. Fuck off, Rémi Babinet!’ And he said, ‘No, come, please. Because one day you will be the best creative director ever.’” He eventually gave in to Babinet – “One of the best creatives I’ve ever seen.” At the time, BETC

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Stéphane Xiberras

“Having creatives at the head of the agency was rare in France. It was about business, playing golf with the client. Creativity was not a big issue.”

numbered some 200 employees and Xiberras remembers how they stood out from the rest of the French industry. “It was a real alternative – having creatives at the head of the agency was rare in France. It was about business, playing golf with the client. Creativity, the production of the agency, was not a big issue.” He remembers BETC’s first work for Evian, an account he’d handled at previous agencies as a copywriter. “I saw the difference with the same account, before and after. It was completely different, creative, new. They were able to build something from the ground up. They were bold.” His own first BETC work was for Hollywood chewing gum – a bored Statue of Liberty divests herself of her giant underwear (now residing on top of a stack of BETC filing cabinets) for a swim in the Hudson, introducing themes that would continue throughout his career. “It’s all about animals, sex and underwear,” he admits, almost ruefully. But he’s most famously associated with BETC’s series of spots for Canal+, including The Bear, The Wardrobe and the most recent, Unicorns, focussing on the mythical animals’ perfectly formed genitalia. (“I am so sorry.”)

Just as Babinet predicted, Xiberras has become one of the best and most visible creative directors in the business. As president and chief creative since 2007, he has helped BETC become the second biggest agency in France after Publicis, with the two most awarded (The Bear) and viewed (Evian Rollerbabies) spots in the world under its belt. “Maybe we can explain the success of BETC as like a new restaurant, where the chef is the boss,” says Xiberras. “He knows the menu, for real, he knows the wine and all the recipes… Sometimes I am a bit afraid of this success,” he adds. “It’s difficult to be big and creative, somehow. It’s a big challenge.” The challenge has only become greater in recent years, with BETC’s expansion into London and São Paulo, as well as a luxury arm servicing Louis Vuitton, and design, music, and digital departments. Xiberras was personally behind the launch of an intern programme for creatives, BETC Academy, and a commando unit dedicated to business start-ups, BETC Start-Up Lab. He shows me a new Start-Up Lab spot for Le Slip Français, where a young woman suggestively hammers two eggs (French slang for testicles) under a pair of Le Slip underwear and a regular pair. Under one, there’s the expected mess; the Le Slip pants are whisked away to reveal a perfect French omelette. For Xiberras – as well as giving him the opportunity for a balls joke – it’s about seeding a brand identity into start-ups to help them grow and succeed, by using exactly the same creative processes and questions they would use for an Evian or Air France. “Is it a good script? Is it good for the client? Is it relevant in the category of this client? Has it been done before? Because today, fuck, everything exists. Then you have to choose which director, which developer for a website. A lot of questions. But we know that, in the end, creativity sells. If you’re smart with people, it works. You talk to people, not brands. Not ‘the consumer’ or the bronze Lion. It’s me, my son, my daughter, my friends, you…” As BETC prepares to open a very different chapter in its history, with the move to the suburbs, Xiberras looks to the future of the agency, the industry and the culture in which it swims. “The big issue is, how to work tomorrow? How are we gonna work in Pantin?” He picks out the three key basics to get right. “There’s the thinking, the relationship with the clients, and the productivity,” he says. “For print, digital or film, it’s the same thing, especially the production.” He leans forward and lowers his voice. “Production is key. Everyone has ideas, and anyone can have lunch with clients, but if you’re unable to produce, you’re dead.” He leans forward even closer, conspiratorially. “Shall we have lunch?” S

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naked london

Nurturing naked ambition Naked Communications needed an open, adaptive office to reflect its hierarchy-free, collaborative ethos. Cyrus Vantoch-Wood, head of creative, Europe, reflects on its peaceful nooks for focussed creativity, flexible socialising spaces and a monochrome palette that lets the work show its true colours

Naked Communications creates experiences that are of value to both people and brands. With the diversity and the increased complexity of channels, it is vital that our philosophy and approach to work is based on human need and supported by a dynamic, yet simple, process. Our physical space, in which we investigate, collaborate and create, is a reflection of our philosophy of creating great work. When we work with partner organisations, it’s vital that we create true collaboration. Rather than throwing briefs over walls, we’re much more excited by setting up problems in tandem and pulling in the expertise of those with the chops to get the job done early. This is the approach we took with Frans [Burrows], our very talented interior architect, whose company, Bluebottle, helped us craft a space that gets to the centre of who we are and how we see the world. As we began the process with Frans, we highlighted two simple ways in which we work. Firstly, internalised process, where we as individuals can be still, focus, craft and find some peace in which to make. A cocoon of

40 Insight | creative spaces

thought. Secondly, collaborative working, in which we must gather, co-create, present, entertain and socialise. Our final output clicked. We created a group of interconnected, flexible environments that we can shape alongside the diversity of our tasks at hand. Flexi-desks, multi-purpose booths, a making area and a sectional meeting room pivot together in an open space, creating a symbiosis of premium form and dynamic function. A simple palette underpins the setting. We use black and white as bold references to our company identity, spread out to represent a canvas for our creativity. The people and the work add the colour. As we’ve settled in, newcomers are usually surprised at how we work. We have no fixed desks, we use lockers for our things. To the traditionalist, it could come across as uncomfortable. There’s little truly private space, so it’s not the environment for cloak-and-dagger meetings. Instead it asks something of us. It requires openness. John Maeda in The Laws Of Simplicity states that “openness simplifies complexity”. Being truly open in the way we work has some risks, but bigger rewards. With the design of the Naked office we have tried to embrace this thinking by creating an open system for the way we work together. It’s a system in which the transparency flattens hierarchy and empowers the sharing of our thoughts. A home for our group of misfits, in which we can innovate and challenge convention. S

NOW IN PORTUGAL!

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42 Picturesâ&#x20AC;&#x160;|â&#x20AC;&#x160;mobile digital art

â&#x20AC;&#x160;|â&#x20AC;&#x160;Pictures 43

jaime sanjuan

Every artist needs a pad of his own to paint in, but in lieu of that, an iPad offers alternative pixelated perks. Jaime Sanjuan tells Carol Cooper about the day mobile digital art set him free

FROM PASTEL to pixels

44 Pictures | mobile digital art 31

(previous page) Icarus 1 Butterfly Effect 2 Self-portrait

“A

woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” So said Virginia Woolf in her 1929 essay on the artist’s need for space and detachment from the daily grind in order to create. The writer needs a room; the painter, a studio – or at least an attic somewhere. In 2006, when Spanish artist Jaime Sanjuan graduated from studying fine arts at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, he had neither the cash nor the attic. “Unfortunately, in Spain there are many graduates who are unemployed. When I finished my studies, I had no job and not enough money for a studio or materials for painting. To pay bills I had to work from 8am to 9pm on small, underpaid jobs. It was very difficult to create art – so I stopped painting for four years.” For a man born to paint, this was not an easy time. “If you’re an artist and you don’t create, you die inside. Since I was a kid, I’ve always known I wanted to devote my life to art – while the other kids played soccer, I was drawing.” After high school Sanjuan went to art school in Zaragoza, his hometown, before going to university. He’s now writing his PhD thesis on art and new technologies. “You might say I’ve

been studying art for over 15 years!” After his four-year painting hiatus, everything changed when a friend gave him an iPad. “With the help of this tool I didn’t need a studio, and didn’t have to buy art materials,” he says. “I still didn’t have a job, but I felt alive again!” In the last issue of shots, we explored the revolution in visual arts that mobile digital devices and painting apps have brought about, enabling amateurs to rediscover drawing and painting, while professionals, most famously David Hockney, have been developing the new medium with relish. Though he’s a fan of trying new techniques – “I’ve done printmaking, etching, photography, sculpture, video, 3D, sound art…” – Sanjuan had always preferred painting in oils and pastels, until the iPad came along. Following his own personal digital conversion he began honing his skills, developing photorealistic images with a twist. His paintings are created from a laborious amassing of layers and fine strokes that seem to defy all usual notions of what a human digit can do, some taking up to 100 hours to complete. “I usually use two apps, Procreate and Pixelmator, and I only use two pieces of hardware – the iPad

“With the help of the iPad I didn’t need a studio, and I didn’t have to buy art materials. I still didn’t have a job but I felt alive again!”

| Pictures 45

Jaime sanjuan

and my finger!” Already a fan of painting with his fingers when using oils or pastels, Sanjuan had an easy migration to swiping a screen. “Digital finger painting is incredibly similar to traditional painting. I use the same techniques I’ve always used in oil or pastel paintings, but what I like most about digital – apart from not needing a studio – is the cleanliness and immediacy of it. Also, the use of layers. Thanks to this tool you can take more risks than you can with traditional painting – you can just undo a bad stroke.” His work has been steadily attracting attention, buyers and awards, including first prize in the People’s Choice Awards at the second annual Mobile Digital Art and Creativity Summit in

California last year. In February, Zaragoza’s IAACC Pablo Serrano arts centre hosted a solo exhibition of his finger paintings entitled Digital2. “It’s rare for a traditional museum like this to host an exhibition of this kind of art and it was a surprise for me,” says the excited Sanjuan. “I’m happy because hundreds of people are coming every day to see my work and they love it!”

Beauty in the digital eye Sanjuan’s paintings not only intrigue the viewer with good old Dali-esque metaphors, but they also enthral with the level of detail he achieves. He spends a lot of time in zoom mode, working on fragments of a composition. Close-ups of his

rendering of an eye in Almost Human reveal miniscule clumps of mascara on individual lashes, atom-thin capillaries on the cornea, skin rendered at an almost cellular level. The first indication that this is a less-than-human eye is the triangular pupil, but zoom in on the iris and you’ll find it circled by a chain of zeros and ones – the eye’s digital identity. He’s a fan of still life, but his objects rarely remain still, often exploding, melting or morphing from solid to liquid, from one matter to another. “My paintings are filled with objects from my daily life: flowers, bottles, cups, sugar bowls… Many of the elements are in my house. My paintings reflect my reality, and if you think

46 Picturesâ&#x20AC;&#x160;|â&#x20AC;&#x160;mobile digital art 1

| Pictures 47

jaime sanjuan

1 Envy 2 Procreate 3 Almost Human

“New techniques have always found their place… Museums will have to learn how to deal with this new art… and they will have to do it soon!”

about it, life is very surreal,” he explains. “Many of my paintings speak about the relativity of existence, everything that exists now will cease to exist sooner or later. Even the highest mountain is not eternal.” So in what way might mobile digital art start morphing? “Any new art needs time to find its own language… and this medium is just beginning. In the coming years you are going to see true masterworks created with mobile devices. At this moment in time we are experiencing a cultural revolution: the democratisation of culture. In the case of painting, thanks to mobile devices, any person in the world can create masterpieces if they

have the skills to do so, and that’s wonderful.” I ask him if the blurring of boundaries between professional and amateur might affect the commercial value of artworks? “I don’t think so. The art market has existed for centuries and new techniques have always found their place in it. I believe that now, anyone capable of creating a quality artwork has to be considered a professional artist.” He likens this shift to the revolution in photography that digital has brought about and says it is up to art institutions to lead the way on how digital media is considered. “Art galleries and museums will have to learn how to deal with this new art… and they will have to do it soon!” S

A perfect storm

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brazil

The World Cup was a washout, there are political, fiscal and water-based woes, plus chaos caused by a shifting social order and digital demands. Yet there’s still an awful lot of buzz in Brazilian advertising, with the country ranking No. 2 in Cannes 2014 for the second year running. Carol Cooper heads to São Paulo to meet industry folk bursting with ideas and Latino resilience

50 Places | brazil

“The digital world is forcing clients to think more globally in terms of aesthetics. This is because the internet is bringing a greater range of cultural information to Brazilians. They are understanding more codes now.”

Main illustration: chris ede

ão Paulo’s streets sizzle in the 30 degree heat of a rainy season without rain. In an airconditioned saloon, Deny, my driver for the week, first-gears along a swanky avenida known for its luxury car showrooms. There’s traffic as usual, so I’ve time to gaze at the Porsches, Lamborghinis and Mercedes displayed in their gleaming temples to excess. Suddenly an alternative mode of transport clips along past the Rolls-Royce showroom – a rickety two-wheel cart piled high with bits of wood and cardboard. It’s being pulled, not by a donkey, but a ‘favela man’, who zips along despite the heat and his inadequate footwear. The scene is a neat photo cliché of the urban economic disparity that typifies a BRIC country, but the cardboard dealer is making good progress. Better than us. It’s a metaphor for the rise of the lower classes – one of the many huge changes facing Brazil and its advertising industry. “Things are shifting. We’re having so many different crises happening at the same time,” says Paulo Henrique Miranda, EP of production company Produtora Associados. “We lack water, the cost of power’s going up massively, there’s corruption. I don’t even know what’s going to happen in the next couple of months. It’s bad for advertising agencies and it’s bad for production companies, too.” The corruption scandal – an estimated US$8.9 billion gone awol in deals involving the state-run oil firm Petrobras – is the largest Brazil has seen. President Dilma Rousseff, whose close-call re-election for a second term in October 2014 divided the country, professes ignorance of the affair, but millions of Brazilians are calling for her impeachment. A former Marxist guerilla, Rousseff may have launched welfare reforms that have

1/2/3/4/5 D&AD, Wish You Were Here? by Lobo

4 lifted millions out of poverty, but she’s blamed by many for the country’s slide into recession. It’s all a far cry from the vibe that greeted shots on our last visit to Brazil in the spring of 2013, when the mot du jour was ‘boom’ and the upcoming World Cup seemed set to further boost Brazil’s business and status on the world’s stage. But, like the smog that often hovers over São Paulo, the events of 2014 have cast a shadow. In the words of Ciro Cesar Silva, EP and partner of production company Rebolucion, last year was a “wet blanket”. Though 2015 has started well for Rebolucion, with its co-founder, filmmaker and former shots cover star Armando Bo winning an Oscar for co-writing Birdman, Silva is saddened by the country’s dashed hopes: “The World Cup should have been a celebration and good for the country, but the wind blew in a different direction.” Following 2013’s mass protests, which were in part fuelled by lavish state spending on the tournament, the country faced a further buzzkill at the Brazil team’s 7-1 semi-final loss against Germany. Then the ad industry faced jittery clients who were holding back, waiting to see what the elections would bring. Clients are still holding back thanks to the election results and other woes, including the falling currency and now a severe water shortage. When Brazil started to boom in 1994, infrastructure was never put in place to cope with the expansion. Thus you have the irony of water rationing in a country blessed with 12 per cent of the world’s freshwater. Much of São Paulo, a city of an estimated 20 million, relies on just one main reservoir, which, during the recent dry rainy season, dropped to six per cent capacity. With the country’s power being 80 per cent hydroelectric, power shortages are now also looming. Add to all

this the changing demands of a shifting social structure and the challenges presented by digital, and Brazil and its ad industry look set to face a perfect storm of upheaval and uncertainty. The steady rise in fortunes of the country’s lower-middle class (known in Brazil as the C class) has been affecting the ad industry in a range of ways. As with the global market, increased use of digital devices means Brazilian marketers must employ new forms of visual language to use on the new platforms. Fabio Fernandes, CEO and creative director of F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, says: “I think the digital world is forcing clients to think more globally in terms of aesthetics. This is because the internet is bringing a greater range of cultural information to Brazilians. They are understanding more codes now, not just codes from their TV shows and soap operas.”

| Places 51

brazil This broadening of cultural appreciation is altering consumer behaviour in a number of ways. “One example of something that didn’t happen about three years ago here is that you now see long queues forming at museums and galleries,” says Fernandes. “Inside exhibitions you hear comments from people admiring art for the first time. It’s so beautiful to hear. It doesn’t matter what it is, from the best stuff to crap art, you have a crowd of people hungry to see it and take part in it.” He relates his astonishment last year at seeing a crowd standing in the searing heat, queuing to see a Salvador Dalí exhibition. “I mean, Dalí!” he exclaims. “And in 2013, São Paulo’s Museum of Image and Sound had an exhibition about Stanley Kubrick. The curator probably thought 5,000 people might come over the month, they had something like 10,000 people per weekend, people who had never heard of Kubrick before.” Fernandes attributes this change partly to an increase in the C class’s disposable income, but also to the new way information is spread. “New media means you get to see different images and pieces of information, you swipe and see different things, whereas the TV screen feeds you a fixed rectangle of images. It’s a change in the state of mind.” Brazil has long produced highly creative award-winning advertising – in the last Cannes country rankings it held number two spot for the second year running – and this expansion of aesthetic appreciation among consumers can only be a good thing for agencies and clients daring to launch more sophisticated campaigns. For example, F/Nazca Saatchi’s recent spot for Electrolux, Explosion, has a subtle, enigmatic style that invites the consumer to make obscure connections. Marketing a fridge that aids healthy eating, it presents cinematic slo-mo images of exploding unhealthy foods, such as desserts and sodas, against the soundtrack of a woman singing breathily in French. It’s a classy continental cocktail that is oh-so-aspirational. Produtora’s Miranda agrees that aspiration could be the note to hit to reach Brazil’s burgeoning middle class. “The lower classes are earning more money, they’re becoming more educated, so they desire to be on the next level [culturally], we all do, we all want to be a step forward. We still need to produce commercials to sell beer to the masses but now those consumers are more open to something more subtle, that is more of a fantasy.” But in tough economic times this can present a struggle for producers. “The agencies come to us and they want to do something good for that target audience, but they want to do something with less of a budget. But something good costs more money…” He cites 2014’s Skol spot Underwater Bar, which Produtora Associados and partners PBA Cinema produced out of F/Nazca Saatchi. Referencing the beer’s blue bottle, the surreally beautiful ad interpreted the tagline ‘Blue on the outside, mysterious on the inside’ by staging an otherworldly underwater party.

It wasn’t a cheap ad, requiring four months of pre-production, international specialists in underwater lighting and effects – and sharks. “We even had to find the right texture of fabric that would work in the water, “ he recalls. “And then there were the extras and digital content, too.”

Bother with in-house media buying This extra digital content that’s increasingly obligatory can present a fresh challenge to Brazilian agencies due to their traditional model of in-house media buying, whereby the budget for a campaign is a percentage of the agency’s spend on media. When content is placed on free digital platforms there is no finance generated. “The percentage is usually 20 per cent here,” says Miranda, “so what happens when you go to YouTube or Facebook and don’t pay anything to advertise? Twenty per cent of nothing is nothing. So they have to rearrange that and find this money from somewhere. And usually it’s not enough, some clients even think that because digital content is on a smaller screen it costs less to produce, but of course it doesn’t.” Miranda says

shrinking production budgets have knock-on effects. “We may ask a supplier to do us a favour and charge less than normal on a job, so they do it once, maybe twice, but the third time they’ll say, ‘I have to charge full rate.’ Then you put the correct amount to the client and they say, ‘You’re too expensive, we’re going somewhere else.’” This environment, where larger production companies with greater overheads are struggling, is fertile ground for the smaller, more nimble outfits. The Kumite, for example, part of the Flag group of companies, is a content production company comprising four directors who have produced content for clients such as Google, Samsung and Axe. Meanwhile, production companies with international offices are looking abroad to bolster business. Karin Stuckenschmidt, executive producer of Home Productions, which was originally founded as Filmplanet, says: “They are predicting a recession in Brazil for the next two years. It’s going to be hard, but thank God we have been busy and the international work we get in means we’re not relying on just local business.”

“The percentage is usually 20 per cent here, so what happens when you go to YouTube or Facebook and don’t pay anything to advertise? Twenty per cent of nothing is nothing…” 2

1/2/3/4/5 Johnnie Walker, Rock Giant

52 Places | brazil

“Often Brazilian stars are more expensive than American stars. We used Dustin Hoffman once and he was cheaper than Ronaldo, the Brazilian football player. It’s crazy.” Design and animation studio Lobo, which created the brilliant D&AD 50th anniversary film Wish You Were Here?, is also focussing efforts on its international business and is about to open a new office in New York. Executive producer Loic Francois Marie Dubois reveals they’ve been feeling the squeeze on the local economy. “We’re doing more content production now for Brazil’s C class and for way lower budgets.” Paris-born Dubois has been in São Paulo since 2002 and displays plenty of Brazilian buoyancy: “It’s a big creative boom for us, it pushes us to the limits. With smaller budgets we have to think of more inventive ways of doing things.” However, the changes are not just fiscal. He also recognizes that Brazilian marketers must address a new type of consciousness now. “The consumers are more savvy, the way they interact with information is completely different so we have to adapt to that. On a political level it’s brilliant, it means that the country is waking up again,” he enthuses. “I never thought there would be protests here. I thought it’s Brazil; it’s about football and carnival! Sure people have voted, [which is mandatory in Brazil: you don’t vote, you don’t have a passport] but they haven’t been feeling it of late. But in the last two years I’ve seen real changes. The steep increase in internet usage has brought about this revolution.” The country-wide protests that began in force in June 2013 indeed indicate a reawakening of mass political activism since the protests at the end of the dictatorship in 1985. But an aspect of them also revealed an interesting facet of the Brazilian attitude to advertising when Johnnie Walker’s The Giant Awakes spot and Fiat’s Vem Pra Rua (Come To The Streets) campaign were repurposed by protestors. Where else in the world would images from a whisky ad and a car brand jingle be employed as a viral video and an anthem of anti-government revolt? (To read more about this, see the interviews with Marcelo Reis on page 62 and Alexandra Gama on page 68). Some have attributed this phenomenon to the shallowness of a consumer society, but it says more about the Brazilians’ non-cynical, affectionate relationship with advertising. In Brazil there’s less of the divide between entertainment and advertising that you see in other markets and stars from the hugely popular soap operas, with whom viewers have an intense emotional attachment, also appear in ads. “Brazilians feel very close to their celebrities and every agency uses celebrities in their ads,” says Leo Burnett Tailor Made’s Marcelo Reis. “Often Brazilian stars are more expensive

than American stars. We used Dustin Hoffman once and he was cheaper than Ronaldo, the Brazilian footballer. It’s crazy.” This receptive attitude towards advertising can only help the industry and amid the fears of further fiscal woes, there are still reasons to be cheerful in Brazil. Due to it being a multi-cultural, multi-lingual country, plus its linguistic isolation as the only Portuguesespeaking Latin American nation, Brazil has welldeveloped visual communications and a strong reputation in print. Now its filmmaking is on the up too, with a new breed of Brazilian directors like Vellas (see profile on page 58) producing cinematic spots – such as the five-Lion-winning Soul for Leica – that are catching global attention. FilmBrazil, the government-sponsored film promotion body within APRO, the local association of production companies, is organising a roadshow taking 10 production companies, each with two directors, to New York and Chicago to showcase the country’s filmmakers. Marianna Souza, FilmBrazil’s executive manager says: “We have talent here that can compete with Argentina, Chile and Mexico. We want to sell Brazil not as a production services country, as it has been before, but as a talent hub, where you can come and shoot anything. And now, with the Real falling against the US dollar, it’s cheaper to shoot here, so it’s competitive as well.” Nick Story, a British/Austrian/French filmmaker who moved his London-based Story Productions to São Paulo in 2006, is able to capitalise on running a Brazilian company with European connections and is also optimistic that international business will increasingly boost his adopted country’s film production. “It’s been so expensive to shoot here for a long time, but the Real’s fall means it’s getting much cheaper for the foreign market. We have the talent here and the time difference helps, too – it’s only one hour behind New York and three hours behind London.”

The rock giant could rise again Next year’s Olympics in Rio could also boost the country’s fortunes, and Home Productions’ Stuckenschmidt predicts the Olympics will bring more production work to Brazil, “Rio is so iconic,” she says, “I mean, it’s Rio! So the Olympics will help. I think there will be a lot of work being shot in the city this year for 2016.” However Alexandra Gama, founding partner of NEOGAMA/BBH, predicts the Games may cause unrest and be used as another springboard to protests: “Brazilians don’t have the same emotional

1/2/3 Skol, Underwater

connection with the Olympic Games as they did with the World Cup so it will be less significant in terms of people’s engagement. And there will be protests for sure. There’s much to complain about and an international media event such as this is a perfect opportunity to express dissatisfaction. The Giant will take to the streets again, I think.” En route to the airport, Deny speeds me though a quiet Sunday-afternoon São Paulo and I think of Marlene Dietrich’s words: “Rio is a beauty, but São Paulo? São Paulo is a city.” I have to disagree; there is much beauty here. The architecture is stunning – futuristic, modernist, with structures by celebrated Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer that seem to have been beamed down from outer space. I was expecting a concrete jungle, but here is actual jungle – São Paulo is dripping with lush foliage, as if the rainforest is trying to reclaim the streets. Along with bright blossom and glossy green leaves, world-class graffiti washes the city in eye-popping colour that’s louder than the traffic. Some of it is by professional street artists and ends up in galleries. As Latin America’s visual arts hub, São Paulo has outstanding galleries, one of which, MASP, boasts the southern hemisphere’s greatest collection of European masters. So, sorry Marlene, to my mind São Paulo makes Paris look like Basingstoke and reminds me that Brazil is a country that values aesthetics and oozes creativity. It’s also a dynamic, culturallydiverse country full of people who’ve endured ups and downs before, from dictatorships to hyperinflation. At São Paolo’s swish international airport, something odd happens at passport control. Instead of the usual deadened glance from a face-weary official determined not to interact, I get a warm Brazilian smile and a brief chat. Communication is in their blood. I hope their natural flair for advertising will see the industry weather whatever perfect storms come their way. S

Tell a Brazilian story With vast local knowledge and international flair, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll add value and a keen eye for detail to your Brazilian project. You can rely on us to help you with ANCINE visas, production contracts, sourcing the right crew, scouting the perfect location and finding the cast. We can even film underwater if you need it! Think of us as your local production team, in Brazil. Email hello@storyproductions.co.uk and bring your story to life.

54 Places | brazil

On the back of a very good haul at Cannes 2014, and less than two years after joining FCB Brasil as executive creative directors, Max Geraldo and Joanna Monteiro have been made creative VPs. Dazzled by the duo’s vivacious verbal – and nonverbal – skills, Carol Cooper hears how their way of getting everyone in the ‘playground’ collaborating has boosted creative excellence

CB creative VPs Joanna Monteiro and Max Geraldo are all smiles and ebullience. Monteiro sits folding her legs underneath her like a teenager, but rarely stays still for long, her body animating her words. Geraldo is more poised, leaning back in his chair, stroking his beard in contemplation, often moderating or augmenting Monteiro’s exclamations. You can almost see the creative electricity buzzing between them in the comfort of an old friendship. “He’s pretty different from me,” says Monteiro. “He has talents that I don’t and I think we really

only connect complement each other, but we pretty much think the same way when making decisions.” Geraldo qualifies this: “I don’t think we have different skills but different career histories. I think when you see our work you see how our individual ways into advertising have converged.” The pair met 15 years ago but didn’t work together until they both joined FCB in 2012, since when their convergence has resulted in brilliant campaigns such as Nivea’s Protection Ad, a print ad that could be turned into a child’s wristband and a mobile app, Protege, that linked to the wristband and could be programmed to set off an alarm when the child wandered off too far. It toddled off with seven of FCB Brasil’s haul of 17 Lions last year – including the Mobile Grand Prix. So when I talk to them about the gloomy prognosis hanging over the country like São Paulo smog, Monteiro admits that, although 2014 was a downer for Brazil, for FCB it was a great year. “Next year, we just don’t know… Brazilian clients are screaming, ‘Make the budgets lower!’ but we’ve started 2015 with the right amount of work to have a good year.” So how did they set about transforming FCB Brasil’s creative output? “The final product comes from the creative department, but the whole agency has to breathe creativity. We wanted to get all the departments working together,” says Monteiro. She becomes animated as she explains how they gathered people from separate areas of the agency – planners, accountants, everyone – to all be in the same room together. “We said: ‘Take your butt out of your chair and go talk to people.’” She hops out of her chair and paces around. “Because of technology, people are always emailing people who are just across the hall!” Her

voice rises in exasperation. “We really believe in technology, we work in technology, but come on!” Geraldo smiles sagely, adding: “It’s funny, but we felt like people were waiting for that to happen.” Monteiro agrees: “It’s good for everyone to play together, to be in the same part of the playground. It’s a collaborative way of working. You know people are by your side, that they are fighting with you. It’s more modern. The 80s were full of competition and secrecy, but we have a more sharing, social world nowadays.” We discuss how creativity flows more freely in face-to-face meetings. “It’s almost like osmosis,” Monteiro animatedly agrees, beaming.

Crossing the divides Monteiro admits that she and Geraldo are both great talkers and says that Geraldo is only quieter today because his English isn’t as good. His English is way better than my stash of three Portuguese words, but throughout the interview he frequently checks to see if we are connecting, ending his sentences with “Right?” The pair’s enthusiasm for and understanding of quality communication is evident in their other major Cannes 2014 winner, The Speaking Exchange for CNA language schools, a conversation exchange that connected English language students in Brazil with senior citizens in the United States, addressing both the students’ need for conversation practice and the oldsters’ need for human contact. The project was heartwarming and resulted in touching relationships developing across generational and cultural divides. Rio-born Monteiro began her career as a trainee copywriter at Ogilvy in 1996 and then went on to work at “the three iconic Brazilian agencies”

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Geraldo & Monteiro

Photograph: Vasilly Bobylev

“We said: ‘Take your butt out of your chair and go talk to people.’ People were emailing people who were just across the hall. I mean, come on!”

56 Places | Brazil 2

1/2 Nivea, Protection Ad 3 CNA Language Schools, The Speaking Exchange

The duo seem frustrated at the slow pace of change in the industry and are constantly looking at how things need to change. I mention the Brazilian model of agencies having in-house media buying and how digital is affecting revenues from that. Geraldo agrees: “The current model will work for a long time, especially as TV is still so powerful here. But the way ads on different platforms are paid for will have to change. There will be a mixture of fees and payment through media. This agency already has had seven or eight different types of payment forms. So we can provide our clients with a good mix of media according to their needs. This is the modern way, it’s the way to survive.”

When advertising gets personal

“Apps are growing because you choose apps.” Monteiro points out the intimate relationship one has with one’s mobile. “My mobile is me. It’s personal. So advertisers must tread carefully. It’s an interesting challenge.” DPZ, W/Brasil with Washington Olivetto and, from 2002, Africa Advertising with Nizan Guanaes, where she spent 10 years. She’s had a broad, international education and has studied English in London, Italian and art history in Florence and did a postgraduate degree in advertising and marketing at São Paulo’s prestigious ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing). Geraldo’s path to advertising was more meandering. He was born in Argentina but raised in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where he studied communications and finance at university. “I didn’t get finance,” he laughs, so he also studied fine arts and his first job was actually as an illustrator for a textile company. He worked in a variety of jobs – in electronic media, in the film industry designing sets, designing TV credit sequences – before starting work as an art director in television. “But my interest was in cinema. I wanted to travel abroad to study it, but I didn’t have the money,” he says. “In those days advertising paid very well, so to make money I started knocking on agencies’ doors with examples of my work. Then I fell in love with this career and never left.” Geraldo’s first advertising position was art director at a small agency in Belo Horizonte called

Casablanca. “It was small but very, very creative – then I came to São Paulo.” Since then he’s worked for top agencies including TBWA, JWT, DM9DDB and AlmapBBDO.

Selling cheap beer Geraldo’s wry observation of how advertising salaries have shrunk returns me to the subject of gloomy predictions for Brazilian business. He leans back in his chair, from where he seems to have a good view of the big picture. “We’re having ups and downs, but for some Brazil has never been so good. I mean, 20 or 30 years ago many more people were living on the streets. Brazil used to be known for starvation – we don’t have that any more. Our industry is now so connected to the consumer habits of the lower-class people that we have to relate to the many people who are now able to buy cheap beer. It’s different in England, for instance. There you have a huge middle class. Here we’ve had a smaller upper class and a huge lower class that wasn’t able to consume anything much 20 years ago. They had trouble getting food, let alone beer.” Geraldo grows more excitable as he expresses his frustration that many in the industry don’t seem to appreciate this. “Our profession is about connecting with these people.”

Monteiro is excited by the changes digital technology is bringing and how ads are going to have to be increasingly targeted towards increasingly smaller screens. “Brazilians are very social and the rise of the C class means everyone has smartphones, even if they don’t have computers or larger screens. So everything is on the phone – internet, communication, everything is here.” She whips out her phone and brandishes it about. “We need to think about how to reach people via mobiles. And this is going to change the game 10 years from now.” Both agree that relevance is crucial. “We are competing with many, many things, different platforms. Advertising doesn’t work if it’s just funny or moving but not relevant,” says Monteiro. Geraldo chimes in: “Sometimes you don’t have to change the world with your message, it just has to connect.” He points out the dangers of intrusive advertisers. “People use mobiles to communicate with their friends and family, not with brands. So with viral, for example, if the message is significantly important or relevant or funny or emotional it might get shared, but people don’t use a phone to stay in touch with advertisers.” Monteiro points out that people increasingly want to be in charge of communication flow, particularly on their mobiles. “That’s why apps are growing, and not the sites. Because you choose apps.” She points out the intimate relationship one has with one’s mobile. How it is an extension of your persona. “My mobile is me,” she says, clasping hers to her heart. “It’s personal, you don’t share your mobile. So advertisers must tread carefully. It’s an interesting challenge, but I’ve got to tell you, it’s the future.” Geraldo agrees, “Yeah, because we want to start a dialogue with the consumers, right? But sometimes the consumers don’t want a dialogue with us.” The interview has gone over time. I have to rush off, but as we leave the room we continue chatting animatedly. It’s hard to stop talking with these two and I reflect that if anyone can figure out how to connect with people who might not always want to listen, it’s this pair of engaging, world-class communicators. S

58 Places | brazil

His Soul for Leica was lauded and awarded and he shoots for top brands from Apple to Ford, yet director Vellas barely seems to register success as he frenetically strives to perfect his art and sort the fine details of filmmaking, even down to the right lunch

art and soul

PHOTOGRAPH: Karina vallesi

t’s Saturday afternoon and we’re drinking beer in an empty hotel restaurant. The room is devoid of atmosphere apart from the fizz of energy around Vellas as he animatedly discusses the rigours of his job: “It’s so fragile, there are so many people involved, so many layers to get through to do something good. You go to meetings and you know you’re going to lose something, you have to choose what you’re going to lose – you might lose the actor you want but you win a location. A guy picks the actor, so he’s happy, I’m happy. I say ‘So give me the blue car, not the black car, okay?’ He says, ‘Okay, okay, the blue car.’ But then the boss of the boss might not like something, maybe he’s overtired, maybe he had a bad lasagne at lunch and he says, ‘Nah, I don’t like the script,’ so the script gets thrown out.” Vellas is pitching the scene to me and I’m right there with him. “Then you shoot something but you have to defend it, you have to fight for it, then you lose it, you get depressed, so you call the guys, say, ‘Come on, guys, present my version, please, please, please!’” I’m starting to feel anxious by proxy, but then the mood changes when he

describes the good times, shooting Leica’s Soul, an exquisite monochrome film inspired by war photographers that won a slew of awards, including five Lions at Cannes 2013, plus a spot on the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase. “It was cosmic,” he rhapsodises, “everything was just right. Even the bad things ended up being right: I lost a location hours before the shoot, but found a better one; the actor was so nervous he was shaking but that helped to create tension in the scene. Everyone was incredible, the agency, the client, the DP, the Cuban crew. I didn’t screw up! It might be difficult to repeat that. If anyone at any point eats a bad lasagne, including me, a film might not work so well,” he laughs. Unable to ensure the quality of baked pasta dishes throughout Brazil, Vellas recently opted to increase control over his career by co-founding his own production company, Saigon, with EP Marcelo Altschuler and directing duo 2. Before that he’d had a long and successful association with Sentimental Filme. “Sentimental was great, they helped me a lot, but it’s natural to move on,”

he says. “This market is tough so to get to the top, I think you have to be in charge. Now I’m also the owner I can spend more money where I think it’s worth it. For example I can shoot in another country and I might make less money but the film will be better.” His determination to make great films is palpable, though he actually started off in advertising as an animator and art director after studying marketing at university then dabbling in design. “In 2003, I called Paulo Sanna at Ogilvy & Mather and said, ‘You don’t know me, I don’t know you, but I want to work with you.’ He told me to come in and I showed him my portfolio. He said ‘Your work sucks but you have balls so I’m going to hire you.’” He worked for top São Paulo agencies such as DM9DDB before moving into production, then his interest in creating images led to him directing. “I take pictures all the time, every day and always with film. When you shoot with film you think more about what you are shooting because, you know, with digital it’s like you’re shooting a machine gun.” He mimes, starts firing. “Also, with film, I forget what I shot a month

1 Fiat, Vem Pra Rua 2 Leica, Soul

| Places 59

vellas

ago and then I get it developed and think ‘What the hell?’” He tells me about his old Japanese guy downtown who develops his prints for him. “He’s always losing things, he’s old but when he dies I’m screwed.” I realise that everything he tells me comes with a story, with visuals and dialogue; he’s a natural filmmaker.

Filming in Gotham

“It might be difficult to repeat [Soul]. If anyone at any point eats a bad lasagne, including me, a film might not work so well.”

Vellas Representation Brazil saigon.com.br UK somesuch.co The Americas landia.com France carnibird.tv Germany tonypetersenfilm.de Italy think.cattleya.it Middle East & Asia theitalianjob.it

Key work • Apple iPhone 6 Beautiful Moments • Leica Soul • Ford The Last New Fiesta • Fiat Vem Pra Rua

Half Italian, he was born Felipe Vellasco in Rio, spent his childhood in Germany and moved to São Paulo as a teenager. Maybe that peripatetic upbringing has given him the outsider’s perspective that often makes a good storyteller? “It was good growing up in different cultures,” he says. “I was always changing schools and cities and I think it’s made me less fearful of change.” I detect something universal about him: his dark humour has a northern European edge, his ebullience is Latino and there’s an Italian flavour in the romance and sensuality of works such as Soul and Suas Escholhas, his spot for Brazilian bank Itaú. There is a fluidity about him and his vision – he says he’s fascinated by locations that have the look of someplace else. For his recent Ford spot, The Last New Fiesta, with JWT, the theme was the end of the world: “I wanted to shoot in Chernobyl, but then the Ukrainian conflict started so we had to change location. I’d remembered pictures I’d seen of Detroit, abandoned places, houses falling apart. I called a guy I know there and he sent me pictures – it was perfect,” he recalls. “I love to mix things up. Like you shoot one day in Buenos Aires, one day in Chicago, then another in São Paulo and you mix the scenes up. So then you think, ‘Where the fuck is that?’ It’s like Gotham City, you know? It’s nowhere. So that nowhere thing for me is really interesting.” I ask him how he sees his career going in the future. “I want to make feature films but I’m only 32, so I think I can make a career in advertising first, like in five or 10 years maybe, and then after that work on features, or TV series and stuff. I think that in Brazil the feature film market will grow.” And what if things don’t grow, don’t go so well for Brazil? “Well, then I think it’ll be time to change again and go somewhere else...” Wherever this guy is going, it certainly won’t be nowhere. S

60 Places | BRAZIL

He’s as Brazilian as Havaianas, but Luiz Sanches, CD of AlmapBBDO, is getting sick of emotional campaigns. He tells Carol Cooper that his sometimes turbulent country is the perfect place for creating the ads we need today – cheaper, faster, funnier

The Sanches sparkle L

uiz Sanches, creative director of AlmapBBDO and one of the most lauded advertising creatives in the world, needs to get something off his chest. Although he’s Brazilian to the core, and thus expressive, engaging and, of course, emotional, he’s come to the conclusion that there may be too much emotion in advertising. “Last year in Cannes I was watching film campaigns and I got a bit depressed,” he says. “There was great quality, but everything had to be doing good, or politically correct or making people cry. I thought ‘OK, that’s great, but where’s the other part?’ It seems all the brands are speaking in the same way, so I think we should change the tone. Everybody is doing emotion in the country at the moment and I think people need more humour.” His agency’s World Cup-themed spot for Visa in 2014 certainly hits the funny bone. It features former France international Zinedine Zidane popping into a café to watch a game between France and Italy only to discover too late it’s an Italian restaurant packed with hostile fans.

other major prizes from festivals such as D&AD, the Clios and the NY Art Directors Club. He’s also led AlmapBBDO to the honour of Agency of the Year at Cannes in 2010 and 2011. Whether because of these plaudits or his personality, Sanches is unfailingly positive about the troubles faced by both his country and the ad industry as a whole. “In Brazil we know how to deal with mess, we know how to deal with confusion,” he says. “I was born and raised here so I know how it works – sometimes we are

Photograph: mauricio nahas

2 Getty, From Love To Bingo 3 Volkswagen, Kombi’s Last Wishes 4 Visa, Restaurant

Faster, cheaper, better Whether he’s aiming to move or amuse, Sanches’s work certainly seems to be a magnet to those big cats from Cannes. His wins at last year’s festival brought his total of Lions to a staggering 86; he has a Press Grand Prix under his belt for a Billboard magazine campaign in 2010. I congratulate him on his success – “It’s nice,” he allows, with a modest, sparkling smile. Sanches started his career with DM9DDB in 1992 and has been at AlmapBBDO since 1995, first as an art director, now as chief creative officer. In addition to all his Lions, he’s collected many

1 Havaianas, It’s Easy To Explain

| Places 61

Luiz sanches

“Last year in Cannes I got a bit depressed. There was great quality, but everything had to be doing good or making people cry. Everybody is doing emotion and I think people need more humour.”

up, sometimes we are down. That brings more incentive to come up with cheaper solutions, faster solutions – and in my opinion it’s exactly what the industry needs today, to be fast and cheap.” But what about his 2012 spot for Getty Images From Love To Bingo? That wasn’t fast, cheap or quick. I’d read that it took months to create, splicing together 873 still images into one sweeping narrative. “Yes, that took six months to make,” he concedes. “But it was about using a great idea and crafting it in the best way we could. The time we put into it was easy – it sparkles your eyes, you want to do it, you’re enjoying it.” His belief in the concept led him to take a risk and produce the whole spot before pitching it to the client. “There is creativity in how you present work to clients, you have to make them see your vision, to engage them, to make their eyes sparkle too. How do you show great ideas? Look at things from a different angle. That’s why I think now is a great time for creativity. Art directors and copywriters have to use the best ideas in their heads because they don’t have a

multi-million dollar budget. That’s what we did with the Volkswagen spot Kombi’s Last Wishes.” The last factory to make the Volkswagen Kombi near São Paulo was due to close and Kombi’s Last Wishes tells the stories of people whose lives have been touched by their Kombis, from a woman who was born in one to a man who turned his into a pasta restaurant. “They had 300 Kombis to sell for US$25,000, which is too much for a car that’s going to be discontinued. There was no rational way to persuade a person to buy one, so it had to be emotional. It was an opportunity to tell a story, to treat the bus as a person who is making a will so they can give back to the people what the people gave to it, giving back the love.”

The sweet smell of opportunity Having won a Grand Prix for the Billboard campaign, Sanches invests a lot in the power of the image. I ask him how visual language will change in the post-Instagram and Pinterest world. “We are in a transition where people have access to many different types of images from around the

world. But what you see is becoming standardised, everything looks alike, so if you walk around a mall in Brazil it’s no different to walking around a mall in the UK. So you have to choose images that stand out, to make something local, individual. That was the key point of our poster campaign for Havaianas, for example. When you see the brand you know it’s Brazilian. You have to choose images that stand out when there are so many images about. The image must have a soul!” But Sanches has no time for agencies that hire well known artists to create work – “That is wrong in my opinion. It’s lazy.” AlmapBBDO certainly backs up Sanches’s vision, investing in its in-house artists. “We have a studio with three photographers and we have over 20 designers and illustrators,” Sanches says with pride. Among his many talents is the ability to turn a challenge into an opportunity. I tell him I hope Brazil pulls through its economic and political troubles, and its drought. He smiles that sparkling smile again: “Perhaps the water shortage is a good opportunity for the perfume makers…” S

62 Places | brazil

Young Marcelo Reis was impatient to break away from his provincial middle-class background and make a creative life for himself. This drive has pushed Reis to become the world’s top CCO and his agency, Leo Burnett Tailor Made, to take 22 Lions at Cannes 2014, as Carol Cooper discovers

the power to change H

ailing from Minas Gerais, a scenic state of old colonial mining towns and national parks in eastern Brazil, Marcelo Reis describes his family background as “middle class, pretty square, concerned with self-image and moral values. There was very little to do with art.” He was all set to become an electrical engineer, “due to family pressure, not because I liked it. But, thank God, I gave it up.” He studied architecture and advertising at university, but ended up plumping for the latter – though he doesn’t feel advertising is art “but sales with creativity”. As a young man, he says, “My desire to create and invent and my knack for controversy made me an impatient person.” Along with the typical Brazilian warmth, charm and openness, I detect a lingering sense of that urgency and force of will. Here’s a man you would want on your side in a battle, a man who’d relish the chance to shake things up and initiate change. It’s a force that is evident in his work and along his road to success.

Photograph: mauro moura

The smell of success In 1998, he left his hometown and arrived in São Paulo seeking work as a copywriter. “I needed to radically change. I wanted to work with people much better than me. I made a list of agencies, using the São Paulo Creative Club directory and mailed my portfolio to the major CDs.” His work caught the eye of Marcelo Pires, then CD at W/Brasil. “I imagine he liked my energy and impatience. He ended up putting me at the head of a six-month-long queue for an internship. I remember the day I sat down at my desk in the agency, the agency that was such an icon for me, and being given work on the classifieds of [newspaper] Folha de São Paulo.

I can even remember the smell of that day.” In a matter of months he had won Young Creative of the Year at Cannes 1999. Moving through agencies Lew'Lara\TBWA, Leo Burnett Brasil and Loducca, he was appointed CD for the São Paulo office of Y&R in 2006 but, being one for pushing himself, a year later he left to study screenwriting at the New York Film Academy. “I thought it was time to leave Brazil and learn something new,” he says. “The course opened my mind to something I may dedicate myself to someday. But not now. Advertising is too intense to share with another type of creative process.” Lured back to ad land, in 2008 he became CD at DM9DDB, helping it win Agency of the Year at Cannes 2009. Keen to learn more about digital media, he took a course at Hyper Island in London, with mixed results: “It was fun but I didn’t learn much. It was a good course for anyone who didn’t know a thing about digital, but I’m more hands-on. These days, I learn a lot more in a day’s work alongside Leo Burnett Tailor Made’s digital team.” Reis launched Tailor Made at the end of 2010 in association with Paulo Giovanni, and in April 2011, as a result of the merger with Leo Burnett, he became partner and creative VP of Leo Burnett

Tailor Made. “The merge with LB wasn’t planned,” Reis explains. “We were in meetings with clients and the opportunity popped up. As we say in Brazil, God put the right people in the right place.” It’s certainly the right place to be if you like winning awards. In the 2014 Gunn Report, Leo Burnett Tailor Made ranked number one in the world in the All Gunns Blazing category for the Hemoba/EC Vitoria My Blood Is Red And Black campaign, which garnered a total of 80 gongs. The agency was also crowned the second Most Awarded Creative Agency in Brazil, and eighth in the world. In 2013, Bentley Burial for ABTO reached number two in the All Gunns Blazing ranking and gathered 70 awards in total. At the heart of LBTM’s work is the philosophy of ‘Humankind’ – something Reis is passionate about: “The basis of Humankind is that creativity has the power to change behaviour. We really believe in this,” he says. A remarkable example of behaviour change that went somewhat beyond the campaign’s original remit is evidenced in Vem Pra Rua [Come To The Street] for Fiat, which made the unusual journey from integrated TV, radio and social media campaign to becoming an anthem of political unrest, giving a voice to the largest street demonstrations Brazil has ever seen.

“I remember the day I sat down at my desk in the agency, the agency that was such an icon for me, and being given work on the classifieds of Folha de São Paulo. I can even remember the smell of that day.”

| Places 63

Marcelo Reis

64 Places | brazil 3

1/2/3 Fiat, Vem Pra Rua 4/5 ABTO, Bentley Burial

“A remarkable example of behaviour change that went beyond the campaign’s original remit is Vem Pra Rua, which made the journey from integrated TV, radio and social media campaign to an anthem of political unrest.” Possibly due to his ‘impatient’ nature, Reis identified and expanded on the sense of antagonism in Fiat’s original message. Though it was partly in celebration of the Confederations Cup football tournament in 2013, it also referenced the car manufacturer’s exclusion from World Cup sponsorship, and a recognition that most local fans were also excluded due to high ticket prices. It was a rallying cry to the disgruntled and dispossessed set to a catchy tune by the popular singer Marcelo Falcão and, when unrest started to erupt, protesting against corrupt politicians, government spending on the tournament and underfunded public services, the ad’s themes were adapted to fit the protestors’ cause.

Taking it to the streets Brazilian YouTube users created a video mash-up blending newsreel clips of the protests with images from the triumphalist Johnnie Walker spot Rock Giant by NEOGAMA/BBH [read Alexandre Gama’s take on this on page 68], in which the Sugarloaf Mountain morphs into a rock giant that rises up and walks through the streets of Rio, all set to the Vem Pra Rua tune. Reis thumps out the beat on the table – “Vem Pra Rua! Vem Pra Rua! There was a kind of anger in the song and it became an

anthem of the demos. In the lyrics there’s a part that says Brazil will be bigger, like a giant for the first time. So they used the image from the Johnnie Walker campaign. It was good for them. It was good for Fiat, too.” Although LBTM also has a government account, the agency wasn’t asked to remove the Fiat campaign. “This just proves that democracy is strong in Brazil,” says Reis. In 2013, Bentley Burial audaciously raised awareness of organ donation by staging a curious stunt involving eccentric Brazilian tycoon Chiquinho Scarpa. He announced on his Facebook page that, inspired by the Egyptian pharaohs’ habit of burying artefacts they wished to take with them to the afterlife, he was going to bury his $500,000 Bentley in his garden. The country reacted with outrage and the story went viral. The burial was to be shown live on TV, but as the car disappeared into the ground Scarpa called a halt and, in front of the world’s media, explained that things far more valuable than cars are buried every year – human organs. National Organ Donation Week was launched and organ donation increased by 31.5 per cent in one month. My Blood Is Red And Black aimed to increase blood donations to the Bahia state blood bank,

Hemoba, by engaging fans of the football team EC Vitória. The red from the team’s red-and-blackstriped shirt was removed and fans urged to donate blood. The more blood they donated the quicker the red would be returned to the team strip. The target was to increase blood donations by 25 per cent – within six weeks they had increased by 46 per cent. The remarkable results of both these campaigns are what interests Reis. “Take Hemoba,” he says. “It’s not about how we changed the colour of the Vitória shirt but how the ad changed blood donation in Bahia. I think the power of the idea is bigger than how the idea was made into a campaign.” In explaining how Leo Burnett’s ethos has merged with Tailor Made’s, Reis excitedly grabs a piece of paper and draws a stick man. “Humankind is the brain, while Tailor Made is the body and arms and legs. The TM technique creates the best thing for the client; we are with the client all the time. We often travel around Brazil to see clients’ operations and understand their point of view. Last weekend I personally visited Fiat dealers – it’s important to do this sort of thing. We then use the Humankind ideas to solve the problem, so the two strategies merge into one.” In practical terms this has meant a reorganisation of the company. “I don’t have one VP of creative but separate groups made up of clients and CDs, each with their own VP or AVP who has the power to decide their strategies. I am at the top of the structure and they run ideas past me, but they have the power to manage their clients. I’ve given more autonomy to the groups.” Reis is clearly not power hungry; nor is he arrogant. When I congratulate him on recently being named as the world’s top chief creative officer (a joint first with David Lubars of BBDO NY) in the latest Directory Big Won Rankings, he demurs. “It was a surprise for me. It’s crazy!” His leadership clearly promotes a happy working environment. The week I visit, the country is gearing up for carnival, with São Paulo citizens starting to migrate to Rio and elsewhere. Reis’s crew are staging their own in-office carnival before packing up for a few days – and I imagine the agency samba-ing all the way to success. S

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66 Places | BRAZIL

Mayra Auad, partner and executive producer, Your Mama, São Paulo, suggests making firm plans when choosing from the city’s thousands of watering holes

GOING NATIVE: SÃO PAULO What is the best thing about working in advertising in São Paulo? The variety of people, projects and possibilities. What is the worst thing about working in advertising in São Paulo? The hurry and the budgets. Everything is always due yesterday and has to cost half of what it actually costs. But from what I hear, that is pretty much the same everywhere these days. If you are booking a hotel in São Paulo, where would you choose to stay? Unique or Emiliano. They are both extremely confortable and well located. Unique is a very modern hotel, close to Ibirapuera Park and a lot of the agencies, as well as to Your Mama. Emiliano is right in the middle of Jardins, the neighbourhood with some of the best restaurants, bars and shops in the city.

What advice would you give to a visitor? Plan ahead. São Paulo has a lot of options and if you don’t plan you may end up in a roubada – a really bad experience! What is the best Brazilian ad you have seen in the last year? Leica, 100, directed by Jones+Tino. It sends its message across beautifully and poetically. It makes you want to watch it over and over again. It is out of the ordinary and different from what we see every day. It has been well crafted in every aspect: direction, production design, cinematography and music. Who do you/would you love to work with in the industry? I love working with any talented people. Young or old, famous or not, it doesn’t matter as long as they are talented. Trying to give them the best possible conditions in which to

“When I’m away I miss the ease of 24-hour services that São Paulo offers. You can get literally anything at any time.”

show what they are capable of, in the most adverse situations, to me is the greatest challenge and motivation in what I do. What do you miss when you are out of the city? The ease of 24-hour services that São Paulo offers. You can get literally anything at any time. Where’s the best place to eat in São Paulo? A more casual and local place is the Mercado Municipal [town market]. A beautiful place, full of fruit stands and local food options. If you want something a little fancier I suggest Maní; amazing food in a very cool atmosphere.

And the best place to have a drink? Well, there are at least 1,000 different options. But I suggest Spot, SubAstor, and Admiral’s Place at Galeria Vermelho for both the variety of amazing drinks as well as the ambience.

1 The Japanese-flavoured Liberdade district 2 The Mercado Municipal 3 Ibirapuera Park 4 Masp museum 5 SubAstor 6 Emiliano hotel 7 Unique hotel 8 Spot 9 Restaurant Maní

If São Paulo were a product, what would it be? One of those 20,000-piece jigsaw puzzles.

What’s São Paulo’s favourite pastime? Walking around at the weekend to see the things you never have the chance to during the week: antique fairs, Ibirapuera Park, the music at Bexiga flea market, the Masp museum and the fair at Liberdade, the biggest Japanese colony outside of Japan.

One table, four places. You and who? Friends and wine.

What’s your one-line life philosophy? The only trouble with reality is that it gets in the way of my fantasies. Might not actually count as a life philosophy, but I really like it! If you could have one question answered, what would it be? Why? S

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68 People | THE WAY I SEE IT

THE WAY I SEE IT

Alexandre Gama His earliest memories are of goals by Pelé and girl-next-door-from-Ipanemastyle crushes. Growing up, he got the right things wrong and the wrong things right, and drifted from dreams of flying fighter jets to race car driving (the latter now a dream come true), but NEOGAMA/BBH founder Alê Gama eventually found a home for his dreaming in the world of advertising, winning Lions almost from the kick-off and becoming one of the youngest CEOs in the country at just 36. He takes Carol Cooper for a spin through his super-accelerated career, stopping off at the people, places and campaigns that have shaped it, from serendipitous partnerships to the spot that inspired a whole country to take to the streets

| People 69

alexandre gama

70 People | THE WAY I SEE IT I was born in the sunny and crazy city of Rio de Janeiro on 1 June 1958 when Rio was about bossa nova, Maracanã, Ipanema and beach girls and not about favelas and bullets. My earliest memory is when my father took me to watch São Paulo play Santos. Unfortunately, my father, a São Paulo fan, chose the wrong match: Pelé was playing for Santos and scored an amazing goal. So I entered the stadium as a potential São Paulo fan and left as a Santos fan. My father was a lawyer and my mom was a singer who sang for many years in the choir of Cabo Frio, a city near Rio where she still lives. Two very different worlds – perhaps that’s why I am an irreconcilable mix of rational and emotional. The last time I cried was at my father’s funeral last year. As a kid, I did all the wrong things right and the right things wrong. I played lots of football on the streets after we moved to São Paulo. Days were long, hot, sunny, free and filled with good times. I also remember the first time I saw the girl next door. Wow! Beautiful, brunette, long hair, shy and mysterious eyes. So, happy things as far as I can remember. But happiness is a matter of selective memory. Keep a good one for the good things and develop a bad one for the bad things. When I was a child I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot, then a spaceship captain, then a racing car driver. And suddenly, I knew I wanted to play the guitar and be a musician. I learnt to play classical acoustic guitar and used to play all day long. When I was a teenager my nickname was ‘Cari’, a short form of ‘Carioca’ (a person born in Rio). But Alê has always been what people call me.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Christian Castanho. retouching: LeÃo branco

Studying was not my thing as a kid. I was good with languages and grammar but lousy when it came to mathematics and the rest. It was only at high school that I started to focus on learning. I have always loved writing, but never really knew what to do with that passion. Then, when I had to apply for a place at university, I had two possible careers in mind: journalism and advertising. A friend said to me that I should try advertising and I decided to go for it. Besides, it was a way of combining music, photography, cinema and all the forms of creative expression that I love into this thing that people call a ‘job’. But for me creativity has always been much more than just a way of making my living. I graduated from FAAP university in Rio with a degree in communication and advertising but I never went back to get my certificate. Five years ago the university invited me to give a lecture. To my surprise they presented me with my certificate almost 20 years late.

I got my first job in advertising in the early 80s. O&M was looking for new blood to get a higher creative profile and luckily I was one of the copywriters selected by José Fontoura, the creative VP, and Clóvis Calia, the ECD. Sadly, Clóvis passed away last year. He was a great guy with a big heart. It was a good opportunity for me and, soon after, O&M won four Lions in the TV/ Cinema category at Cannes. I won gold for a spot for International Women’s Day and silver for a TV spot for an air conditioner called Mosca. If I hadn’t gone into advertising I would have been a musician or writer, if we’re talking about the past. But today, I’d choose science and technology. These are the new creative fields. I love cars and I’ve been lucky enough to work with several car brands. I got my racing driver licence a few years ago and since then I’ve been competing as an amateur. One lap at Interlagos and the devil has your soul for ever. Driving is the deepest pleasure I can have alone. It’s so liberating. Last year, I invested in a British racing car manufacturer, BAC [Briggs Automotive Company]. They make a racing car you can drive on the road. Wine is a long-time passion. I used to write for a wine magazine in Brazil. That was a delicious experience combining wine and writing. When I started in advertising I looked for inspiration in several people’s work. I always admired David Abbott, for example, and the craft of British copywriters of his time. In 1996 I became Y&R’s president/CEO. I realised later that I was the first creative professional to get to that position at such a young age in a global agency in the country. There was quite a buzz, not because of my age, but because I had no previous CEO experience and my background wasn’t the same as other CEOs of big networks. But that was the challenge I imposed on myself, as I had always wanted to lead a business from a creative perspective. In order to do that properly, I had to get financial and operational experience, things that creative people are usually allergic to. It was a steep learning curve, but we achieved the best creative and financial result since the agency was established in the country. I was very much committed to combining the two words ‘creative’ and ‘business’, so in a way my time at Y&R was the final step to the creation of my own agency, NEOGAMA, in 1999. NEOGAMA was the fastest growing agency in Brazil right from the beginning and so far the only one to win a Lion in Cannes in its first year. The BBH partnership came just at the right moment, in 2002, three years after I started NEOGAMA. As John Hegarty said: “If we’d had to start an agency in Brazil for ourselves it would be NEOGAMA.”

So, we were pretty much alike in terms of principles and beliefs and the partnership was more like finding a soulmate than two strangers having to adapt to each other. For inspiration, I love books of quotations and poetry, everything related to words. But now I have two daughters and fatherhood has opened a whole new world and creative view. I learn every day from just being with them as I observe their fresh, curious minds. When my eldest, Luiza, was five, she asked me and my wife if she could stay awake until after midnight as she had never seen what happens the moment when one day goes and the new one comes. We allowed her to do that and next day I asked her about it, saying that, as she could see, nothing different happened. She replied with a serious look: “No Dad, it was different. Yesterday I went to bed today.” I can’t think of a fresher perspective on time than that. I once said: “An idea has no owners. It has users.” That was about my view on bringing art elements to the crafting of ideas in advertising. But what I also meant, and what is even more valid today, is that everybody is connected and this constant connection between people sharing information has a deep impact on the generation of ideas. Due to the internet, the speed of how an idea pops up in people’s minds is unique in our history. Ideas are being created and almost immediately reshaped by ‘users’ who turn them into something with new contexts and meanings and pass them on to more people. ‘Owning’ and ‘using’ are concepts that don’t apply to an idea in the same way as in the past. I’m not saying that this is good or bad. It’s just how things are. Advertising is not art in the strict (or restricting) sense. But because it feeds on art, among other things, those who practise it have to understand and master the language and dynamics of the various forms that feed into it – cinema, music, photography, literature, visual and scenic arts etc. That was the point of the exhibition of my work at the Brazilian Art Museum last year, which was proposed by my old university. It was called Idea And Form and covered aspects of my work over the years. One area of the museum was dedicated to the Johnnie Walker campaign, Keep Walking, Brazil, and the Rock Giant spot, because of its impact on the country when the campaign launched in 2011. We showed all the phases of crafting the idea, the roughs and drafts, the development of the rock giant character with The Mill and the creation of the music. Alongside that we showed a viral video created by others and posted on the web on 18 June 2013. It was a collage of images: politicians giving excuses, people protesting, police action, music

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alexandre gama

“It wasn’t Johnnie Walker’s ad idea any more. It had turned into a symbol of an attitude: awakening, standing up and walking towards action. It had become a meme. It’s very rare that advertising can turn into that, so I’m very proud of it.”

inviting people to take to the streets, mixed up with sequences from the Johnnie Walker TV spot showing the rock giant awakening [and Leo Burnett Tailor Made’s Vem Pra Rua for Fiat, see p62]. We screened both works side by side on the wall on a loop so people could see the elements that produced the ad – and how it inspired another piece of communication, free from commercial objectives, that stormed the country. I believe the best ads get under the skin of a society’s culture and behaviour. The first reaction to the viral video was surprise and shock. The client got really scared, not knowing the implications or problems it could cause them. I was convinced that we should do nothing to block or direct the people’s spontaneous reaction. The giant, which is a metaphor for Brazil, had turned into an icon representing the awakening of the country and people had embraced its meaning. They related to it and took it very seriously, so it was not Johnnie Walker’s ad idea any more. It had turned into a symbol of an attitude: awakening, standing up and walking towards action. It had become a meme. It’s very rare that advertising can turn into that, so I’m obviously very proud of it. I’ve always believed that when the work is done, it’s done and what really matters is the next one. But I thought the Idea And Form exhibition could be an interesting way to show the creative process.

When I saw everything at the museum I felt really good because for the first time I could see the forest and not only the day-to-day trees. Also, it was something relevant to all areas of advertising and communication, its professionals and students. The feedback was great. Advertising can be used as a tool or a weapon. I think that the consumer society concept does not define our way of living any more. We’re now living in a communication society not a consumer society, since the defining value of our times is the capacity to connect and share information, content, ideas and feelings. In this context, the power of communication as a defining value of our society has become more representative of our social evolution than simply consuming things. As a creative professional, I work to give brands a voice of their own, then modulate that voice through different tones according to the specific brand. The most important thing is to find the brand’s specific voice, the one that will make that brand stand out. That’s the part of the work that I love most because it combines account planning and creativity. Finding a brand voice is a process that starts at the planning phase, which I consider as creative as the creative phase itself. That’s why in NEOGAMA both areas report into me. I really take them as one and integrate them in a single process with clear governance.

72 People | THE WAY I SEE IT a truly global business without embracing diversity? At the same time, leadership should never be related primarily to nationalities, gender or anything other than the profile of the individual. I know it’s still unusual to find diversity of nationality at global leadership level because culture still plays a big role. But I think that meritocracy must always be the first criteria. It doesn’t matter if you speak English or si usted habla Español ou se fala Português. I’ve never had the chance to work on musical instrument brands. It would be a dream to work on the likes of Gibson or Fender. The best piece of advice I was given was “You should try advertising.” My advice to young people: “Educate your senses.”

“I always say the Brazil vs Germany semi-final never happened. Like the moon landings, it was produced by The Mill. They’re really good.” There are people who cry and people who sell handkerchiefs. If someone in our industry doesn’t know this, they are in the wrong place. When outdoor advertising was banned in São Paulo in 2006, the industry adapted. There was a migration of investment to other media and we carried on. But since that law was valid only for São Paulo, the impact in the country was relative. I wouldn’t reverse the ban. I’d make outdoor advertising more selective and demand more quality. At that time it was a bit out of control and the citizen in me has priority over the advertising man. The World Cup in 2014 was a success in terms of organisation, transport and infrastructure – and for advertising. I’m not so sure about the nation. From the perspective of football it was obviously bad since everybody was expecting a big win. As for the Germany vs Brazil semi-final, I always say it never happened. Like the moon landings, it was produced by The Mill. They’re really good. Many creatives from Latin America have become global chiefs of big networks in the past few years. I don’t know if this is because ‘Latinity’ spices things up a little. Whatever the reason, diversity is a word that should make sense to every global company. How can a company be

The worst day of my career was when I left AlmapBBDO, but then the best was the day I started NEOGAMA. So, best is even better when it is born out of the worst. What do I think is more important in a campaign: artistic merit or success for the brand? Success for the brand. It is the best way to get artistic merit in this profession. My choice of superpower would be the ability to time travel. If I could travel through time just once and return to the present, I would travel to the future when time travel machines have been invented, so I could bring one back to the present and time travel more than just once. Advertising awards are good but there was a point when I became more excited about building brands, which is a bigger, more complex challenge. They’re not necessarily opposite, and in fact they shouldn’t be, but they’re not always aligned in the minds of the creatives. So, the spark for me has been in winning creative awards for work that is part of the bigger mission of building a brand. As someone in charge of the agency creative profile I know we have to constantly win awards as this has become the rule that measures creativity in our industry. But awards have also become a big business and we need to be wise pondering the cost of taking part in them. I have this phrase that I always tell advertising people I work with: “panic is for amateurs”. One can’t afford to fear time constraints or creative blocks. As a person I fear the usual ghosts, but to become unhealthy is at the top of my fear list. The closest I’ve come to death was when I jumped from a boat to swim to the beach in Angra dos Reis. The boat wasn’t far out but a strong current got me. I thought: “That’s it, I’m getting tired. No one is going to hear me cry for help.” But then the current changed and I made

it to the beach. I spent a long time lying on the sand just thanking God and Neptune. The best day of my personal life was when my first daughter was born. The worst was when she disappeared inside a teenager. Am I an extrovert or an introvert? Totally introvert. My hobbies are playing the guitar, reading and writing. I play lots of PlayStation, drive race cars on track days and listen to a lot of music. I want to be involved in interesting things. To write the perfect book. To be a good father (it’s always a work in progress). To make VIOLAB, my acoustic guitar project, succeed. To have a window with a view of the sea. To keep driving, even when the driverless car nightmare becomes a reality. My heroes are Pelé, Ayrton Senna, Neymar, [Brazilian poets] Ferreira Gullar and João Cabral de Melo Neto, Peter Gabriel, [video artist] Bill Viola, Antony Gormley, Winston Churchill, [American writer] Daniel Quinn, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, my lawyer and Neo from The Matrix. It’s difficult to say what makes me angry. There’s a lot to choose from. One is arriving home, saying “Good Evening” to my two cell-phone zombies and getting no answer. Another is when people disregard deadlines. Ultimately what makes me angry is disrespect of any kind. I don’t Google myself. Our PR guys keep me updated about this stuff, of course. But unlike some ad men I’m not my advertising persona and I can’t bear to live by other people’s expectations. Of course I have regrets. Those who say they don’t, have no regrets about lying. My regret this month is that I shouldn’t have rented a car for the family vacation as we didn’t use it a single day. If I was President of Brazil for a day I would pass a law stating that no president can be re-elected. My company’s slogan is: “When the world zigs, zag.” We don’t follow, we don’t lead, we walk our own path, we are the black sheep. To zag is not simply going against the flow. It’s about finding your path. It’s about independence, personal and professional. Not for the sake of ‘being different’ but to be faithful to what you are and believe. If I could change one thing about myself I would be less shy. I haven’t thought about how I’d like to be remembered. Probably by my family as someone who’s always loved them daily and deeply. What really matters is love and strength. S

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74 People | post profile

As Jonnie Scarlett – the editor awarded for work such as the BBC’s Rush Hour – celebrates 18 years at The Quarry, he tells Selena Schleh how he turned a lunchtime hobby into a successful career in cutting, and why time, not technology, is an editor’s most powerful tool

on red alert

photograph: Parker Whipple

ever judge a book by its cover, so goes the old adage. A maxim that works well in a post production context: never judge an editor by his name, or his surroundings. Waiting to meet Jonnie Scarlett – a man with a moniker straight out of Mills & Boone – in The Quarry’s Tardis-like Brewer Street offices, it’s hard to ignore the neon glare of a hot-pink sign: “Sit with one of our young pussy’s [sic] and watch her purr.” It’s something of a surprise, then, that the 46-year-old turns out to be softly-spoken and self-deprecating, decked out in full normcore uniform of white T-shirt, jeans and Converse sneakers. Yet given Scarlett’s unorthodox early career, perhaps it’s no surprise at all. During his 18-year stint at The Quarry, Scarlett has worked on some of the UK’s most lauded and successful spots, including the BBC’s Rush Hour, Vodafone’s Time Theft and recently Mulberry’s #WinChristmas, but he’s something of a latecomer to the industry. Graduating during the early 90s recession, his first job was a “pretty dull” admin role at the Civil Service. “It was meant to be a summer job, and six years later I was still there,” he shrugs resignedly. Filing and photocopying didn’t take up all his time, however. Lunch breaks were spent in cafes with a colleague from the seventh floor, writing scripts that they shot and edited on Super8. Those early forays into film led to Scarlett signing up for a part-time course at film school in Kings Cross, which really focused his interest in cutting. “We did a bit of everything – camerawork, editing and

directing – shooting on old Arri cameras with 16mm film and editing on Steenbecks,” he recalls. “I realised editing was the thing I loved.” After handing in his notice at the Civil Service, Scarlett dropped “three or four hundred CVs around Soho”, eventually landing a job at The Quarry, via a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stint at Blue Post. Starting as a runner, he rose swiftly through the ranks, something he attributes to a combination of the company’s small size and strong support from The Quarry’s founder editors, Paul Watts and Bruce Townend, whom he assisted for five years. “Guys starting now might run for nine months, a year, before they’re given anything vaguely editing related. Whereas when I joined,

“Software is just a tool. Editing is more about considering and mulling stuff over. The breakthroughs often come when you’re making a cup of tea or having a walk round the block”

I was loading rushes and cutting showreels straight away,” Scarlett explains. As The Quarry’s numbers swelled from four to 18, so did the film count on Scarlett’s own reel. While he admits the transition from assistant to editor is gradual (“No one rings a bell and announces: ‘Right, from here on in you’re an editor,’”), his first real break came with the BBC’s parkour-themed Rush Hour. Shot by Tom Carty, to whom, along with fellow Gorgeous director Chris Palmer, Scarlett owes a “big debt of gratitude”, the spot was only his tenth edit and a baptism of fire. “I’m not sure it would happen these days, but because Paul Watts was booked on another job, Tom suggested I cut it. Luckily for me, it worked,” he says. The result bagged a 2003 silver Creative Circle award, and Scarlett went on to make a name for himself in commercials, broadening his network of directors to include industry greats Andy McLeod, Ivan Bird and Stuart Douglas. Storytelling and narrative are at the heart of Scarlett’s craft, as reflected in an oeuvre of seamless visual and montage-style work. Yet the job he’s proudest of is the Frédéric Planchon-directed Time Theft for Vodafone, which won him a D&AD Yellow Pencil in 2008. “That was unusual, as it was a film specifically about editing,” he says. “Normally, as an editor, you don’t want people to be aware of the cuts. But for Time Theft, we went as far as printing up the shots, physically standing on them and getting the negative cutter to splice them together, so it would jump in the telecine.”

The slow editing movement Clawing back time in a world of tripwire-tight deadlines is a theme close to Scarlett’s heart. After all, this is the man who spent three weeks sifting through 80 hours of sports footage to construct the emotional Sky Goal spot. Asked about how he sees the future of his craft, Scarlett predicts ever-shorter turnaround times, thanks to speedier software. On the subject of tech, the self-dubbed Luddite – who listens to vinyl and “doesn’t do Facebook” – is non-commital about the respective merits of Avid, Final Cut and Premier, in contrast to many editors who swear almost evangelical allegiance to a particular camp. For Scarlett, the software is “just a tool. Editing is more about considering and mulling stuff over. Often the breakthroughs come when you’re making a cup of tea or having a walk round the block. It’s no coincidence that my best jobs have been when I’ve had the most time,” he muses. That rationale also underpins his reluctance to visit sets. “Obviously you have to be flexible, but personally I’m not madly keen on it,” he says. “It’s a whole different atmosphere, it’s all about speed. It’s no accident that cutting rooms tend to be more peaceful than a shoot.” With an upcoming spot for Barclays, directed by Si & Ad through BBH, as well as a big project for Mercedes in the pipeline, though, he’s unlikely to be slowing down any time soon. S

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JoNNie sCarlett

76 Insight | SHOTS TECH

ALEX HESZ Partner/director of digital, adam&eveDDB London

FAVOURITE KIT 1 Sonos Play:1

Apps

The combination of Sonos and Spotify petrifies me, it’s so good. Petrifies in the Natural History Museum sense. I’m left lying still, staring at the endless possibilities, wondering how I’ll still end up just putting on Radio 4 when I could listen to anything, anything, right now and it would sound brilliant, and I don’t even need to move my arm from underneath a sleeping child on the sofa. I’m joking, of course. They never sleep.

Uber So many smart little innovations combine to make it work. Mutual ratings. The fact the app is truly international. The fact that, in London, drivers make the same as on AddLee but get more work. I can even forgive the surge pricing.

2 Pearson Imnotanumber road bike

White Noise

I like Pearson. They’ve got an eye for design and a proper sense of humour, the two things that the rest of the cycling world (oh, just writing that I already feel like a gigantic fraud – I’ll push through) seems to lack so severely. It’s carbon, it’s Belgian underneath (and who doesn’t want to be Belgian underneath) and it’s a shade handsomer than most of the other toys you see haring round Richmond Park on a Sunday morning. I cycle to work, but my Pearson (which, let’s be honest, I’ve had to dust down after a midwinter of hibernation) is a lot nicer than my pig-iron commuter bike, so it gets the nod.

It doesn’t work getting you/your kids to sleep. But at least while it’s not working you can listen to the sound of a de-tuned TV.

3 Shinola watch I know. I should have a smartwatch. I’m supposed to. I’m borderline contractually obliged to by a client. But I still don’t. Not because I don’t think I will or everyone else will eventually (we totally will) but just because I like this one, and others like it, more at the moment. The utility offered by wearables has yet to dislodge the beauty and simplicity of a nice watch. But we’ll get back there, in time. And I say ‘back’ there because in 1990 we were all there already, mini calculators on our wrists, and loving it. And I bet the new ones are even better.

iPlayer Radio This is not a cool app. It was decoupled from the iPlayer app, it seems, just to make the point of how uncool BBC Radio can be in isolation. But it is so beautiful and works so well that while I’m deciding between Chris Evans and Any Questions, I feel in no rush to do so.

5 3

PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES SHEEHY

4 Nest learning thermostat First things first: our Nest doesn’t work. It thinks it’s 20 degrees when it’s 12. It thinks it’s night when it’s noon, so it shuts down. It thinks the internet isn’t there when it’s fine. It’s worse in every way a thermostat can be worse than the ‘until you hear it click’ version it replaced. But it’s so pretty, so insanely pretty, that I’m willing to sit in my kitchen, shivering and worrying that my family is catching hypothermia, just to look at it, to enjoy how it comes to life when I approach, to enjoy the loveliness of its animation, as I guess at what temperature I should set it to (24, normally) to create conditions that support human life. I should probably get it fixed, but I worry that they’d take it away, even for a day or two, and I’d be left in without it, comfortable and warm and bereft.

5 Apple MacBook Air Boring, I know. But really I’ve put this in because it isn’t a tablet. I don’t understand tablets. Particularly for anything other than watching video or browsing the web (which I sort of accept they’re good at). They’re almost as cumbersome as a laptop, but much less capable – or I’m just less capable with them. But my MacBook feels so full of potential. It lets you be faster and more responsive and more reactive to ideas, which makes you better at your job. And surely that’s the point of them.

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| People 79

new directors

STOP-MOTION EMOTION We’ve pulled out all the stops to bring you two pairs of brilliantly talented young animation directors whose careers are starting with stop-motion animated masterpieces of imagination and emotion Parabella TV& CINEMA Twinings Drink It All In

What do a bouncing ball, a long-necked herbivorous dinosaur and the curve of a mathematical graph have in common? They’ve all inspired the name of new directing collective Parabella, aka Mikey Please and Dan Ojari. Though they oﬃcially only got together in July 2014, the animation duo had already been collaborating on projects before deciding that “it made sense to put a name on it”. Contemporaries at the Wimbledon School of Art – Please was studying special effects; Ojari, set design – they first teamed up on an animated short, Crone, with fellow student Ben Gerlis (who went on to found set design company Stripeland). “The sense of being able to do so much more by working together obviously stuck with us,” says Please. Next stop was the RCA for master’s degrees in animation, where each played a part in the other’s solo directorial successes: Please won a BAFTA for The Eagleman Stag, while Ojari’s short, Slow Derek, was screened at Sundance and Cannes. However, it wasn’t until 2014’s Marilyn Myller, a tale of creation, destruction and artistic struggle played out in

painstakingly-sculpted polystyrene, that they collaboratively hit their stride. “It was a really intense production,” says Please, “but we developed an intuition for how to work together and the quality of the work really leapt forward as a result.” Drink It All In for Twinings is Parabella’s first commercial project since signing to Blinkink in the UK, and illustrates the technical nous and ‘hefty dose of maths’ behind their apparently effortless flights of fancy. The stop-motion spot follows a wide-eyed ingénue whose first sip of tea transports her to a Disney-esque world of bluebirds, cutesy cobbled streets and epic sunrises, all made entirely from Twinings tea-tags. According to the directors, “Success hung on how that transition between the real [actress] and animated world was treated.” As well as the small matter of constructing a set from 100,000 bits of coloured paper, the decision to shoot the majority of the film incamera, with no CGI trickery to fall back on, required a “huge leap of faith”. The pair rebooted vintage filming techniques, such as the multi-

Twinings spot Drink It All In illustrates the technical nous and ‘hefty dose of maths’ behind their apparently effortless flights of fancy.. plane camera pioneered by Disney in the 1930s, and used pixilation to animate the female character frame by frame. “Getting it to a level where the technique wasn’t so jittery that it was distracting, and wasn’t so fluid as to be mistaken for live-action was diﬃcult and took weeks of rehearsal,” Please explains. “Thankfully [the end result] looked even better than we’d ever hoped – rewarding and relieving in equal amounts.” Represented by Hornet for the US and Chez Eddy for France, Parabella have two long-form narrative projects in the pipeline – a young adult series and a family feature film. “It’s always uncertain waters when it comes to convincing other people of your brilliant ideas,” admits Please, “but we’re getting better at it.” SS

80 People | new directors

ZEUGL MUSIC VIDEO Amarillo Breaches

A few years ago Noé Beaucardet, frontman of French band Amarillo, happened upon an animated clip by graphic design duo, ZEUGL. The piece was only 45 seconds long and was created for another band called Caandides, but it was enough to give the singer a hunch that one day he’d like to work with the artists. The opportunity came when Amarillo needed a promo for their single, Breaches, and ZEUGL took charge of the direction. The result was considered so good by Beaucardet that it’s become the central theme for the band’s marketing strategy. ZEUGL partners Lolita Do Peso Diogo and Gabriel Wéber explain how they adapted their stop-motion style to the Amarillo promo: “We had to enhance and improve the technique, and make sure it was relevant to the song. Besides its theme, the music also imposed its rhythm and

structure, which we obviously took into account when we were writing the story.” The video sees a collection of small toys, including plastic soldiers, paratroopers, a rubber dinosaur and various sea creatures, trot across the screen in front of a mix of colourful background displays. The band also makes an appearance in the same unique style. Despite the initial randomness of it all, ZEUGL maintain there is a deeper meaning there: “Breaches tackles frustrated love and a greed for escape. We fragmented a very simple narration, an adventurer looking for what is hinted to be love, into many ironic scenes depicted through standard and concrete elements. Our purpose was to make a fantasy come true using everyday objects.” Whether it makes sense on an emotional level or not, the video’s visual style is reminiscent of

Peter Gabriel’s iconic Sledgehammer directed by Stephen R. Johnson. When it came to the technique and process for the stop-motion piece, the duo went back to basics to avoid the temptation for any computer trickery. “Basically, it is a stop-motion [film] made on a scanner,” reveal the pair. “We put the different items on the glass, pressed ‘scan’, moved them a bit, pressed ‘scan’ again and so on… We really wanted to make everything by hand and not add any effects on the computer in order to respect our conceptual approach.” Utilising materials such as plasticine, glitter, glue and table lamps for lighting effects, the artists’ organic approach results in a rugged and raw style. The video is over three minutes long, so it’s surprising that it only took the majority of a month to make. The first phase of the process

| People 81

new directors

was spent shopping for toys that would be flat enough to be scanned but, as the duo reveals, there were less utilitarian criteria taken into acount, too: “We tried to have several yellow items in reference to the band’s name [the word ‘amarillo’ is Spanish for yellow]. The main ‘character’, the yellow paratrooper, was chosen carefully and the footballs were included because one of the band members is a football fan.” Although currently Paris-based, the ZEUGL duo studied graphic design in Montreuil, France and also spent time at Central Saint Martins in London. It was during their years of study that they began to collaborate with bands, creating designs for album covers, flyers and posters for gigs before progressing to live projections at shows, which is where they got their first taste of working with animation.

The pathway into music videos was a natural next step, and since the release of Breaches the artists have completed a second video for Amarillo. Currently unsigned, they are now working on projects for other bands that are set for release later this year. Asked about the biggest challenge on Breaches, they say it was “sitting in the dark for more than two weeks to move toys and bits of cotton wool on a scanner.” The project required much “patience and dexterity”. They haven’t been put off by the laborious process of their first major project, however. “In terms of creativity, it’s very rewarding to be able to work on both animated and still media for the same project, therefore we will keep on making videos along with ‘branding’ for bands whenever we get the chance.” rw

“It is a stop-motion [film] made on a scanner. We put the different items on the glass, pressed ‘scan’, moved them a bit, pressed ‘scan’ again and so on… We really wanted to make everything by hand and not add any effects on the computer.”

82 Pictures | snapshots 1

SnapSHOTS

Brazil offers a feast for the eyes plus food – and drink – for the soul. Tour some of its tasty bits with Marianna Souza, executive manager of the ad production network FilmBrazil 3

1 An aerial view of Brasília, which was named the new capital of Brazil in 1960 2 Drinks to die for at the rooftop Skye Bar, Hotel Unique, São Paulo 3 Barra Grande peninsula, on the south coast of Bahia 4 Rio’s Sambadrome hosts carnival parades and can hold 90,000 spectators 5 Carnival on the streets of Vila Madalena, São Paulo

6 Get fine foods at São Paulo’s Mercado Municipal

11 Boipeba beach in Bahia – access by boat only

7 São Paulo’s Museum of the Portuguese Language

12 A passion fruit version of caipirinha, Brazil’s national sugar cane liquor cocktail

8 Pastel de feira – Brazilian fried pastry. Fatty but good 9 Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, one of the main art galleries in Brazil 10 Minato Izakaya eatery in São Paulo, which has the biggest Japanese community outside Japan

13 Rio’s Maracanã Stadium 14 Brasília Cathedral ceiling, designed by Oscar Niemeyer 15 Downtown Rio’s Selarón Steps, as seen in Snoop Dogg’s Beautiful video 16 My fan moment with Brazilian chef Alex Atala

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5/28/14 5:07 PM