2020: The Decentralization of Creativity
This is a writing sample from Scripted writer Marcela Turner
Until February 2020, we operated under an implicit assumption within Mexican advertising —national brands prefer to work with agencies from the country's capital. People commonly say that everything happens in Mexico City. And indeed, a sizeable chunk of creative talent concentrates there. As an agency in the northeast, working already with a great diversity of multinational brands, we were used to starting from this disadvantage.
However, the pandemic has thrown all the rules out the window. Sadly, we have witnessed the devastating cost to human well-being and the economy, but it is undeniable that this crisis has become a catalyst for change and innovation. In the first months, when uncertainty and panic were predominant, brands slowed down their communication plans, and therefore, agencies entered a battle for the continuity of their businesses.
We decided then not to stop but look for alternatives to bypass the current restrictions and continue adding value. We deployed a plan to rescue and reimagine our brands, driving them not only to survive but to thrive in the new normal. We adapted in record time to a different way of doing things, accelerating brand confidence and leaving behind one of our most significant barriers: —our geography.
This pandemic vanished geo-labels, opening up opportunities to work with other creatives and entrepreneurs. We extended our collaborations to different regions during these months, setting up productions in Valencia, Spain, and projects with brands from New York, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Austin, all the way to Chile, Colombia, and Guatemala, among other Latin American countries, including Mexico.
It has also brought us closer to the talent we had previously considered out of reach because of location, incorporating into our team a multifaceted base of creatives, analysts, and digital planners who live outside Monterrey and, sometimes, Mexico. This fundamental change in the way we interact with each other and our clients is what we call: —The decentralization of creativity.
We have entered an era of hyper-agile collaboration and partnerships, where we reinvent and reorganize talent to respond with unprecedented speed to the changing realities of brands and consumers. This decentralization is critical to remain competitive in the future. It allows us to offer access to a broader range of services at super-efficient costs and times, strengthening our capabilities to build brand narratives supported by data, metrics, and a purpose in the market.
Under this dynamic and with a more optimistic outlook than nine months ago, we continue to build multicultural, relevant, and resilient brands, ensuring mutual growth in 2021 and beyond.
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