5 Minutes with… Paulo Areas
Paulo Areas joined VMLY&R Spain as chief creative officer in April 2023 after spending the previous four years as partner of innovative UK-based agency Forever Beta. During his career, he’s been involved in projects that have picked up more than 150 international awards and has led the creative on global clients including Unilever, Santander, Jeep and Ford.
Although he was born and raised in Brazil, it’s been said Paulo has ‘a Spanish soul’, having spent most of his career in the country, building and leading successful agencies such as LOLA MullenLowe, Leo Burnett, Cheil and Ogilvy.
LBB’s Alex Reeves speaks to Paulo about how creativity in advertising is expanding to solve challenges in other parts of clients’ businesses, how to build brands that really connect with people and how technology and data will be key to help brands find relevance.
LBB> What was your upbringing like and, looking back, were there clues about the creative career you'd end up having?
Paulo> As much as the environment inevitably shapes us, it won’t change our essence. In my case specifically, I was always a relentlessly curious person, seeing everything that would come up as an opportunity, and never a threat. That helps when you live in an industry that is constantly changing.
Over the last years I saw many new media, formats, technologies coming in – all of them fundamentally changing the way we work – in advertising, but none of them changing what this profession is in essence: creativity. I strongly believe that as long as we humbly embrace whatever the future comes and learn from it, we can apply creativity on top and use it to become a better professional, and I hope I can keep doing that for long in my career.
LBB> What were the most formative projects or clients in your career and what did you learn then that you keep with you?
Paulo> We are always learning in the profession. About people, projects, places, cultures. It is the most exciting thing about advertising. That said, I would say that there were dozens of people, projects and experiences that built me into who I am today. Starting with my first job in Sao Paulo, working as a creative for General Motors. For a young creative, working with retail could easily become frustrating, but I was lucky to have a more experienced creative partner that taught me about how to understand a client’s business and use creativity to solve the real problems beyond the briefs.
After that, other major clients and experiences have followed such as being global creative director for Magnum, a brand that allowed me to work with more than 50 different markets and cultures at once, each and every one with their own nuances, or when I was working for Samsung Iberia, liaising directly with the Korean market and learning one of my biggest passions, technology, applied to creativity (or is it the other way around?). I kept all these learnings with me, and I am proud to say I am still learning every day.
LBB> You're Brazilian but have stayed in Spain for many years. What's kept you so long in the Spanish ad industry?
Paulo> I left Brasilia, my hometown, still very young. My mother would say I could not stand still, and she was right. I was always very curious and willing to jump into whatever opportunity would come my way. This mindset got me to work in places such as Sao Paulo, New York, and Lisbon. So when I was invited to come to Spain as Leo Burnett global creative director in 2009, even not knowing what to expect, I decided to see where it would take me.
And then Spain happened. What was supposed to be two years quickly became 10. I fell in love with everything about Spain: food, people, music, and mostly, creativity. Advertising here was alive, fun, with a strong Spanish cultural influence, and that would give it a unique personality.
It did fit with what I understand creativity should be: culturally relevant. I think this connection with the local industry gave me a strong sense of belonging and helped me build my way. Spain had already become my emotional home, and I am glad I had the chance to come back to lead creativity at VMLY&R Spain and keep writing my story in this amazing place.
LBB> What brought you to VMLY&R this year and what has it been like settling into the role since?
Paulo> Creativity and technology have always been my passion, so I could not think of a better place to be right now than VMLY&R Spain, where these two skills are at the heart of everything we do.
My focus in this role is to lead and transform the creative business and bring more relevance to the industry. To achieve this, I've focused these first few months on bringing massive creativity, enormous energy and, very importantly, the ability to connect everything we do in Spain with creativity as the common denominator to connect brands with people. Connecting the dots is one of the most important parts of my current role, so much so that I feel my title should be chief connections officer.
LBB> What do you see the role of creativity being in advertising today?
Paulo> The role of creativity is being the connector to siloed brands. At VMLY&R we use it to connect the dots between brand experience and customer experience into a holistic creative and technology endeavour.
Agencies are often given unique access to a brand’s challenges and opportunities, but today those challenges are no longer limited to communication or marketing briefs, we now get to see the product maps and technology stack. If agencies can’t solve the business problems creatively, then they will be irrelevant to marketers.
Brands want to work with the most creative agency out there. And how is this creativity measured nowadays? By doing work that is relevant, provocative, innovative, useful, shareable, but more importantly, a work that truly connects with people by leveraging the right platforms, ideas, and experiences in physical, digital spaces and everything in between.
LBB> How are you seeing creative capabilities expanding to solve challenges in other parts of clients' businesses?
Paulo> Creativity is the greatest differential value of any company, it is no longer just the territory of advertising, but it is a transversal agent that permeates everything we do, from an advertising campaign to developing a brand environment or experience.
This is truer now more than ever before as agencies are becoming the main brands’ business partners. VMLY&R is fully focused on building something new, an integrated offering that is presented to our customers in a differential way and adding real value.
And this value will only happen if we not only have the right capabilities, but if we are able to identify client's needs on different projects and offer the right skillset, getting to the solution in a more agile and relevant way. That is what we are doing here, distributing the work by capabilities and not availability, depending on the client’s needs.
LBB> What have you learned about building brands that actually connect with people?
Paulo> That thinking holistically is a must. To build a brand that really connects with the audience, you must be where the audience is and talk about the things that matter to them. And you won't be able to do that if you don't think holistically to identify the right channels, messages and experiences that will really connect with your audience.
I’ve also learnt that investing in building a great user experience is critical for brands to truly connect and deliver on their brand promise. The customer experience has never been more central to a brand relationship, driving loyalty and love. But brands and agencies need to stay relevant and up to date with the evolution of the consumer. And consumers are moving fast, so let's be more agile.
LBB> How are you seeing technology and data helping brands find relevance?
Paulo> Technology and data are key elements to stay relevant in an ever-evolving environment. We are already seeing unprecedented developments in the creative disciplines that are transforming our world. From data-driven personalisation to artificial intelligence, the future of creativity will be marked by innovation.
However, the key challenge is to find the balance between embracing emerging technologies and implementing more sophisticated data strategies without forgetting what people really want or need. It is the responsibility of creative professionals to help maintain this balance, having the right sensitivity and imagination for the infinite possibilities that technology brings to the table while focusing on creating real connections.
At the end of the day, no matter how much technology evolves, people should always be at the forefront. Companies and brands should redouble their efforts to ensure the wellbeing of their people, whether they are employees, partners, or consumers. No matter where we go as an industry, if we get better at putting people first, we will surely have a bright future.
LBB> What work are you proudest of recently and why?
Paulo> The one I am proudest of is Hospitality Rising: during my time in the UK as partner of the local independent agency Forever Beta, we were tasked to recruit young people to work in hospitality, an industry that was struggling in attracting talent since the pandemic. To tackle the problem, we launched more than a campaign, but a movement instead. ‘Rise Fast. Work Young’ was a clear reference to the iconic line ‘live fast die young’ and delivered a new positioning and attitude to the entire hospitality industry, using faceless 3D characters as protagonists along with UK underground singers that would give voice to the movement. I am very proud of this campaign, not only because it was awarded in several festivals, but because it was a passion project I was involved in since the beginning, and where I could see the tangible results.
Not to mention that we are about to launch some ideas at VMLY&R for big clients in the intersection of creativity and technology that I am very excited about. I can’t speak much about it yet, so stay tuned for what is coming!
