5 Minutes with… Thiago Cruz

 

Thiago> I was in the family already, but it's two different worlds. I feel like this combination of Grey and AKQA is truly our not-so-secret secret weapon. Both sides can gain a lot from working together, and we've been doing it. It's been really smart keeping those two brands alive and keeping what makes them special and their culture apart, because they are very unique. That said, we are trying to integrate even more. We have a few clients that we share such as Volvo and Coca-Cola, and are trying to create more opportunities for us to do work that combines the best of both worlds.

 

 

Thiago> I love it. There's benefits to both sides. Grey is able to adopt some of AKQA's qualities, ensuring that we consistently deliver digital, integrated, and innovative solutions to our clients whenever opportunities arise. I think the projects that we had running this year at Cannes were a good example of that, such as Haleon's Access Codes. That is a digital mobile application that literally has the potential to impact a billion people's lives, and it's the type of work that's not normally associated with Grey. It provides an actual solution and was not a traditional campaign or a big Super Bowl moment or something. So, I think Grey has already started to behave a little bit more like AKQA, in that sense.

 

 

Thiago> For decades, Grey has been known for creating work that we refer to as Famously Effective. Meaning, work that drives both cultural value and business value for our clients. The way I see it, part of my job is helping to reimagine that decades-old mantra and figure out what it means today. I'm a big believer that now more than ever we'll only achieve creative and business excellence if we make a very deliberate effort to bring the outside world in. Strategy plays a very big role in my personal creative process, but more importantly I believe that's the way for Grey to continue to truly add value to our partnerships with the clients.

 

 

 

Thiago> I'm a big believer in advertising, at its worst, being the kind of thing that talks at people and pushes an agenda down people's throats. That's not what I think is the best use of our clients' money and I don't think that's the best thing to attract an audience's attention. I really believe that, at its best, communication should be a little bit more like a mirror to our audience, whatever that audience is, and brings them into the story. They need to feel seen, they need to feel heard - then we're adding something new to whatever conversation they're already interested in. The times that I was more successful in my career, with my previous clients and even with my current clients, are the times that we were able to really ask the right questions before starting to come up with solutions. We listened. And that's one of the biggest challenges that we're introducing now at Grey - helping the agency and our clients to understand the importance of being a little bit more open to that. To listen, and then to take the risk to show up in those conversations in a meaningful way.

 

 

Thiago> It has to be a calculated risk. And it only happens if there's true trust between all the parts. Again, the times that I was more successful in my career have been when we felt like we were an extension of the client's marketing department. I know that is kind of a cliche, but it is so true and there's no other way. The clients need to know that when we are coming to them with a solution that feels different or ambitious, and maybe risky, we always have their business growth in mind. That only happens if it's a true symbiotic relationship. Starting as the new guy coming into Grey, I'm starting to build that mentality into the team, and starting to bring the clients into this conversation as well. That has been a real project of mine. 

 

 

Thiago> That was a risk, in a sense. We [Grey] were tasked with doing Coca-Cola’s Christmas campaign for 2022. As you know, it doesn't get any bigger than Coca-Cola and Christmas. As usual, there were challenges and constraints, but the team came up with a solution that felt very bold and maybe a bit risky at the time. Instead of doing a traditional advertising campaign centred around a film, the team reimagined the tradition of sitting down with your family and watching a Christmas movie - everything from Die Hard to Home Alone - which is a tradition that got lost a little bit in the age of streaming. Streaming often separates families these days, encouraging each person to have an individual experience, as opposed to a collective sitting down and watching a movie. So we turned it on its head and used it to our advantage, putting Coca-Cola at the centre of the solution. We did a series of Christmas stories that felt unexpected, all under the guidance of 'Real Magic', telling stories that felt really real, relatable and human, but told in a magical way. 

 

We told three really beautiful stories in an unexpected way, in partnership with Amazon - they were available on Amazon Prime for the Christmas season - and the engagement that we got was off the charts. And it's still available! In case you want to go and watch a Christmas movie now. 

 

 

Thiago> I'm very lucky to have jumped in this position right now, not just in my career but with where Grey is too. If you look at our leadership team, both global and New York, it's a lot of people that are doing this for the first time as well. I think that's a massive superpower that we have because we don't know the rules, we don't have the baggage, and I think it gives us a lot of freedom to take, like we talked about before, some calculated risks. We all bring our experience, backgrounds, and years and years of training that we had into this new thing, but we're in uncharted territories in many ways. We know the game, we know what we're doing - but we all bring something new to it. And the fact that we can explore the newness that we bring to it and be OK with it, rather than trying to fit ourselves into a predetermined box, has been very liberating for us. I think we're already seeing the results of that even in the short six months that we've been there. It gives us the opportunity to try and do something new with Grey. That's something that excites me a lot. The biggest reason why I took this job is having that space and knowing that we all have each other's backs to do something that we feel is positive for our teams and for our clients.  

 

 

 

Thiago> The thing that I'm digging deeper and deeper into right now is gaming. I know it's kind of a cliche, but gaming is the biggest thing in culture. People might think it's a nerdy thing or a little under the radar, but it is literally bigger than music and films combined. I recently rediscovered my passion for it. I wouldn't even call it a distraction from work because it is the thing that I focus on the most. In all the other parts of my life, I have like 30 tabs open in my brain. Gaming is the one thing that helps me actually focus on something and it's incredibly relaxing to do one thing at a time. Zelda has been taking over my life. 

 

I love that it's a combination of everything that we do as communication people. It's craft, design, storytelling, music, film. It's everything combined into an incredibly engaging experience.