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How I Became a Russian Creative

14/02/2020
Advertising Agency
Moscow, Russia
224
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INFLUENCER: POSSIBLE Russia's Wanslez Quaresma on making the move to Russia from Brazil

My name is Wanslez. I am Brazilian art director, currently living and working in at Possible Moscow in Russia. People always ask me “How is it? A Brazilian in Russia so far from home and in cold winter?”.

Well, it all started like this: a long time ago, I was working at an advertising agency in Dubai - one of the most creative globally...

It was the end of the year and a Brazilian friend of mine, who was working in Moscow at that time, invited me to Russia for the new year.

The closest place to Russia I had ever been to was Vilnius, Lithuania. All I knew about Russia was from Rocky balboa and Ivan Drago - and that Russia is cold, very cold.

I did some Googling and found out that tourists should be aware of fake taxi drivers at the airport, because people have been kidnapped. That was scary enough for me - but Brazilians don’t need Visas to come to Russia, and I thought: well, why not, this might be my only opportunity to come to this 'savage' country.

I bought my tickets and landed in Moscow a few days after the New Year. my first impression when I landed was “Oh yes, this IS a cold country”.

Everything looked exotic, I was waiting to see people like Ivan Drago but they were just normal people.

I still remember the guy at passport control. He was looking at my passport, then looked at me, back to my passport, back to me. I smiled, and he looked seriously at me as if he wanted to ask “Why are you smiling?”. Well, no smiles anymore…

I was going to leave the airport at around 7am. It was cold and dark…I saw the taxi plates, but after hearing about the kidnappings, I decided to wait until the light came up before setting out.

So I waited. 7am, 8am, 9am... and it was still dark. “So," I said to myself, "I can't sit here all day, I must face this situation and just go out, take a taxi and get to my friend's house in Arbat street”.

I opened the door from the airport and looked outside - many drivers were standing beside each other. I tried to figure out who would be the safest one to take, so I had a cigarette to give myself time to choose.

I pointed to where I wanted to go on my map. The man looked at me, took my map and said “Ahh, Arbat! Поехали”. That was the scariest word I had ever heard. “Поехали?”. What did that mean? 

I sat in the car and thought “Now I’m in trouble, I will be kidnapped for sure”. Well, he turned on the radio and we headed off… Finally we reached Arbat street, then the second problem appeared: how do I find my friend’s house on a street where everything was written in Russian? I was completely lost.

I found the Dutch embassy on the way, where I finally found someone who spoke English. I asked the police where I could find my friend's place. And he told me something very strange: “Well, you can ring on some doors and you'll eventually find it”.

That was shocking, unbelievable! Eventually, I found some people outside and they helped me find the address.

That was my first impression of Russia.

Every Brazilian who works in advertising knows the 'Manual do Estagiário' written by Eugenio Mohallem - an award winner copywriter from Brazil, who decided to write a book in order to help young professionals prepare their portfolio and get a job in advertising. He said in his book that the first ad that you open with must be your best work - you must cause the best first impression. It’s a mathematical formula, from 1-10, starting with the number 10. Start with your best (10), and then go through 1 - 9. The work must increase in quality as the one who is interviewing you is looking at your work.

Advertising in Russia new and on its way. It’s not right to compare the advertisements here with advertisements from different countries, like England, USA and even from Brazil. But people are working, they are hungry for more, hungry to score! Maybe there are still some steps to reach, but there’s the hunger for the best, and I believe that sooner or later 'the best' will come.

In Brazil we have a very competitive market. It’s hard for anyone to get inside a good agency in Brazil. People call the creative director every day asking for an opportunity to show their work. And once you get in you still need to show a lot of work to get a good brief. As an art director, you'll need to show how you can craft a good layout. If you are a copywriter, you need to come to your senior creative with 50 or more headlines. You will need to show a lot of interest and passion until someone at the top looks at you and decides to give you an opportunity to take a good brief.

Well, you get promoted - you are now junior creative. But you still need to show that you deserve this position. Moreover, you will have to see new people coming in to meet with your creative director, who want to take your place.

What I want to say is that in Brazil we have a competitive market, and it could be years until you get the opportunity to work on your own brief.

The difference I see in Russia is that there’s a lot of young people who come to the agency after finishing university. They can get good briefs even without years of experience, so it seems that the opportunities are better if you are a young creative in Russia.

But it’s all about perceptions, in Brazil, people still like to watch TV commercials. While talking about Russia, there’s a lot of investment in technology and startups all around the country. The digital market is very active, it’s an energetic and active country in terms of evolution and development. Seems that everyone wants to create some new business, everyone is ready for some development, to learn something new.

Already there are interesting achievements: creative works that win international festivals, smart, tech ideas. Russia is a country that moves very fast in terms of innovation: for example, on public transport, where you can pay your tickets with your card. It doesn't work for many European Countries.

People in Russia can adapt to any changes, they live with changes all the time, that means that the change in advertising will come in time.

I agree that there are a lot of things that must be fixed, but here I have met incredible people - good friends, good colleagues.

If I would describe Russia in words, I would say: it’s not about what you see, it’s not about what you heard about it, it’s not about what people say, it’s all about what you feel. Exactly like the people here - meet them and you will love this feeling as I do.


Wanslez Quaresma is art director at POSSIBLE Russia

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