The Work That Made Me: João Inácio
João Inácio is an internationally awarded creative with a fascination for human behaviour. At the age of seven he came across a 486 Intel computer from his uncle at grandma’s place. That started a journey of discovery into indie games, technology, and diving deep into the early days of the internet. He majored in journalism and film studies and almost by accident stumbled upon the advertising scene.
Since then, he’s been using the power of creativity to change the fate of global brands like Uber, Johnnie Walker, Philips and Adidas at several creative agencies in Lisbon, Hamburg, Prague and (now) Amsterdam. Considered by the Dutch press as one of the top 10 ad creatives to watch out for in the Netherlands, João is passionate about creating ideas that go beyond selling a product and leave a lasting impression.
His work has been recognised by different creativity festivals, from D&AD to the OneShow, Webbys, Lovies and more. He is now steering creativity at one of Europe’s fastest growing digital agencies: DEPT®.
In his spare time, he devours documentaries on a daily basis, spins records at a very amateur level and learns something new every day with his baby boy Viggo.
LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
João> In a time when MTV and VH1 were our window to culture, trends and cool shit - waaaaay before the internet was even a thing - many music videos provoked my imagination to go wild.
But there’s a video clip that always got me mesmerised: Around The World, by Daft Punk. That was a mix of cool, weird and somewhat digital of the time. A crowd of skeletons, astronauts and other funky characters dance awkwardly on a platform that goes round and round. Absolutely unexpected and fresh, I remember being in trance with that track and video clip every time it would play, inspiring me to do differently, to explore, to innovate.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
João> There was this computer at my grandma’s place. An old 482 Intel, still from my uncle that never got retrieved after he moved out. Inside there were several games, in particular one called: Police Quest, by Sierra Games.
In this game you play a cop that has to investigate crimes. All text based, super basic, but a world one could explore endlessly. That game forged an interest in technology, creativity, problem solving, gaming and mystery that I’ll never forget, which influenced me to find a job that has all of those components.
LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…
João> This is a difficult one, but I love the work by Jeff Low. His commercials are brilliant. One of my all-time-favourites I keep referring back to is the work he’s done for SetApp. Fun, imaginative, super entertaining. What advertising should always be.
SetApp - Snake
LBB> My first professional project…
João> It was a Fiat campaign in Portugal. I had just joined the agency and didn’t know anything about anything (my background was in cinema). But Fiat was one of my accounts, so I had to grind and I’ll never forget that piece of work. It’s not brilliant by any means, but it taught me so much in such a short period of time, it was all worth it. Take a look.
LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
João> This is a hard one, I’m not a hater. But in all of these years, the infamous Kendall Jenner x Pepsi ad that became a strange pop culture moment is probably the ad that makes me cringe the most
LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
João> I love this work by another fellow Portuguese creative, Immortal Fans - it has everything a good campaign should have and more. It adds value to the world. It’s brilliant.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
João> In 2011 I was a very young creative. As green as they come. I was trying to make it in the ad world. I was finding my footing, trying to position myself, looking for a way to ad glory. I paired up with a Dutch art director, Jeroen. We sat down one afternoon and decided we’d go for awards. In the midst of that process, we competed for a D&AD open brief challenge, hosted by insurance company Aviva. They wanted to make youngsters think about saving money earlier on in their lives.
We knew that young people don’t think about the future and that they just want to live in the moment, making the most of it. We also knew that, in this phase of their lives, they listened to no one except themselves. So we created a platform called “Future Me”.
There you could meet a version of yourself in the future. That’s right, by answering a few questions you’d get paired with a real Aviva customer, just like you but 30 years older. That person is the only person that can probably convince you why it’s important to save money while young. The work got us awarded at the prestigious D&AD, and my career was never the same again.
LBB> The most recent piece of work that I’m most proud of...
João> A campaign for Johnnie Walker in the Eastern European region. I like it because it’s work that goes beyond a brand. It goes into society and tries to raise awareness and change behaviour. That’s the type of work we (including myself here) should be doing more of. I won’t say much more, just have a peek at the case video.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
João> There’s not a lot of projects that made me cringe to be honest. But maybe there’s one situation that looking back I’m not proud of and it made me cringe a bit, even to the point of worrying for the health of someone on a set.
This was around 2013, I was running the Skoda global account with my super talented friend and French art director Mathieu. We had this idea for the Skoda Yeti. The campaign was all about proving the car is “ready for anything”. So in a weird Top Gear meets X-Factor sort of concept, we’d challenge the car against that claim over and over again with different scenarios.
From extreme ironing while going off-road to having someone get his hair done inside of the car driving down the hill… Let’s just say we had fun.
In one of the ‘challenges’, we ought to prove that the Yeti was so fast in going 0-100, that the acceleration could potentially wax a man’s back. And so we found a very hairy gentleman that was up to the task.e clamped two ropes attached to a waxing strip that was glued to the man’s back and we tested that acceleration.
Needless to say, it was an extremely painful experience for the volunteer in question that after two takes gave up on us while being extremely mad at everyone. It was a moment to remember and forget at the same time.
