Wall-to-Wall Craft: How POSTER Pinned the Focus on Quality

“We really love this shit; we’re here to make a mark”. 

Mariano Echarri means what he says. There’s a distinctive sense of sincerity and ambition  as the partner and EP talks to LBB. Today, he’s reflecting on the thinking behind opening up a new Mexico City branch for POSTER, his production company. 

The outpost in the Mexican capital will augment POSTER’s existing presence in Buenos Aires and New York, adding a bigger geographical footprint for a company that has already established plenty of renown through its commercial work for Heinz, Amstel, Save the Children and countless other brands. That’s in addition to its long form work, which now includes a barnstorming Netflix documentary exploring the story of the iconic Argentinian rockers Ratones Paranoicos. 

“Beyond our work in advertising, we have always loved to produce music videos”, he says. In fact, the studio is currently in the closing stages of a new project for WOS, the Argentine trap singer. And Rocanrol Cowboys, the Ratones Paranoicos documentary on Netflix, is another project of which Mariano and his team are “more than proud”. 

What defines that work is its sheer craftsmanship - a love of film that extends into every aspect of POSTER’s approach to a project. It’s an infectious passion that can be hard to find, but which is very common amongst the team as POSTER. 

“Craft is our core”, explains Mariano. “When we opened POSTER thirteen years ago, with no knowledge of PR or marketing, we decided to pour our focus into our work thinking that if we can deliver great pieces of art then people would notice the difference and jump into the POSTER culture”. 

And indeed, many have. With that all-consuming prioritisation of craft central to the studio’s approach, it’s little wonder that their work in the commercial world is similarly artful. “There are a lot of projects which stand out, but the most memorable tend to be the most romantic”, notes Mariano when asked which ads best encapsulate POSTER’s ethos. “There was one directed by Sebastián Caporelli, shot from the inside of a VolksWagen and all in slow motion. That was incredibly aesthetic and beautiful”. 

“Or I could talk about a more recent commercial - like one we recently made for Sprite with GUT agency”, he adds. It’s impossible not to notice the craft in that advert, overflowing with AMSR-style audio design and borderline-sensual shots of Sprite bubbles climbing up to the tip of their bottle. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s not just brands and audiences who have been won over by the studio’s artful, craft-centric filmmaking. POSTER’s roster has become a popular home for directors who, as Mariano goes on to explain, align with the production company’s values. 

“We don’t just want to add people into an infinite roster. We want to work with each director and build a strategy together, curating their reel and asking how we will achieve our dreams together”, he says. 

And, for Mariano and the team as POSTER, having a distinct filmmaking style is the best way to ensure that those dreams might be realised. “A style is the most difficult thing to find in a director, but it’s the most important”, he continues. “Not least because clients and agencies must be clear about why they are hiring you. So we like to work with directors from an early stage so that we can embrace an aesthetic together”. 

The reason that style is so important, especially in 2023, is because the modern advertising landscape throws up lots of challenges to the authentic vision of a filmmaker. In Mariano’s words, “All the focus groups, pre tests, regional ads, social network metrics, media planners, and decision-makers driven by fear are killing advertising stars.

“Sensitive and very creative people are being forced to find new horizons beyond advertising, because we need to generate impact within a three-second pre-roll or shoot boring vignettes to please different audiences in 20 countries at the same time!”. 

And so, POSTER is setting itself up as a studio with the creative resilience to withstand these kinds of trends. It’s a topic about which Mariano is refreshingly honest as he’s asked to look ahead to what might happen in the industry’s near future. 

“I think we will be talking about a new social network that will be rising and a lot of gurus will be talking nonsense about the death of advertising as we know it”, he somewhat safely predicts. “But the truth will be that the same few romantics will be here trying to change the world one commercial at a time”. 

And it’s those romantics who will ensure the industry remains a vibrant, interesting, and creative place in which to work. It’s fortunate, then, that Mariano and POSTER are as romantic as it gets.