The past, present, and future of Advertising
My interview with Geraldo da Rocha Azevedo became, in the end, a dialogue woven into memory and meaning
My journey with advertising has always been deeply personal. I grew up running around my dad’s agency, a brick building filled with cubicles and beige computers. I would play pretend I was a secretary, in a glass room with couches and chairs and a big table. If I weren’t there, I would be in the toy room — back in the 00’s, my dad was responsible for designing every toy you could find in a Happy Meal across Latin America.
The room was their archive and my very own playroom.
When I first planned this interview, the natural choice was to do it with my dad. Long story short, he suggested an idea to make the episode even more interesting and professional… that’s how I found myself, at 6 pm on a Wednesday, reaching out to one of the biggest communications entrepreneurs in Brazil.
Geraldo da Rocha Azevedo is not only the name behind the biggest agencies on the continent — first Rocha Azevedo, then The Marketing Store, and NeogamaBBH, embracing a journey to lead THE entertainment company Time for Fun, to a few years ago, executing a whole new project from scratch, focusing on the future and the next minds. More than creating, advertising is about putting magnificent ideas into reality. That’s how Execution was born.
To me, Geraldo had always been this larger-than-life figure, a symbol of brilliance and authenticity and international awards and Golden Globes and Cannes Lions. So, after an anxiety-driven stomachache, the absolute certainty he wouldn’t answer me, and a bit of impostor syndrome, we ended up doing the interview the next morning.
We talked a bit before — I said how honored I was to have him, and he said he was surprised how big I was. I gave him a few headlines on what I was thinking, always making it very clear I absolutely would value any thoughts or ideas he may have, but, more than anything, more than an interview, I wanted to talk about life. With advertising intertwined.
That’s something important about Geraldo, too — he’s heavily media trained. If you search his name on Google or YouTube, you’ll find him speaking to major media outlets. Also recently, he just started a podcast of his own where he interviews people with not only great ideas but also able to build those ideas into concrete.
I am a very creative person, but more than anything, with a lot of will to execute it. That’s the secret: Creating. Planning. Executing.
When we talk about advertising, it is impossible to comprehend when a division ends and another begins. Marketing is communication. If PR was, until a few years ago, about crafting a nice release and nurturing relationships with the directors of magazines and newspapers — the gatekeepers of public opinion. Now, the PR department is all over Instagram or TikTok — the demand is the same, with a whole new name.
If advertising was born in the ’50s, in a Mad Men world where the big agencies thrived on building a fan of clients and contacts, going on endless meetings fueled by cigars and whiskey, signing their name on the hall of seducing people around you, and building a business relying on your personality. Sort of "how to make friends and influence people” type of vibe.
The interruption era, in which you’re listening to the radio or watching something, and, for a few minutes, all you can do is watch ads. You had absolutely no choice; it was arbitrary. Unavoidable. This is how he calls the profession: agents of the interruption model.
He calls the era he started, all the way back to the mid ‘80s, as the phase of the great creatives. Television played a fundamental role in building desire. No brand could communicate or manifest, or publish its values without a movie on the big screen. The goal of visionaries — like him, like Alexandre Gama and John Hebert — was to make viewers feel like they couldn’t live life without this very same specific product. After all, more than selling an item, they were selling a lifestyle.
Everything changed during the last few years. Communication is fragmented. You’ll find the same creative minds not only in a place like an agency, but everywhere. Like a living display. Media itself is undergoing a seismic shift in how we perceive it.
Is the media dying? The interruption model, yes. People are paying to avoid ads, and the brands that force them are getting a very negative buzz.
His entire mindset is based on changes. He knew when to change, when to let go of our old habits, when to embrace the unknowns, and just move forward. We need to adapt and, for some, this can be faster or slower — I asked if he was always open to changes. He said no, but he didn’t have a choice.
That’s the very reason why he opened his newest agency. Focusing always on what is to come, the agency was born already in this fragmented world. In which certain behaviors are unacceptable. Execution is the agency of the next 30 years. With 150 employees, 70% are women, and plurality is a key concept. The average age is 26, and despite having an office located in Jardins, the fanciest neighborhood in São Paulo, they have people not only all over the country but also in Colombia, Mexico, Portugal, and Angola.
His tone is pure optimism, something I needed to comment on. In a wave of chaos, he’s a positive voice in the ocean of horrors. The word he used most during our interview?
— Fascinating.
For our final question, I asked him what it was those works that, when he stops to contemplate life, it was the ones that filled his heart with the most warmth. His answer:
— Always the next