Creativity Squared: Hugo Agostinho on His Ad Addiction and Turning a Blank Page into Something Great

I love ads. It's a chemical thing. I started on this journey in Rio de Janeiro, back in 2008. Since then, I've never stopped meeting amazing people and learning new things. That's what drives me to work at advertising agencies.

Actually, there is something else. I still get a strong feeling in my heart every time I know I've cracked a new idea or every time I see someone finds a new creative way to solve a problem - and I get jealous right after. In these two cases, it seems like my brain is sending a message to my body saying "This is beautiful!".

I'm always chasing this feeling. It's kind of an addiction. It's love.

It's always complicated to discuss criteria. 

Last year, my wife and I went to watch "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and right before the credits, we looked at each other and I could feel she was amazed like me, but the guy in the seat behind us shouted: "Thank God, it is over! What a shit movie!" 

So how has a movie so hated by someone got so many awards?

Maybe that guy was just looking for a 'regular Sunday popcorn movie' and ended up accidentally watching a mix of genres, that later won 7 Oscars. The fact is that The Academy recognized this movie for different reasons and agendas. They didn't listen to the guy behind me. 

The same can happen with ads. An ad can win loads of awards, and be loved by some but hated by others. What makes our life in advertising even more difficult is that most people do not like ads, they love to skip them…that's why platforms charge for this specific feature.

When it comes to award shows, the work will be judged accordingly to the rules of the specific category. But one thing always rings true: in all award-winning ads, the message is clear. If the project is well crafted but its target doesn’t understand what's going on, the effort is lost. By saying that, I'm not trying to keep things in a linear perspective but yes, there is a parameter to differentiate the awarded and the not awarded. 

I love to find out what the juries share later when they explain what made a difference during the judging session. For sure the win will be based on the bias of the jurors, however, the work will only be discussed if it touches the heart - or the pocket - of the audience, in the proper time and tone.

What's going on in the world today? The most obvious place to find this answer is on the news channels. This is where I start my day every day, right after I open YouTube to check what my favourite channels are publishing. 

Before breakfast, I have already seen what’s happening in Ukraine; if Sydney’s housing crisis is still being debated; or if Vasco da Gama (the soccer team that I love in Rio de Janeiro) is ready for its next game.  

So without even taking a call or getting in the office I have actually started working. I'm not checking the news. I'm hunting for insights. I know they are hidden there in the middle of the ordinary stuff. 

Probably later – when I am actually in the office - I will get a briefing about something I was impacted by before. And even if I don’t get an immediate client briefing, I believe one of those headlines may help solve a creative idea later in my working day. 

To come up with something that has never been done before, I need to check out what was done before. Or at least, I need to see the most relevant work done for my client and their main competitors.  

All these steps are happening before my brain selects one idea. There are always different ways to solve the same problem in advertising. The best solution will be found after some time is taken discussing and even trying to kill the idea, before actually getting to the stage of presenting the idea to the client.

 

Crafting a good idea is always a pleasure for me. What's the best way to tell the client? What's the best consumer-facing approach? The answers will come if I keep asking the right questions, listening carefully to the right people, and spending time with all the details.

As a creative and art director working in advertising, I like to check out everyone else’s ideas as well. I'm just a person doing ads, and even mixing different techniques in my projects, I'm adapting ideas and recreating them for my clients. Of course, I like to experiment with new stuff, although most of the time I need to follow cultural codes to be 100% clear, visually. But I don’t see this as a limitation, it’s more a range of freedom established by a deadline.

My parents and family have hugely influenced my career. My father wanted me to become a dentist like him, so when I was 14 years old, I started learning how to do some tooth sculptures. My mother was a teacher, and she didn't want her son presenting terrible writing at school so she made me practice handwriting for years. Both love books, photography, music, movies and like every family in Brazil during the 90s, I grew up watching TV and talking about funny ads. My parents bought a 486 PC in 1993 and I remember learning first things about MS-DOS, and how to fix it after installing a game using a damaged floppy disc. Then Windows came and the Paintbrush tool became my creative outlet. It was nice drawing a helicopter with the pre-set shapes and animating it using the scissors tool. I could spend hours doing this.

My aunt also helped me unlock another area of my creativity: music. She used to play piano and acoustic guitar and I was always trying to make decent sounds out of both instruments when I was a kid. I had piano lessons for almost 6 years, plus my aunt showed me 3 chords on the guitar so I could play loads of songs.

Nowadays in my day-to-day tasks, I feel the influence of my family not only when I'm using a specific skill, but also when I'm trying to be empathetic with others. I know sometimes life is unfair, and that’s definitely true in the ad world but if you don't believe in the power of your passion and dedication for something, your journey will be even more challenging.

The creative process in advertising is not lonely. There is you, your team, and most importantly, there is a client who needs to invest in your thinking. If we are always pitching ideas our minds need to be ready. As a Creative, rejection is something we all have to face... it's about learning how to lose, keep trying until the best job is done, and enjoying every victory without becoming an untouchable genius on an ego trip.

Some get fascinated because they can turn a blank page into a campaign. But for me, the real magic happens when all those people involved feel that there is something special among them happening. It's a vibe. Only when you are in, part of it, you can feel it. It's the power of collaboration, taking ideas to places deeper than skipping ads.