From a fast-rising career in Argentina to a brilliant career at the top in Dubai. From working in some of the most prominent network agencies in the world to helping successfully launch a rising indie. Along the way, Pablo Maldonado has relaunched Grey in Dubai from scratch, won the first-ever Dubai Lynx Grand Prix for Wunderman Thompson Dubai, and won every major award – many times over. Here he shares his network-to-indie experience, the working culture in the UAE, and the secret cause that makes advertising work:
The Stable: Network agency to indie. What are the advantages, differences, disadvantages?
Pablo Maldonado: I think the best thing I’m seeing in my first months in the indie world is how close you can really be from the ideation to the selling of the idea, discussing it with the client and making it happen.
When it comes to an independent agency, it’s in a way your business, your own thing. So you are really going back to the origins of what we do and pushing for ideas, fighting for what you think and nothing else. Really trying to make things happen. That’s what I love. There is a kind of going back to the source, to the origins of advertising in independent agencies. It’s also how fast you can respond. You can reply to a client, set up a meeting, or just call the client to talk about something, to find a solution, a middle ground, and proactively from both sides really get to a point where you are not only producing an idea for the agency, but producing an idea for both, a piece of work that will help both sides of the business – which is one business at the end. You really feel that at an independent, you feel it most of the time. You can make everything happen. It’s more in your hands all the time; it’s more about collaboration, definitely, and shortcuts through the process.
The Stable: Buenos Aires to Dubai, that must have been a culture shock?
Pablo Maldonado: There are many things happening right now in the Middle East. I think it’s a place that has been growing in the last 10, maybe 20 years. In recent years, we have won Grands Prix consistently and you’re definitely seeing and experiencing every day how the region is growing, how agencies are being more competitive, how new agencies are coming into the game with new ideas and new tech . So it’s a place that is dynamic by design. It was created as a city in record time – literally created. A huge desert with nothing and then suddenly someone had a dream and said, “You know what, we’re going to build a city on this.” And they made it happen – with huge skyscrapers, and huge businesses, in terms of technology and innovation, now being the hub of many big brands in the world. It’s the city where ambition lives. You have the sense that nothing is impossible. If they say that something will happen in six months, one year, or two or five, it will definitely happen. And that is also reflected in terms of the business, in terms of the agencies, in terms of the culture of how people create things there.
People outside think that it’s a place where life is easy. You go there, everything is safe, everything is secure, you’ve got it all, you won – and it’s not like that. Actually, you don’t have second chances, specially in Dubai, but in the Middle East in general. You really have to stay sharp, work hard and be focused. It’s a place that is 100% results-driven. Clients and agencies are putting a lot of effort in, and overseeing the ascent of both the work and the results all the time. There’s not a time to stop and say, “Okay… I will take off one month, some time or whatever…” It’s a highly competitive place that never sleeps.
The Stable: What do you think it takes to make really great advertising that one, works, and two, wins awards?
Pablo Maldonado: I think that more than ever, it is important to go back to what made us fall in love with our job, which originally was as simple as just solving a problem with creativity, just getting a straightforward, or rather single-minded, brief with a clear business goal, and producing single-minded big ideas. Going back to that and removing a little bit of all of the complexity and all of the layers. Thank you for all the new technology. All of that is fantastic, but I feel we’re confusing ourselves with it, and confusing ourselves as an industry. I think it’s important that we go back to what really made us fall in love with advertising, and why we are really into it. That’s ideas – finding solutions and finding things that really work for brands and clients.
And with what happened at Cannes this year, I think it’s clearer than ever that we really need to go back to solving the real issues on the brand side, on the business side, with real value-driven campaigns. Let’s try to save the client’s business. And if we can do that with a brilliant idea, I think that’s a no-brainer for both sides – actually there are no two sides; there is only one when you are on the same boat with your clients, because it’s a partnership. So when you have an idea that truly solves a real business issue, it feels like a relief that tastes like glory. From there, it’s only natural for the client to come to us and say, “Guys, you should submit this campaign. It’s an idea we’re all proud of… or the world needs to see it too… or this idea has built great reputation for us.”
When you go back to the simple things, to the real passion of solving business issues, and use powerful, meaningful ideas, and put those things together, it’s something that is super, super strong.
The Stable: What are you most proud of in your career?
Pablo Maldonado: I’m really proud of having created an ecosystem of people that I don’t call just friends, and I don’t call just mentors. During the last 20+ years, I’ve been able to grow great relationships with people who probably started as mentors but then became friends. Life in advertising, although heavily under the lens today, can also be a very generous one, even after all the long hours, the weekends spent on pitches, and the plans we’ve had to move. Now, the industry is probably going through its toughest transformation ever, but it has always been an industry of transformations. Along the way, we get incredible opportunities to connect with amazing people, sharp clients, and to nurture new talent. I’m truly proud to be part of a group like that.
