Brazil Special: Max Geraldo and Joanna Monteiro

On the back of a very good haul at Cannes 2014, and less than two years after joining FCB Brasil as executive creative directors, Max Geraldo and Joanna Monteiro have been made creative VPs. Dazzled by the duo’s vivacious verbal – and non-verbal – skills, Carol Cooper hears how their way of getting everyone in the ‘playground’ collaborating has boosted creative excellence

FCB creative VPs Joanna Monteiro and Max Geraldo are all smiles and ebullience. Monteiro sits folding her legs underneath her like a teenager, but rarely stays still for long, her body animating her words. Geraldo is more poised, leaning back in his chair, stroking his beard in contemplation, often moderating or augmenting Monteiro’s exclamations. You can almost see the creative electricity buzzing between them in the comfort of an old friendship.

“He’s pretty different from me,” says Monteiro. “He has talents that I don’t and I think we really complement each other, but we pretty much think the same way when making decisions.” Geraldo qualifies this: “I don’t think we have different skills but different career histories. I think when you see our work you see how our individual ways into advertising have converged.”

The pair met 15 years ago but didn’t work together until they both joined FCB in 2012, since when their convergence has resulted in brilliant campaigns such as Nivea’s Protection Ad, a print ad that could be turned into a child’s wristband and a mobile app, Protege, that linked to the wristband and could be programmed to set off an alarm when the child wandered off too far. It toddled off with seven of FCB Brasil’s haul of 17 Lions last year – including the Mobile Grand Prix.

So when I talk to them about the gloomy prognosis hanging over the country like São Paulo smog, Monteiro admits that, although 2014 was a downer for Brazil, for FCB it was a great year. “Next year, we just don’t know… Brazilian clients are screaming, ‘Make the budgets lower!’ but we’ve started 2015 with the right amount of work to have a good year.”

So how did they set about transforming FCB Brasil’s creative output? “The final product comes from the creative department, but the whole agency has to breathe creativity. We wanted to get all the departments working together,” says Monteiro. She becomes animated as she explains how they gathered people from separate areas of the agency – planners, accountants, everyone – to all be in the same room together. “We said: ‘Take your butt out of your chair and go talk to people.’” She hops out of her chair and paces around. “Because of technology, people are always emailing people who are just across the hall!” Her voice rises in exasperation. “We really believe in technology, we work in technology, but come on!”

Geraldo smiles sagely, adding: “It’s funny, but we felt like people were waiting for that to happen.” Monteiro agrees: “It’s good for everyone to play together, to be in the same part of the playground. It’s a collaborative way of working. You know people are by your side, that they are fighting with you. It’s more modern. The 80s were full of competition and secrecy, but we have a more sharing, social world nowadays.” We discuss how creativity flows more freely in face-to-face meetings. “It’s almost like osmosis,” Monteiro animatedly agrees, beaming. 

Crossing the divides

Monteiro admits that she and Geraldo are both great talkers and says that Geraldo is only quieter today because his English isn’t as good. His English is way better than my stash of three Portuguese words, but throughout the interview he frequently checks to see if we are connecting, ending his sentences with “Right?” The pair’s enthusiasm for and understanding of quality communication is evident in their other major Cannes 2014 winner, The Speaking Exchange for CNA language schools, a conversation exchange that connected English language students in Brazil with senior citizens in the United States, addressing both the students’ need for conversation practice and the oldsters’ need for human contact. The project was heartwarming and resulted in touching relationships developing across generational and cultural divides.

Rio-born Monteiro began her career as a trainee copywriter at Ogilvy in 1996 and then went on to work at “the three iconic Brazilian agencies” DPZ, W/Brasil with Washington Olivetto and, from 2002, Africa Advertising with Nizan Guanaes, where she spent 10 years. She’s had a broad, international education and has studied English in London, Italian and art history in Florence and did a postgraduate degree in advertising and marketing at São Paulo’s prestigious ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing).

Geraldo’s path to advertising was more meandering. He was born in Argentina but raised in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where he studied communications and finance at university. “I didn’t get finance,” he laughs, so he also studied fine arts and his first job was actually as an illustrator for a textile company. He worked in a variety of jobs – in electronic media, in the film industry designing sets, designing TV credit sequences – before starting work as an art director in television. “But my interest was in cinema. I wanted to travel abroad to study it, but I didn’t have the money,” he says. “In those days advertising paid very well, so to make money I started knocking on agencies’ doors with examples of my work. Then I fell in love with this career and never left.”

Geraldo’s first advertising position was art director at a small agency in Belo Horizonte called Casablanca. “It was small but very, very creative – then I came to São Paulo.” Since then he’s worked for top agencies including TBWA, JWT, DM9DDB and AlmapBBDO.

Selling cheap beer

Geraldo’s wry observation of how advertising salaries have shrunk returns me to the subject of gloomy predictions for Brazilian business. He leans back in his chair, from where he seems to have a good view of the big picture. “We’re having ups and downs, but for some Brazil has never been so good. I mean, 20 or 30 years ago many more people were living on the streets. Brazil used to be known for starvation – we don’t have that any more. Our industry is now so connected to the consumer habits of the lower-class people that we have to relate to the many people who are now able to buy cheap beer. It’s different in England, for instance. There you have a huge middle class. Here we’ve had a smaller upper class and a huge lower class that wasn’t able to consume anything much 20 years ago. They had trouble getting food, let alone beer.” Geraldo grows more excitable as he expresses his frustration that many in the industry don’t seem to appreciate this. “Our profession is about connecting with these people.” 

The duo seem frustrated at the slow pace of change in the industry and are constantly looking at how things need to change. I mention the Brazilian model of agencies having in-house media buying and how digital is affecting revenues from that. Geraldo agrees: “The current model will work for a long time, especially as TV is still so powerful here. But the way ads on different platforms are paid for will have to change. There will be a mixture of fees and payment through media. This agency already has had seven or eight different types of payment forms. So we can provide our clients with a good mix of media according to their needs. This is the modern way, it’s the way to survive.

When advertising gets personal

Monteiro is excited by the changes digital technology is bringing and how ads are going to have to be increasingly targeted towards increasingly smaller screens. “Brazilians are very social and the rise of the C class means everyone has smartphones, even if they don’t have computers or larger screens. So everything is on the phone – internet, communication, everything is here.” She whips out her phone and brandishes it about. “We need to think about how to reach people via mobiles. And this is going to change the game 10 years from now."

Both agree that relevance is crucial. “We are competing with many, many things, different platforms. Advertising doesn’t work if it’s just funny or moving but not relevant,” says Monteiro. Geraldo chimes in:  “Sometimes you don’t have to change the world with your message, it just has to connect.” He points out the dangers of intrusive advertisers. “People use mobiles to communicate with their friends and family, not with brands. So with viral, for example, if the message is significantly important or relevant or funny or emotional it might get shared, but people don’t use a phone to stay in touch with advertisers.”

Monteiro points out that people increasingly want to be in charge of communication flow, particularly on their mobiles. “That’s why apps are growing, and not the sites. Because you choose apps.” She points out the intimate relationship one has with one’s mobile. How it is an extension of your persona. “My mobile is me,” she says, clasping hers to her heart. “It’s personal, you don’t share your mobile. So advertisers must tread carefully. It’s an interesting challenge, but I’ve got to tell you, it’s the future.” Geraldo agrees, “Yeah, because we want to start a dialogue with the consumers, right? But sometimes the consumers don’t want a dialogue with us.” 

The interview has gone over time. I have to rush off, but as we leave the room we continue chatting animatedly. It’s hard to stop talking with these two and I reflect that if anyone can figure out how to connect with people who might not always want to listen, it’s this pair of engaging, world-class communicators.