The Ad Guy
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Xavier Mantilla and I have known each other for decades. Xavier is truly “an ad guy”. He’s worked for some of the biggest names in the industry: Ogilvy & Mather, McCann, Publicis, Starcom and now Cheil Communications. Born in Quito, Ecuador, he was raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, speaks fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese. Like a true Paulista, he is a total fan of Formula 1
Defining moment – I was sitting in Sao Paulo with Unilever to pitch them on this whole dove idea of the campaign of real beauty. When the Dove real beauty campaign comes about, it's like I can really sink my teeth into it because it is about digital. It is about seeding content. And I felt such at home with it. And I didn't realize what we had in our hands and what it became. And it's only as you look back and go, my God, I was in the middle of this cultural revolution where was content became king.
And so I think for me that was the most fascinating thing to look back and say, I was part of this revolution that I never really expected.
A change he would have never expected – The death of strategic planning. When everybody shifted to programmatic, strategic planning disappeared because it became just audience planning. And then it was all done programmatically. I think that, and coming from a digital background, the rise of the DMP for me was so exciting. my God, we're going to do things in a better way, more efficient way. But I never thought we were going to kill off strategy in such a terrible way. Because if you look at it now, it's all about tactics.
Coping with the change – Well, branding remains important. I think back of my Ogilvy days. We had the butterfly: Where is the brand going? Where is the brand today? And what's that roadmap? And then look at all that data
So, you start at one side, you go to the middle, distill the brand. What does it mean to you as a consumer? What does it mean to me as an owner? And where do I want to go? And so, for me, that process has to be a real understanding of what happens. And I think I think that is the way I still kind of look at kind of old school. Very David Ogilvy
Advice to the CEO or CMO – I think we're valuable. And, looking at my life after 55, it is because I see the mistakes I've made, and I can sit with you and share some of that life. And hopefully the stories will contribute to your thinking differently. I've always been about “think differently” be open to change, open to what new realities can happen.
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