Alexandre Gama: The Way I See It

His earliest memories are of goals by Pelé and girl-next-door-from-Ipanema-style crushes. Growing up, he got the right things wrong and the wrong things right, and drifted from dreams of flying fighter jets to race car driving (the latter now a dream come true), but NEOGAMA/BBH founder Alê Gama eventually found a home for his dreaming in the world of advertising, winning Lions almost from the kick-off and becoming one of the youngest CEOs in the country at just 36. He takes Carol Cooper for a spin through his super-accelerated career, stopping off at the people, places and campaigns that have shaped it, from serendipitous partnerships to the spot that inspired a whole country to take to the streets

I was born in the sunny and crazy city of Rio de Janeiro on 1 June 1958 when Rio was about bossa nova, Maracanã, Ipanema and beach girls and not about favelas and bullets. 

My earliest memory is when my father took me to watch São Paulo play Santos. Unfortunately, my father, a São Paulo fan, chose the wrong match: Pelé was playing for Santos and scored an amazing goal. So I entered the stadium as a potential São Paulo fan and left as a Santos fan.

My father was a lawyer and my mom was a singer who sang for many years in the choir of Cabo Frio, a city near Rio where she still lives. Two very different worlds – perhaps that’s why I am an irreconcilable mix of rational and emotional. The last time I cried was at my father’s funeral last year.

As a kid, I did all the wrong things right and the right things wrong. I played lots of football on the streets after we moved to São Paulo. Days were long, hot, sunny, free and filled with good times. I also remember the first time I saw the girl next door. Wow! Beautiful, brunette, long hair, shy and mysterious eyes. So, happy things as far as I can remember. But happiness is a matter of selective memory. Keep a good one for the good things and develop a bad one for the bad things.

When I was a child I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot, then a spaceship captain, then a racing car driver. And suddenly, I knew I wanted to play the guitar and be a musician. I learnt to play classical acoustic guitar and used to play all day long.

When I was a teenager my nickname was ‘Cari’, a short form of ‘Carioca’ (a person born in Rio). But Alê has always been what people call me.

Studying was not my thing as a kid. I was good with languages and grammar but lousy when it came to mathematics and the rest. It was only at high school that I started to focus on learning.

I have always loved writing, but never really knew what to do with that passion. Then, when I had to apply for a place at university, I had two possible careers in mind: journalism and advertising. A friend said to me that I should try advertising and I decided to go for it. Besides, it was a way of combining music, photography, cinema and all the forms of creative expression that I love into this thing that people call a ‘job’. But for me creativity has always been much more than just a way of making my living.

I graduated from FAAP university in Rio with a degree in communication and advertising but I never went back to get my certificate. Five years ago the university invited me to give a lecture. To my surprise they presented me with my certificate almost 20 years late.

I got my first job in advertising in the early 80s. O&M was looking for new blood to get a higher creative profile and luckily I was one of the copywriters selected by José Fontoura, the creative VP, and Clóvis Calia, the ECD. Sadly, Clóvis passed away last year. He was a great guy with a big heart. It was a good opportunity for me and, soon after, O&M won four Lions in the TV/Cinema category at Cannes. I won gold for a spot for International Women’s Day and silver for a TV spot for an air conditioner called Mosca.

If I hadn’t gone into advertising I would have been a musician or writer, if we’re talking about the past. But today, I’d choose science and technology. These are the new creative fields.

I love cars and I’ve been lucky enough to work with several car brands. I got my racing driver licence a few years ago and since then I’ve been competing as an amateur. One lap at Interlagos and the devil has your soul for ever. Driving is the deepest pleasure I can have alone. It’s so liberating. Last year, I invested in a British racing car manufacturer, BAC [Briggs Automotive Company]. They make a racing car you can drive on the road.

Wine is a long-time passion. I used to write for a wine magazine in Brazil. That was a delicious experience combining wine and writing.

When I started in advertising I looked for inspiration in several people’s work. I always admired David Abbott, for example, and the craft of British copywriters of his time.

In 1996 I became Y&R’s president/CEO. I realised later that I was the first creative professional to get to that position at such a young age in a global agency in the country. There was quite a buzz, not because of my age, but because I had no previous CEO experience and my background wasn’t the same as other CEOs of big networks. But that was the challenge I imposed on myself, as I had always wanted to lead a business from a creative perspective. In order to do that properly, I had to get financial and operational experience, things that creative people are usually allergic to. It was a steep learning curve, but we achieved the best creative and financial result since the agency was established in the country. I was very much committed to combining the two words ‘creative’ and ‘business’, so in a way my time at Y&R was the final step to the creation of my own agency, NEOGAMA, in 1999.

NEOGAMA was the fastest growing agency in Brazil right from the beginning and so far the only one to win a Lion in Cannes in its first year. The BBH partnership came just at the right moment, in 2002, three years after I started NEOGAMA. As John Hegarty said: “If we’d had to start an agency in Brazil for ourselves it would be NEOGAMA.” So, we were pretty much alike in terms of principles and beliefs and the partnership was more like finding a soulmate than two strangers having to adapt to each other.

For inspiration, I love books of quotations and poetry, everything related to words. But now I have two daughters and fatherhood has opened a whole new world and creative view. I learn every day from just being with them as I observe their fresh, curious minds. When my eldest, Luiza, was five, she asked me and my wife if she could stay awake until after midnight as she had never seen what happens the moment when one day goes and the new one comes. We allowed her to do that and next day I asked her about it, saying that, as she could see, nothing different happened. She replied with a serious look: “No Dad, it was different. Yesterday I went to bed today.” I can’t think of a fresher perspective on time than that.

I once said: “An idea has no owners. It has users.” That was about my view on bringing art elements to the crafting of ideas in advertising. But what I also meant, and what is even more valid today, is that everybody is connected and this constant connection between people sharing information has a deep impact on the generation of ideas. Due to the internet, the speed of how an idea pops up in people’s minds is unique in our history. Ideas are being created and almost immediately reshaped by ‘users’ who turn them into something with new contexts and meanings and pass them on to more people. ‘Owning’ and ‘using’ are concepts that don’t apply to an idea in the same way as in the past. I’m not saying that this is good or bad. It’s just how things are.

Advertising is not art in the strict (or restricting) sense. But because it feeds on art, among other things, those who practise it have to understand and master the language and dynamics of the various forms that feed into it – cinema, music, photography, literature, visual and scenic arts etc.

That was the point of the exhibition of my work at the Brazilian Art Museum last year, which was proposed by my old university. It was called Idea And Form and covered aspects of my work over the years. One area of the museum was dedicated to the Johnnie Walker campaign, Keep Walking, Brazil, and the Rock Giant spot, because of its impact on the country when the campaign launched in 2011. We showed all the phases of crafting the idea, the roughs and drafts, the development of the rock giant character with The Mill and the creation of the music.

Alongside that we showed a viral video created by others and posted on the web on 18 June 2013. It was a collage of images: politicians giving excuses, people protesting, police action, music inviting people to take to the streets, mixed up with sequences from the Johnnie Walker TV spot showing the rock giant awakening. We screened both works side by side on the wall on a loop so people could see the elements that produced the ad – and how it inspired another piece of communication, free from commercial objectives, that stormed the country.

I believe the best ads get under the skin of a society’s culture and behaviour. The first reaction to the viral video was surprise and shock. The client got really scared, not knowing the implications or problems it could cause them. I was convinced that we should do nothing to block or direct the people’s spontaneous reaction. The giant, which is a metaphor for Brazil, had turned into an icon representing the awakening of the country and people had embraced its meaning. They related to it and took it very seriously, so it was not Johnnie Walker’s ad idea any more. It had turned into a symbol of an attitude: awakening, standing up and walking towards action. It had become a meme. It’s very rare that advertising can turn into that, so I’m obviously very proud of it.

I’ve always believed that when the work is done, it’s done and what really matters is the next one. But I thought the Idea And Form exhibition could be an interesting way to show the creative process. When I saw everything at the museum I felt really good because for the first time I could see the forest and not only the day-to-day trees. Also, it was something relevant to all areas of advertising and communication, its professionals and students. The feedback was great.

Advertising can be used as a tool or a weapon. I think that the consumer society concept does not define our way of living any more. We’re now living in a communication society not a consumer society, since the defining value of our times is the capacity to connect and share information, content, ideas and feelings. In this context, the power of communication as a defining value of our society has become more representative of our social evolution than simply consuming things.

As a creative professional, I work to give brands a voice of their own, then modulate that voice through different tones according to the specific brand. The most important thing is to find the brand’s specific voice, the one that will make that brand stand out. That’s the part of the work that I love most because it combines account planning and creativity. Finding a brand voice is a process that starts at the planning phase, which I consider as creative as the creative phase itself. That’s why in NEOGAMA both areas report into me. I really take them as one and integrate them in a single process with clear governance.

There are people who cry and people who sell handkerchiefs. If someone in our industry doesn’t know this, they are in the wrong place. When outdoor advertising was banned in São Paulo in 2006, the industry adapted. There was a migration of investment to other media and we carried on. But since that law was valid only for São Paulo, the impact in the country was relative. I wouldn’t reverse the ban. I’d make outdoor advertising more selective and demand more quality. At that time it was a bit out of control and the citizen in me has priority over the advertising man.

The World Cup in 2014 was a success in terms of organisation, transport and infrastructure – and for advertising. I’m not so sure about the nation. From the perspective of football it was obviously bad since everybody was expecting a big win. As for the Germany vs Brazil semi-final, I always say it never happened. Like the moon landings, it was produced by The Mill. They’re really good.

Many creatives from Latin America have become global chiefs of big networks in the past few years. I don’t know if this is because ‘Latinity’ spices things up a little. Whatever the reason, diversity is a word that should make sense to every global company. How can a company be a truly global business without embracing diversity? At the same time, leadership should never be related primarily to nationalities, gender or anything other than the profile of the individual. I know it’s still unusual to find diversity of nationality at global leadership level because culture still plays a big role. But I think that meritocracy must always be the first criteria. It doesn’t matter if you speak English or si usted habla Español ou se fala Português.

I’ve never had the chance to work on musical instrument brands. It would be a dream to work on the likes of Gibson or Fender.

The best piece of advice I was given was “You should try advertising.” My advice to young people: “Educate your senses.”

The worst day of my career was when I left AlmapBBDO, but then the best was the day I started NEOGAMA. So, best is even better when it is born out of the worst.

What do I think is more important in a campaign: artistic merit or success for the brand? Success for the brand. It is the best way to get artistic merit in this profession.

My choice of superpower would be the ability to time travel. If I could travel through time just once and return to the present, I would travel to the future when time travel machines have been invented, so I could bring one back to the present and time travel more than just once.

Advertising awards are good but there was a point when I became more excited about building brands, which is a bigger, more complex challenge. They’re not necessarily opposite, and in fact they shouldn’t be, but they’re not always aligned in the minds of the creatives. So, the spark for me has been in winning creative awards for work that is part of the bigger mission of building a brand. As someone in charge of the agency creative profile I know we have to constantly win awards as this has become the rule that measures creativity in our industry. But awards have also become a big business and we need to be wise pondering the cost of taking part in them.

I have this phrase that I always tell advertising people I work with: “panic is for amateurs”. One can’t afford to fear time constraints or creative blocks. As a person I fear the usual ghosts, but to become unhealthy is at the top of my fear list. 

The closest I’ve come to death was when I jumped from a boat to swim to the beach in Angra dos Reis. The boat wasn’t far out but a strong current got me. I thought: “That’s it, I’m getting tired. No one is going to hear me cry for help.” But then the current changed and I made it to the beach. I spent a long time lying on the sand just thanking God and Neptune.

The best day of my personal life was when my first daughter was born. The worst was when she disappeared inside a teenager.

Am I an extrovert or an introvert? Totally introvert.

My hobbies are playing the guitar, reading and writing. I play lots of PlayStation, drive race cars on track days and listen to a lot of music.

I want to be involved in interesting things. To write the perfect book. To be a good father (it’s always a work in progress). To make VIOLAB, my acoustic guitar project, succeed. To have a window with a view of the sea. To keep driving, even when the driverless car nightmare becomes a reality.

My heroes are Pelé, Ayrton Senna, Neymar, [Brazilian poets] Ferreira Gullar and João Cabral de Melo Neto, Peter Gabriel, [video artist] Bill Viola, Antony Gormley, Winston Churchill, [American writer] Daniel Quinn, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, my lawyer and Neo from The Matrix.

It’s difficult to say what makes me angry. There’s a lot to choose from. One is arriving home, saying “Good Evening” to my two cell-phone zombies and getting no answer. Another is when people disregard deadlines. Ultimately what makes me angry is disrespect of any kind.

I don’t Google myself. Our PR guys keep me updated about this stuff, of course. But unlike some ad men I’m not my advertising persona and I can’t bear to live by other people’s expectations.

Of course I have regrets. Those who say they don’t, have no regrets about lying. My regret this month is that I shouldn’t have rented a car for the family vacation as we didn’t use it a single day.

If I was President of Brazil for a day I would pass a law stating that no president can be re-elected.

My company’s slogan is: “When the world zigs, zag.” We don’t follow, we don’t lead, we walk our own path, we are the black sheep. To zag is not simply going against the flow. It’s about finding your path. It’s about independence, personal and professional. Not for the sake of ‘being different’ but to be faithful to what you are and believe.

If I could change one thing about myself I would be less shy.

I haven’t thought about how I’d like to be remembered. Probably by my family as someone who’s always loved them daily and deeply. What really matters is love and strength.