São Paulo, Brazil. Cássio Guiot. Digital Creative Director in Rái.
Can creativity be learned, or is it something innate?
Creativity improves over time. Daily practice and years of experience will give you the ability to be more creative. Over the years, our creativity becomes lighter, resolute and strategic. It’s a continual mutation for simplicity.
When it comes to conceiving ideas, what creative exercise has yielded the best results for your agency?
I don’t believe in miraculous processes to find good ideas. Creating equations that provides results that will never be the same makes it possible to find more interesting outputs. A dense brainstorm and a lot of research always gives better ideas. Thinking is the only solution.
What are the key elements for creative leadership?
Focus, discretion and flexibility.
1st. As the leader of a creative department, you more than anyone need to convey security and give direction to the team.
2nd. Criterion is very important. Without the criteria, in addition to creatively wearing out your team, you can waste good ideas and create a lazy and short-sighted culture.
3rd. Flexibility. Listening to people and letting them shine is most important. A Creative Director works for the team, never for himself.
Should clients be part of the creative process?
The client’s business is our philosopher’s stone. At Rái, planning starts a work of perception with the client and the brand’s audience, where we map all the necessary insights. From there, we started to think about how to solve problems creatively. In short, the client is the trigger for everything to happen.
In your experience, how do you create the ideal brief?
The best possible briefing is the challenges facing the client’s business. This strategically placed on paper and focused on what we can deliver in project phases, makes it much easier to envolve all the areas.
During the last WINA festival, your agency won 3 global awards in categories as diverse as Design, Content and PR. As a multi-faceted agency, how did you become protagonists in such diverse categories?
The Rái group has always had a diverse DNA. There are 9 companies working together and in parallel with many clients. This gives us the possibility to reach multiple segments at the same time.
Your agency, along with Cheil Brazil, was one of the most outstanding Portuguese-speaking agencies in the region during the past WINA Festival. How does your agency stay current in a market as competitive as that of Brazil?
By bringing natural talents and relying on truths in our work, we make the agency be creative all the time. We look for creativity in all departments and processes, not just the role of the creative team. We are a thinking agency. That’s the most important.