As president of ASCAP, in 2007 I had the honor of announcing the Agency of the Year at the Horseshoe Salon. In that Volcano we decided that we would do so, and when it was my turn to do so, it was for Garnier BBDO.
In December 2006 I had won jotabeqú / Grey in a close battle with the agency that came 12 months later to win.(Here the winners of 2006, and here my comments and contributions to that Volcano) In the excitement of the moment, from the stage I could see how all Garnier came in marabunda to celebrate that great moment. It was my turn to present the statuette to its then General Creative Director, Mauricio Garnier, now General Manager. I did not miss the hug and the sincere congratulations, followed by the steps that took me back to leave all the space for their celebration, photographs and emotion. Garnier BBDO had won the 2007 Agency of the Year Volcano over its great historical rival (here are the 2007 winners) and they had every reason to celebrate(see what I wrote in those days). However, I take this paragraph from that publication to add it in this context:
So, given that I had the privilege of announcing the agency of the year, I was surprised and delighted that the agency that scored the highest was Garnier BBDO. I was happy because last year, the team led by Mauricio Garnier had worked their butts off to achieve it and even so, they fell short against Jotabeqú, winner in 2006. I was also extremely happy because that team includes two very talented and multi-awarded creatives born in Tribu, Pablo Cháves and Javier Mora, and for whom we continue to applaud and celebrate their triumphs. Likewise, in the Garnier BBDO team we are happy to see people very dear to us, such as Wady Calvo and Andrés Artavia, just to name a few of our former colleagues, as well as many friends of this guild of committed people.
We at Tribu DDB, as we used to do, were going for a worthy role. Since we had neither the volume nor the creative leadership, we had no aspirations for agency of the year. Like many other agencies, we came away happy with a few Volcanoes and a placement in the top 3 to 5 most creative agencies. However, because of the hunger and fight we’ve always put up, we never settled or assumed we had to be there forever.(Next year) However, I’m clear. It’s better to go from the bottom to the top than from the top to the bottom.
In this process of search, expansion and growth, we resumed conversations precisely with Javier Mora and Pablo Cháves, duo of Creative Directors of Garnier BBDO at that time. Both had started at Consumer (today Tribu) as interns, and from there they had grown to become key managers of Garnier’s success in that Volcano. I had previously tried to bring them back to Tribu, without success. We persevered and it wasn’t until Diego Garcia, General Manager of Tribu DDB, intervened that we finally managed to hire them. With their arrival in June 2008, the duo brought Tribu’s long transformation into a creative agency to a successful conclusion. Inspired by Saatchi in those years, I had the pleasure of seeing them enter our company through the door of Del Campo Nazca Saatchi Saatchi,(See note), as we sent them their first month to Argentina and took off from there.
The story then sums up easily. In 2008 we arrived at the Volcano and as Tribu DDB we won the first of three consecutive Volcanoes for Agency of the Year, to the surprise of many, including all of us.(Volcano without favorites) In that Volcano jotabeqú and Garnier BBDO also participated actively. In a dream night, Tribu DDB beat the traditional winning agencies of the country and we started a new era in the national advertising scene, which deserves a separate note.
The following year, Garnier BBDO withdrew from the Volcano.
