I think we came to have the longest name among advertising agencies in the world: Consumer Exceptional Nazca Saatchi Saatchi. Those were important years in the construction of the DDB Tribe of today, because everything has its history and what has been done is part of the system.
Looking back to 2003, I found this collage that we used a lot of times for new business presentations. Although we had already come a long way, today it feels like prehistory. The Exceptional comes from the agency we bought from the Aizenman Group, and the Nazca Saatchi Saatchi from the international affiliation we had for 10 years.
Consumer was born in 1988 from the first name we used: Consultores en Mercadeo y Publicidad Araya y Asociados, S.A. The commercial abbreviation we used then was born from “marketing consultants”. Don’t criticize me, those were different times, and in those years we did what we could, including the name. The first months we worked from a room in my parents’ house in Bº Dent in San Pedro, together with my brother Carlos.
The beginning took place in the middle of two opportunities. The first one was offered by Armando Vargas Araya, who asked me to help him with Rolando Araya’s primary campaign, which, by the way, we lost. The campaign manager was Johnny Araya, with whom I have maintained a friendship since then. The second and most relevant came from Laboratorios Cofala and its General Manager at that time, Rafael Calderón Mugica, who hired me as a marketing consultant.
As the months went by, I heard from Cofala that their account was too small for their agency. Therefore, I set him on fire and we tried to make merits to win it. The truth is that our first account came from Garnier, because after a while of working as a consultant, they asked me: “could you handle the account for us?”, to which I did not shout for a second and answered with an emphatic: “of course I could! Thus came the opportunity to manage the Cofala account, and with it, Cofal, Cofalito, Cofal Fuerte and Cofal Mentol.
Thus, Consumer Publicidad, S.A. was born. We were an agency recognized by the then National Media Chamber, as of January 31, 89. It was the 54th agency of the moment, since there was no other with fewer people (3) and less turnover. It is more than two decades of history, which yesterday we were able to relive in an exciting exercise of Constellations.
If today we are enjoying some success, it is not by chance. It is many years of passionate work and the dedication of many spectacular people. From those early days, thanks to God for everything and Carlos Oller, Marjorie Gonzalez, Eduaro Moya and Edgardo Lamparero. Without them it would have been impossible to get started, just as it would not have been possible without the support of everyone in my family at home.
It is good to look back. It is even better to acknowledge and thank them. Here is a summary of the journey that we still have to polish.
Today we are ready to continue. Future, here we come for you.
