Latin American Creatives Join The Envy Chain

We’ve all suffered the green-eyed sensation of envy in our time – be it seeing an old school-pal becoming ridiculously successful, watching a favoured sibling reap the rewards of a generous Christmas haul or coveting the burrito ordered by the guy behind you in Chipotle. However, in the creative space it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that your days will be spent admiring (and secretly resenting) the unbelievable talent of peers and collaborators. It’s with this in mind that a team of talented Latin American journalists, supported by Blue Bus, have created Envy Chain – a way of channelling that deep-residing jealousy into something wonderful.

The concept of Envy Chain is deceptively simple - each week a creative is chosen and has to choose one piece of advertising work that makes them feel envious. The creative then gives reason for their choice and nominates a fellow creative to submit the next link in the chain. What’s more, in December 2016, Envy Chain will disclose its first Envy Ranking composed by agencies, production companies, ideas and the most envied market professionals.

We were tantalised by the concept, especially in its ability to broadcast the incredible creativity of the Latin American advertising market to a global audience, so sat down with Daniel Oiticica (one of the journalists behind the idea) to chat about the power of the Chain.

Where did the idea of the Envy Chain come from? What was the spark?

With my colleagues, we’ve interviewed a lot of creatives and marketers. When we asked the question: What should a work or idea needs to have to caught your attention? They always answered: It has to make me feel envious. All the juries and Jury Presidents from all the creative festivals of the world choose the winners with the same standard: they must feel envious of it. But not envy in a bad way. We’re talking about the good envy. The envy that challenges you to make better work. The envy that encourages you to take risks. That is the kind of envy that we’re talking about.

What sort of work will you be looking at?

The thing is that we don’t choose the work. The work is entirely selected by the creatives. Every week, a creative is chosen and has to choose an idea that makes him feel envious. That is, admiration, emotion, charm and especially motivation to continue creating more and better ideas. In December 2016, Envy Chain will disclose its first Envy Ranking composed by agencies, production companies, ideas and the most envied market professionals. Up to now, we’ve launched four chapters, with creatives from Argentina and Brazil, who have chosen ideas from Argentina, Brazil and England. However, our project is focused on the Latin American creativity. The idea from England, which is “Sorry, I Spent It On Myself” by adam&eveDDB was a kind of invitation.

How do you select the creatives?

We don’t select the creatives! They select each other. For example, we started the Envy Chain with Fernando Campos (President at Clube de Criação) because he is a very important creative from Brazil and Latin America. He selected NFScan by the brazilian agency LDC as a campaign that makes him feel envious. “A brilliant idea, even in its simplicity”, said Campos about the campaign. Then it was LDC´s turn to continue the creative stream. The next chapter was started by one of LDC´s Creative Directors, Raphael Franzini. He chose the next link of the creative chain: Spread the TEDX Buenos Aires (Taxis), created by Ogilvy Argentina and produced by Rebolucion. So the third chapter was starred by Nicolàs Nubile, who is Director at Rebolucion.

What’s the process each week? 

We’ve accumulated a lot of chapters, so each week we release one chapter at a time on our YouTube Channel. After that, we send the press release to the press and start sharing the content of the last chapter on our social network accounts: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To generate each chapter, we need to wait until the creative selects an idea that makes him feel envious. Once we know that, we look for the agency or the production company that has been part of the creative process. We ask them to send us a video talking about a work that they envy. When we get the video, we mix it with the case/work/idea that the creative mentions in his speech. We check if the whole data is correct and we upload it to our YouTube channel. 

Do you think that endeavours like this are important for giving Latin American creativity a worldwide audience?

Thanks to the quality, strength and power of its ideas, Latín America is well known in the whole world. If you see the credits of every awarded work, you’ll realize that there is always a Latino involved. If you see the staff of the top 10 companies around the world you’ll find a Latino there. So our objective is to continue showing the best Latin American ideas. The best work that this region has done over the years. We want the world to remember the best ideas that have developed in this region. We know that is important to give a new place for Latin American creativity to show all its power. But we also need places and websites like Source Creative, because we want the whole world to interact with the best Latin American ideas, and not only the Latin Media. 

How do you feel that Latin American creatives differ from their counterparts in different countries?

Latin American creatives can make an idea from nothing. They can create a brilliant idea with no budget at all. Also they understand very well the folk culture of each country. They know what the people really want. They know how to talk to people, how to deliver a message. I’ve never seen a sense of humor as good and powerfull as the Latin American. However, I think that they’re still weak in digital and mobile. Of course we have Brazil, which is so strong in those two platforms, but the rest is still trying to follow the path of countries like USA, England or China. Latin America has the ideas, but USA, Europe and Asia have the budget and the technology. 

What do you hope that followers will get out of the Envy Chain?

I think that they’ll enjoy the game of not knowing which will be the creative that will appear in the next chapter. They will see the best ideas from our region and the best creatives. We’ll always surprise them. Every five chapters we’ll invite a creative from Europe or North America to participate in Envy Chain. We want a conversation between Latin America and the rest of the world. We don’t want to limit our project to only Latin American ideas, so sometimes we’ll include campaigns from the rest of the world. Our idea is to promote Latin American creativity and to let people know that sometimes a “bad” feeling can move you to create good things. Some people see envy as a bad feeling, but we think that envy is the best way to challenge you to create bigger and better ideas.

What makes you envious?

Some great ideas like Airbnb, Spotify and Uber. They took a common need and turned it into a business. Those projects makes me think that the only thing you need to be great is a good idea. An idea that understands the needs of the people and the market. An idea that meets the needs of the present and the future. Sometimes I think that you need money to develop a project. But that is not true. If you look at Airbnb story, you’ll know that the last thing that you need is money. Ideas are everything.

What can we expect to see from the Envy Chain in the future?

This week people will see a creative that is not from Latin America. He is the ECD at a great agency that´ve won a lot of awards at Cannes. Additionally, we´ll upload the summary of the best Envy Chain moments for all those who haven’t seen the last chapters. Our desire is to bring the best creative from each agency. We want to show the big brains behind each idea, but also the young creatives that have participated in the creative process. Through our social platforms, we’ll inspire people everyday to continue creating. In the distant future we’re planning to develop more “chains”, but you’ll have to wait until we release them.

How can people get involved?

People can subscribe to our YouTube channel called 'Envy Chain'. Also they can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Beyond the video platform, we publish an article every week on the Brazilian website Blue Bus, and we’re open to new media and web sites to host our weekly chapters and press releases.   

We'll be compiling the Envy Chain content on the Source Creative news pages over the next few months, so keep your eyes peeled!