São Paulo, May 4th, 2021

Wunderman Thompson is a creative, data and technology agency built to inspire growth for ambitious brands.

With offices around the world, the agency produces breakthrough creativity that helps its clients’ businesses succeed.

Wunderman Thompson describes itself as “part agency, part consultancy and part technology company.”

Pedro Reiss is the CEO of Wunderman Thompson in Brazil. In an interview with TIA, he described his professional path and his current role as CEO.

He also highlighted the challenges of attracting and retaining talent and explained the changes that the coronavirus pandemic brought to the agency world.

To kick things off please can you describe your neighborhood and what makes it home?

I lived in Pinheiros, São Paulo for most of my life. I love it here. There is a bit of everything… bars, restaurants, parks and a lot of good friends around.

There are some busy areas in the neighborhood but usually, it is a piece of tranquility inside the craziness of São Paulo. Casually meeting friends in the street is what makes it home.

What’s one must-do experience in Sao Paulo in your opinion?

Eating! Great food if you know where to go.

Back in 2019, you became the CEO of Wunderman Thompson Brazil. Tell us about your career path that led you to that moment.

Most of that career path happened by chance. In 1999 I joined a .com startup called Fulano.com as an intern. Fulano was an entertainment website pioneering the commercial internet in Brazil. The site eventually became a big local hit and we experienced the roller-coaster of .com bubble.

When the bubble burst our business disappeared and we pivoted to a digital studio, which we called F.biz (the business division of Fulano.com). That studio evolved to a digital agency that eventually became one of the tops in the country; until 2011 when we sold F.biz to WPP. At that time F.biz reported into WPP Digital which was led by Mark Read. I spent almost 20 years at F.biz, building my experience in many different areas from the internship until becoming co-CEO in 2013.

In 2017 Mark Read was leading Wunderman and invited me to move from F.biz and run the Brazilian offices. Two years later we merged Wunderman and JWT and here I am!

Could you explain to us briefly what’s your role as CEO?

Getting the best team together and aligning everyone behind a single vision for the future. Then it is all about supporting them in finding the way from where are now to where we all want to be, being available to anyone who needs on and making the journey as enjoyable as possible.

How would you describe the creative culture of Wunderman Thompson?

Very open. Creativity is not only about coming up with great ideas and crafting them beautifully, or about using all the new tech, resources or capabilities available in innovative ways; It is also about finding new angles to approach things, in everything that we do.

At WT creativity is at the core of our culture and I’m super lucky to have Keka Morelle, our CCO, constantly pushing us all to think differently!

Attracting and retaining talent is one of the constant pursuits that every great agency faces. What is your approach to motivating and developing talent and how can leadership create and then cultivate an inclusive workplace?

Great talent can work wherever they want… so our job is to make WT the most attractive workplace to the top talent. We believe that this will come from a good balance of “I want to spend my time at WT” and “I see myself growing at WT”. So, I want our people to feel good as part of the agency we are not but also see their future and growth with WT.

As a leader, I believe I can have an influence on that by being open and available to everyone, help the team focus on the positive of things and being honest and transparent about the good, the bad and the ugly. Those are the behaviors I believe will shape this environment so that’s what I expect from everyone and definitely the example I must give.

Can you outline the three most crucial skills you need to succeed at Wunderman Thompson Brazil?

Creative bravery, learning mindset and togetherness.

Tell us about a recent project you’ve worked on that you’re proud of, what particularly brought out the best in you?

I’m super proud of the work we do for our clients. We have some exceptional work done recently to brands like Avon, Coca-Cola, Dell, Google and Netflix… but what I’m most proud of is how we merged Wunderman and JWT, during the pandemic, and created a unified new agency under very extreme conditions.

I felt the responsibility to respect and honor the legacy of these two great companies and realized the best way to do that was by creating a great Wunderman Thompson for the future, bringing together the best of both and much more.

2020 was our first year and it was hard… but looking back I’m proud of every step we took into building the agency we are today!

COVID-19 is a first-of-its-kind disruption, one that leaves no community, government or business untouched. What do you think are the biggest challenges faced by the Brazilian creative industry today?

Focusing specifically on the creative industry, and no other impacts of COVID-19, I’d say that the pandemic gave us an important push towards the essential.

Brands and agencies were forced to reconnect with people, be more focused on what was going on and find a way of being relevant in this context. Nothing different from what should have always been but, as an industry, we needed that push.

Brazil is dealing terribly with the pandemic and our country will suffer longer than most; but our challenge – similar to most countries I believe – is finding a new path where relevance and fun can meet again.

How has Covid-19 affected the pitching process?

Remote pitching is terrible. Pitching is about the energy in the room and the connection between the people. We are still learning how to bring some of that to remote pitches but, so far, very unsuccessfully. We will keep trying!

How do you plan to remain relevant with the changing nature of consumers?

This is the always-on challenge of our industry; behavior changes all the time and that’s the fun of what we do! In the past we’ve used research to keep up, today we added a lot of data to the mix and some new (more open and collaborative) ways of working.

We get our team to co-create with clients and specialists, we bring research, journey mapping and data to support; and we go live prepared to test, learn and adapt as we go. We keep learning and evolving every day and that’s our plan.

What impact do you believe machine learning and big data will have on the world of creativity?

Data, AI, platforms… those are all fantastic tools to get things done. Improbable insights can spark new ideas, personalization at scale creates endless possibilities, always-on optimization driving informed decisions in real-time. But all that tech will eventually be available to everyone so finding new and creative ways to inspire people is more important than ever (as our job is to differentiate).

I love this space of bringing creativity and technology together and I’m sure the technology will keep pushing the boundaries so our creativity can achieve even more!

What activities do you enjoy in your free time?

Running in the streets of São Paulo early in the morning.
Being on a Fortnite squad with my 3 kids (and wishing we were a jazz quartet instead).
Kiteboarding with my wife in the northeast of Brazil whenever we have the chance.

Who has been your biggest source of support and strength?

The people at Wunderman Thompson. Fostering an environment where all that amazing talent can do the best work of their lives and be happy is my main drive.

Can you name a fun-fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

I was a techno DJ in the early days of the electronic music scene in São Paulo. People that know me now have a hard time believing that!

Thanks Pedro!

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