We spoke with Kimbo Kevin Brenes, Creative Director & Creative Excellence Manager at McCann San José, about his journey as a young creative, his growth with the agency and how after more than 7 years, he continues working with the attitude and passion of an intern on his first day.
Can you tell us about your current role and responsibilities?
After 7 years of career, I am currently a Creative Director of the largest bank in Central America and one of the most important accounts of the agency: Banco Nacional de Costa Rica. I am in charge of leading the creative and design team of the account, with which we seek to solve the client's needs through a good strategy and fresh creativity, that breaks the advertising landscape caused by the constant bombardment of content that we currently receive on all platforms and innovation.
What drew you to work at this agency and what opportunities does it provide to foster your professional growth?
McCann was my first agency and therefore, the place in which I began my professional career as a creative. My initial motive was to be in an agency that would give me the opportunity to make a good creative portfolio, where I could learn and that would open doors to the world in many aspects such as connections, updating and the possibility of moving within the network to different countries in order to work with larger markets and learn about new cultures that would enrich my creative thinking.
Also, in the agency there were 2 creative directors who were doing very good, fresh and fun campaigns, with whom I always wanted to work and from whom I knew I could learn: Brian Maynard Ex-CCO of McCann and current CCO Huelander Escalante.
On the other hand, McCann is a network that participates in creative festivals and this serves as a platform to expose the work, in addition of being a tool that measures the level of creativity developed. This helps us to constantly improve.
Within the agency we all have the same opportunities to grow, to express our opinions and to present ideas, among other things. No matter who you are, the position you have or the department where you work, you have the same opportunity to make it happen as long as you want it.
Something that I value a lot about McCann is that the network is really connected, all countries collaborate to improve ideas, to win accounts and raise the less strong areas of each agency. They also constantly train us to keep up to date and invite us to continue learning through the network's own platforms.
Joining such a massive industry can be overwhelming, how do you stay informed and ahead of the curve?
The most important thing is to never feel that we already know everything, the world goes at a thousand kilometers per hour and evolves every second. I love to see advertising festivals of different regions, not only global ones, because I see how each one is marked by the very different way in which the culture solves problems. I also follow different pages of innovation, technology, art, news and of course advertising.
What areas in the industry do you believe could use an overhaul?
I think that in the most important festivals of the world many repeated ideas are still rewarded. This shows that nobody took the time to search or filter. Today we live in a globalized and connected world where there is so much information at our fingertips. Just by searching Google you see 5 or 6 equal campaigns, I don't know if they win by network, by brand or by laziness to search, but it would be great for the industry to review that, because it requires us to think more and try to explore what is still not been said. I do not know if one day I will run a campaign like one that was done in another part of the world, but at least I will take the time to investigate and avoid it.
Something positive is that agencies and brands are awakening a much more inclusive and diverse consciousness, which brings the world closer together and generates more opportunities for everyone.
Where do you hope this role will take you down the line?
My goal is to become a first-world creative, one who makes it to the top 100 with clever, fresh and simple work. I want to move around the agencies of the world and continue learning more every day. I am very excited about the uncertainty of the future and I will definitely continue to work with the attitude and passion of a intern on his/hers first day of work.