Writing a retrospective of the last two years is not an easy task. In addition to being the period in which I was in charge of the presidency of IAB Brasil, an association that represents the digital advertising market in the country, with the honor of being re-elected, the 24 months I observe in the rearview mirror seem to me governed by a certain rhythm. The rhythm of the miss.
Hostages of a pandemic of unprecedented proportions in our lives, the team that accompanied me in my administration needed to reflect and realign many, many times. Plans that we had outlined for the IAB Brazil underwent revisions to adapt to the new times. We bring together the best minds to understand our responsibilities in the face of the new reality. We did what we could to reduce the risk, always working remotely, and restarted important planning, which was rooted in the foundations of the IAB’s mission, but which opened up to rescue what was most important in such a critical moment.
Representativeness was the starting point. We wanted diversity to go beyond our words. We took several actions to have a greater female presence among the association’s leaders. We stopped to think about what it would be like in the long term and this brought the IAB to today’s numbers, much more diverse than two years ago, with more than 60% of the board made up of women. We became partners with UN Women and created the D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) committee, which helped us to improve our overall representation, including the LGBTQIA+ community, we started offering our events translated into pounds, with lots of looks and places to speak. different so that we can genuinely participate in a diverse society.
Reference in the market, leading by example. We wanted the IAB to be proud. We wanted a management that made real our values such as impartiality, responsible governance, transparency. We are dedicated to giving even more visibility to decision-making processes and the construction of positions in a participatory way, the IAB is here for everyone and this can be experienced and felt by employees, associates, directors, counselors and whoever wants to get there!
We recreate our future together. If we truly believe in this evolution, we need to be active. And that’s how we stand: we build our voice, we participate in meetings with leaders, we take a stand against misperceptions about how advertising works, we hold meetings with journalists, we follow bills and we build fundamental technical bases for our government relations. It is not about winning a battle for the IAB, but about building a future for advertising in Brazil, and this requires sharing the same objective, which is the union for an even stronger, healthier and more responsible market.
Restarting my plan for the presidency of IAB Brazil was a setback that made me review what was truly essential for us to do. To some extent, I found myself reusing knowledge that I have developed in my more than 25 years of digital career, an area that makes us deal with frequent revolutions, requiring constant flexibility and adaptability.
Rebooting and resuming was not easy. Still, it was an experience that I will make a point of remembering. Even without being able to see our associates and partners eye to eye, I realized that it was possible to rebuild and revive the team and, despite the falls, our culture made us put everyone on the boat again. We assumed that change was a challenge, we shared the responsibilities and realized that each one of us was also part of the change. When we feel we are deviating from our course, we use as many mistakes to resolve doubts, reorganize attitudes and repair any failures.
I recognize that there is still a lot to be done, a work that will undoubtedly continue to be carried out by the next leaders of IAB Brasil. But if I can leave advice for our associates at the end of my presidency, I would leave only one: get into the rhythm of the err.
Reflect, realign, rally, start over, resist… and get it wrong. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s a great way to learn.
Salute todxs and most cherished memories in 2022!
