Ricardo Figueira talks about his innovation boutique, Figtree, focused on creativity and strategy, with a business transformation vision
He was a partner at AgenciaClick (one of the first and most successful digital agencies in Brazil), worked for almost a decade in the London market at agencies such as Isobar, Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi, and five years ago he founded his innovation company, Figtree , based on what was lacking in the communication groups. Considered a creative with a strategic vein, Ricardo Figueira says that he initially presented Figtree to the market as an innovation agency, but soon after repositioned it as a creativity, strategy and innovation company, with a business transformation vision, which creates new possibilities from scratch. to the fruits for the brands.
In the beginning, we believed in opening an innovation agency, but at that time the pen of innovation was not in the hand of marketing in many companies. Generally, the CMO only has one side of the innovation pen, which is the brand. Business unit, technology, services and products are on the other side of the pen.
Strategically, we took the agency out of the name, emphasizes Figueira, founder partner and CCO of Figtree, which has Liliana Arand as a partner and co-founder.
According to Figueira, not all solutions offered by Figtree are necessarily linked to communication, but involve technology. The solutions we develop almost always involve technology. Even though we don’t have a technology department or programmers.
We develop everything from the point of view that comes from the strategic purpose and goes to the interface. We don’t have a technology department so as not to be held hostage to a business model, which is based on a specific technology, he explains.
One of Figtree’s successful cases is the development of BIA, Bradesco’s artificial intelligence. Bradesco’s BIA, for example, was born out of innovation and digital channels. We created a briefing for the agency. It was the other side of the chair. We worked creating the product, designing the service, strategically, from the inside out. This was the option we ended up making because it made it possible to create a type of service that I had always dreamed of in the market. And I want to continue as a boutique, he points out.
According to him, because of the involvement in the brands’ strategic projects, which are often confidential, the company does not appear much. When I decided to open Figtree, there was no shortage of invitations to partner with other companies, but I preferred to be a small boutique, with as few people as possible, so that we could master the strategy and actions of all our clients. There are few clients that we work with, very focused on strategy and how creativity generates innovation. Because it turns out that innovation is born out of creativity, how can you create something that doesn’t exist if you can’t imagine it? Now I innovate the way of doing, the way of developing, he says.
Read the full story in the June 12 issue of PROPMARK
