CEO and CCO of BETC Havas one of the Brazilian judges at this year’s D&AD
The announcement of the winners with a Pencil on May 22nd at D&AD in London is highly anticipated by the global advertising industry, which considers the award created with a focus on craftsmanship and refinement of art direction as the most difficult and rigorous. In these 62 years, it has also started to give guidance on what will be competitive at Cannes Lions. The Brazilian representative in the Art Direction area is the CEO and CCO of BETC Havas, Erh Ray.
He gave an interview for the propcast of propmarkand emphasizes that this festival reflects what is really worth advertising: ideas aligned with creativity and care in finishing.
I really agree that D&AD has a more demanding standard and an above-average importance for professionals who work in agencies. Being on this jury is a privilege and brings great responsibility in view of the expectations created. My criteria, however, is to look at this set that involves the invisible details that require extra attention from art directors. I’ve always maintained this focus and I’m not going to move away from it, says Ray, who recalls how he built this discipline that helped him balance his latent intuition for design with the observation of the agency environment to conduct processes that can generate good advertisements, films eye-catching, OOH pieces, packaging and even at the speed required by digital platforms. Crafting is possible in any situation, even when the deadline is tight, he says.
This personal rigor began in his youth. Born in Taiwan, he migrated with his family to Porto Alegre, where he was raised. Being an immigrant, in his words, is a double challenge. But it also gave him a double dose of courage to materialize his dreams. He started working with his parents in restaurants. But he defied the wishes of countries who wanted him to study engineering. Instinct led him to intern at one of the largest Brazilian agencies, Standard Ogilvy & Mather, in its unit in the gacha capital. He cleaned the art directors’ rulers and kept the environment clean, until he started helping with the editing.
I learned a lot about finishing and finishing with these people. Everything was done by hand, but the details made the difference, recalls Ray who, when he left Porto Alegre, was already creative director at Upper. He accepted an invitation from DM9, from Nizan Guanaes, where he arrived as an assistant in the art department. He was not bothered by this status. He was there to learn, he summarizes.
But he soon earned his place at the agency and contributed to the construction of one of the most creative and completely 360 cases in Brazilian advertising. Mamferos, created in partnership with Nizan, had a film, advertisements and more than 15 million plush toys sold through promotional action.
It was 1996, two years after arriving from the South.
I had to research a lot. At that time, the agency financed trips. I went to see the work of American photographer Tom Arma. In fact, I got to know him through books, which were my source of reference, and also magazines. I kept what I saw in my mind and when the possibility of creating for Parmalat arose, I resorted to that arsenal. Nizan gave the title and everything went well. What a craft! Tom was the photographer, notes Ray, who also created Ita’s digital hi, used to this day and also led the Her she campaign, for Hersheys. Breastfeeding was already in action in mammals. Advertising needs to have a purpose, he concludes.
