The Rise Of MullenLowe's ECD Carlos Andre Rodriguez

Carlos Andres Rodriguez has a long-standing history with MullenLowe as an agency, and has an infectious energy when he discusses leading its creative output. 

With the departure of its group chief creative officer Nicky Bullard in February, and the announcement that a new creative leadership team will be moulded as opposed to a direct replacement hired, Rodriguez has stepped into the role of UK executive creative director, which accompanies his pre-existing global client creative director role. 

His career began in his native Colombia with MullenLowe SSP3 where he spent over a decade, alongside short spells in London with DLKW [which was eventually subsumed into MullenLowe UK] and as founding partner of WPP’s David in Bogota. 2022 marked his return to MullenLowe - this time to its London office, where he currently resides. 

During his tenure as a leading creative Rodriguez has made a name for himself, adding awards to his bona fides, including a Titanium win at Cannes, the Black Pencil of the Decade at D&AD, and being named among The World’s Most Innovative and Inspiring Individuals in 2022. 

But creativity, for him, isn’t about winning awards. It’s about making change - and as he begins his next chapter in his history book at MullenLowe, his drive to do so is evident. 

Rodriguez discusses his creative inspirations, what work makes him most proud, and the challenges of creative leadership.

Creative Salon: Tell us about how you ended up in advertising, the steps in your career to where you are now. 

Carlos Andres Rodriguez: I started in MullenLowe SSP3 in Bogota, Colombia - the agency founded by Jose Miguel Sokoloff. He’s really one of the figures that inspired me, that believed in me from a young age. I worked there for 12 years, but in 2015 Jose Miguel became the global CCO of the whole network and needed a replacement in Bogota [for CCO]. 

I was 27 - very young, to be honest. I had the biggest imposter syndrome ever. I was panicked. I remember reading articles in Bloomberg, in Forbes, in The Economist, about how to fill bigger shoes. But before doing that role, Jose Miguel said to me, ‘Carlos, you need a little bit of training’. So I came to work in London for a year in 2014 in what used to be DLKW, and worked there as a senior director. 

The intention was, since I was too young for the CCO role in Bogota, to perfect my English since it's not my native language, work with global clients, grow a little bit of global experience. Then I went back to Columbia in 2015 and became ECD of MullenLowe SSP3 and in 2016 went on to become the CCO. 

Right now SSP3 is the most awarded agency historically by Cannes Lions in Colombia and I always say that is not because of me, but because my main objective was to have the best creatives in the country at that time. And I did it - it was a super strong team. 

CS: What brought you back to London? 

CR: I actually left MullenLowe in 2020. Jose Miguel Sokoloff was very honest and transparent when I told him I was leaving because I felt my cycle was over. He agreed because he didn’t have anything to offer me - no counter offer to make me stay. 

I went on to work for WPP in setting up its agency David in Bogota, Colombia with my business partner at the time. It was great, a completely different challenge because I went from managing around 80 creatives to a startup. I was there for two years and we did some cool stuff. The fact of being small, it's just fuelled by creativity. No bullshit, no processes, no bureaucracy, just creativity in the work, which was amazing. 

But in 2022, Jose Miguel called me and said: ‘remember two years ago I didn't have an offer for you? Now I do. Can you come and become global creative director?’

So I came to London as global creative director of Knorr, [one of the brands in Unilever], and Bayer.

CS: So are you doing both roles now? 

CR: I’m ECD in London and I'm still doing the global creative director role. That was one of the agreements because the relationship with the clients is super strong. So right now the intention is to bring that global spirit to the whole agency, to try and merge the two worlds and try to not separate them. For example, I get a brief, and depending on it, I can decide which agency I can work with. Of course, London will be the first one on the radar.

CS: What work are you most proud of in your career? 

CR: ‘Rivers of Light’ for FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) because working with the guerrillas and the government and the peace process just gives you a different perspective on what you can do in advertising.

It’s more than selling beer or washing powder - to change a country and have the ability to touch people. Seeing the results afterwards is so satisfying and I don't think I'll ever do a campaign like that. 

It first won Gold in out-of-home at Cannes in 2011 and in 2012 we won the Titanium - which I was there to collect the award, as well as a Black Pencil at the D&AD awards.

It's in the history of the country where I was born. When the FARC sat down with the government to sign the peace treaty, one of the conditions was that the advertising agency stopped doing the advertising because it was really working. Nothing compares to that.  

CS: What does creativity and advertising mean to you? 

CR: Creativity is everything for me. Creativity is solving problems. Creativity is a way of expressing what I have on my mind. I'm not only talking about advertising. When I was a kid I used to write songs do drawings - and now I’m in London I’ve reconnected back with art which I’d previously abandoned for busy jobs. 

It's a way to put whatever is on your mind out there, seeing how that impacts people, how people react, how a brand gets more recognition.

CS: What does good creative leadership mean to you and how do creative leaders improve themselves?

CR: For me, good creative leaders need to be really conscious of the skills of each member of the team. What are the good skills and what are the not so good skills? Understand that and play with with the cards that you have there instead of worrying about it. 

I think the biggest challenge now is understanding what motivates each team member. Because we tend to believe it’s the same for everyone but for those in my generation it’s not the same as what drives the new generations now.

CS: Was there any particular inspirational people or a moment that helped shape your pathway of thinking?

CR: I judged Cannes for the first time in 2016 when I was aged 27. I had recently been named as ECD of the agency and filled with imposter syndrome. 

In my first year, we lost three accounts and needed to fire half of the creative department. It was awful. I remember crying every single day thing thinking I'm not worthy. I'm not enough. I wanted this but maybe I'm not that good. 

When I was judging in Cannes I was chatting with the president of the jury, Rob Riley, who is now WPP’s global CCO. I told him I needed advice because I was very worried about the situation in the agency and was full of self doubt. He said: ‘Carlos, when you’re my age you’ll laugh about it’. That was the best advice he gave me because while now I don’t laugh about it, I get exactly what he meant. That really changed my perspective on things, and now I understand that sometimes there's good and bad moments but that's something that you only learn with some experience.

CS: What was it that you wanted to bring to the creative industry when you joined?

CR: Passion. I’m a very passionate guy and that's what I try to bring every day to the office, to my teams, to the people I work with. I love putting things that are in our heads out there to be seen. 

CS: Did you learn anything from establishing David in Bogota that that you take into your work now that you hadn’t considered beforehand? 

CR: Mental health. Before David, at Mullen I had 80 creatives - if someone wasn’t feeling good, it wasn’t that I didn’t care but I didn’t always notice. Because if there’s a group of 10 people and someone is away, we can still do the work. 

When I started David it was a small agency - two creatives, then four creatives. If one of them wasn't feeling good, that’s half the agency. 

I completely needed to switch my mind and start thinking more about mental health and what's going on in people's minds and people's lives. And I know it's not the most sexy topic to talk about but that's definitely one thing that I do think about much more now than than before.

CS: Do you have anything that you turn to when you're seeking a source of creative inspiration away from your work?

CR: Obviously my reconnection with art, but there’s also cooking, listening to music, and also sports. I used to box in Bogota but right now I just go to the gym is also really helpful to clear my mind. 

CS: What excites you about the industry at the moment? 

CR: What excites me also worries me at the same time: AI. Even though I'm very optimistic I think we might need to switch our way of doing things because otherwise jobs might disappear which is very scary. We need to find a way of surviving things. There’s a lot to figure out and a lot of potential - and I'm still very optimistic.

CS: What do you think the industry can do to raise its creative standards?

CR: We need to let the people with passion do the work. I think we lost the love for this business and care too much about numbers. I would say that would elevate the creative standards for sure: passionate people. 

CS: If you didn't work in advertising, what do you think you would do? 

CR: I would be an artist. I do arts and painting in mixed media. I'm very amateur - it's more a hobby than a professional thing. It’s in a very early stage but I would probably do that. Or I would love to coach leaders - I enjoy teaching people how to lead.