An outsider’s advantage: MullenLowe on nurturing original perspectives

Fitting in is often rewarded, whilst standing out feels like a risk. But for MullenLowe’s global creative director, Carlos Andrés Rodríguez, embracing the outsider perspective isn’t just a survival strategy but the key to making work that matters.

With a career built on challenging creative conventions, Carlos’ refreshing, unfiltered approach to branding embraces the uniqueness of his point of view within the creative scene – but he’s the first to admit that’s caused some headaches in the past. “I have always been the one that addresses the elephants in the room,” Carlos says, “but in an industry where so much is about image, politics and smoke and mirrors, that’s not always the smartest move.” On the flip side, many times others have seen this as ‘authenticity’,” he adds; “being an outsider gives you an advantage because it means you are different.” He stresses the importance of understanding the expectations around you whilst not diluting your originality. “Learn, observe and listen as much as possible,” Carlos says, “this will expand your view of the world.”

Carlos’ journey to MullenLowe was one a long time in the making, having started his career in Bogota, Colombia, in 2009. Back then, he had one goal in mind: to work in either NYC or London. “I started as a copywriter trainee but deep inside I knew I wanted to be an art director,” a role switch that he rallied for and achieved in 2010. Soon after, Carlos became group creative director in 2012, working in London for a year before moving back to Bogota as CCO in 2015. “During the pandemic I decided to leave the agency and founded the agency David in Bogota with my former partner,” Carlos recalls, “two years later, MullenLowe called me back again, this time to move to London permanently to lead global creative,” and the rest is history. 

With this permanent shift, however, came adjustments. “Coming from such a small country like Colombia, we’re used to working and performing in chaotic ways,” he explains, favouring a “just do then ask” culture of loose (or no) processes. “Working in London and having not only the UK but the whole world on my radar,” Carlos continues, “I was forced to understand that’s not how the rest of the world operates,” finding the biggest challenge to be mastering his own patience. “There are processes, structures and more organised ways to achieve the same things,” he adds, “and it has been my responsibility to adapt without sacrificing my work ethic and my entrepreneurial spirit.”

It’s perhaps in those areas of discomfort or difference that helps forge such a distinctive creative approach, as Carlos suggests, whereby one’s values and principles become stronger and more defined. “On the other hand, things that you considered as personal traits just fade away sometimes without even noticing it,” he says. “This is an ever-evolving industry, so the best you can do as a creative is try to identify what stays permanent” and, ultimately, keep that close. “That’s the unique spark you can add to the work,” Carlos continues, “create, fail, win, learn, unlearn, repeat: what stays after this process is ‘the real you’.”

This outsider’s advantage can be put to remarkable use both in contemporary commercial brands – the likes of Knorr or Persil – and the public sector, for example, Carlos’ 2012 Rivers of Light advertisement campaign for the Colombian government, which sought to demobilise guerrilla fighters out in the jungle. “We knew that Christmas was the most vulnerable moment of the year for them,” Carlos says, “and one of the guerrilla fighters told us that to be undetected they didn’t travel on traditional roads, but on rivers.” Knowing this, Carlos and his team sent personalised messages and gifts from some of the fighters’ families down the river in floating Christmas ornaments. “It was a tremendous success with a guerrillero demobilising every six hours during the next month,” he says, becoming so renowned they held a Ted Talk, won a D&AD Black Pencil, a Titanium in Cannes, and a Netflix special. “The most important success for us, was when the guerrilla fighters sat down to negotiate a Peace Treaty with the government,” Carlos ends, “and said one of their conditions to the treaty was that the agency (us) would stop advertising, because it was working,” adding, “a few years later, the Treaty was signed.”