Cesar Agost Carreño de Founders en Webinar
Checha Agost Carreño, Founder and CCO of Founders, took part in a webinar on Monday, April 27, organized by the Brother School for Creatives, with the Te Buscan Unos Señores de Ghana presentation that discussed the initiatives that brands and people have adopted to face the ongoing pandemic with optimism and resilience. A prime example was the case of someone opening an agency and getting caught by Covid-19 right in the middle. “Today, the biggest fear we humans have is of dying, not just of getting infected,” he said. “We’re seeing many people around the world die, many of them close to us. In Ghana they invented the coffin dance that went viral, because of the way they celebrate death: you have to laugh to beat death. They were creative. Which shows why human beings and brands must either be creative or we die.” Agost Carreño said the most important thing is to realize that governments can lock up people in their houses, but they cannot lock up ideas or creativity: “Today it is honesty, solidarity, music and art that give people hope. We need to be strong in that sense and say, ‘You know what, coronavirus? You´re not gonna win.’” He added that Founders was founded to convey a sense of freedom and that ideas are at the heart of what the agency does. Being agile and light “is key in a situation like the one we’re going through. We are looking for ways to update the business as we knew it. Today, we have to be brand advisors and go where the projects lead us. In six months we will have four offices in different countries.” He concluded that after this crisis, another agency model will be in place. “Networks are firing people, but this started before the coronavirus, because agencies became financial institutions. They thought that what we do is like a bank and that was a huge mistake. But I know we will come out of this crisis stronger than ever because we are creative.”