MIAMI – Just five months after leaving DAVID of Miami, Anselmo Ramos and partner Gaston Bigio have announced the next step in their creative journey. The two have opened Gut, an independent creative agency that will have offices in Miami, Florida and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Award-winning creative Ramos was previously Chief Creative Officer for Ogilvy & Mather Brazil while Bigio was Regional Creative Director for Ogilvy LatAm. They co-founded DAVID the Agency just three years ago and it was a lucrative company under the WPP network that won several awards globally.
The high point of Ramos and Bigio’s run at DAVID might be winning the Cannes Lions Print Grand Prix for Burger King with ‘Burning Stores,’ then winning the Cannes Lions Direct Grand Prix for a completely different campaign for Burger King in the form of ‘Google Home of the Whopper’ all just last year. The agency also won AdAge’s Innovator of the Year award for 2017.
Yet Gut co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Ramos shared just this past March at Ad Summit Pilipinas 2018 in Subic that this is the culmination of his newest dream. After growing up and wanting to win a Grand Prix at Cannes, then seeing that become a reality, he noted that his new dream is to win Independent Agency of the Year at Cannes with his then-unnamed endeavor. Enter, Gut.
“Since college, I’ve always wanted to have my agency,” Anselmo shared with adobo at Ad Summit Pilipinas 2018. “So it’s been my dream since I started in the business. DAVID was the closest that I got to my dream because I was one of the founders, and I was a partner. I learned a lot at WPP and Ogilvy and all that, so it gets to a point where I just feel that I’m ready. I’m ready for a challenge. I’m ready to be without a salary for one year and I’m ready to take on new clients, and just ready to be accountable for everything. Everything’s going to be my fault. If it’s working, it’s my fault. If it’s not working, blame on me. I’m super happy. Dream come true.”
“I think it’s important for everyone to have a big dream,” Anselmo answered when asked about his new dream to claim Independent Agency of the Year at Cannes. “It doesn’t matter what you do. In my career, I’ve always had those big dreams. I had one for Ogilvy, I had one for DAVID, and now, I have a new one. Because I’m starting an independent company for the first time, I can try to get that award, which is the Cannes Independent Agency of the Year award (which is really hard) and I feel comfortable just sharing that with you guys. I’m very comfortable because I don’t know if I can get that, but I’m putting it out there, right? That’s what I want.”
According to an interview with AdAge, the new agency’s name speaks to their intended mission, according to Ramos. “It’s our philosophy,” Ramos says. “We really believe it embraces, in three letters, what the company needs to be about—and that’s bravery. Bravery is the one thing that drives real growth in terms of business—when you and your client can click in terms of being brave, when clients share with agencies their deepest problems and are brave enough to try to face them in different ways.”
Bigio, however, notes that it’s not just about the work. In the same interview with AdAge, Bigio says, “It’s about the results that the work creates. When you see how Burger King has grown in the last few years, that was not about creative awards but about how you can build brands and grow business when you do something new in communications.”
Earlier this week, Ramos posted on Facebook that, “Today is the happiest day of my career. I’m finally starting an independent ad agency – a dream I’ve had since college. And I couldn’t wish for a better partner than the intense, obsessed, and touchy Gaston Bigio.
The “Spiral Intestines” logo was designed by Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh at Sagmeister & Walsh. “They were able to beautifully capture our three values: Courage, Feeling, and Transparency,” Ramos says before adding, “I feel the logo is almost hypnotizing us, as if saying “Do it… do it… do it…”
“Gut is an ad agency for brave clients and bold brands. The name represents all the work we’ve done in the past, and the kind of work we want to do in the future. We’ve always followed our gut. That’s who we are,” Ramos shares.
About the Author:
Jason Inocencio was once the Digital Editor of adobo magazine who still loves seeing great campaigns from all over the world. He proudly shows off his love for all kinds of geeky things, whether it be movies, TV shows, comics, sports, or trivia.
