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André Rocha , Head of Strategy , New360 Brazil
Jury-Interviews

2022 AME Grand Jury Perspective: André Rocha, Head of Strategy, New360 Brazil

2022 Grand Jury member André Rocha, Head of Strategy for New 360, brings over 10 years of industry expertise to the jury panel. His work as a brand, product and business strategist has resulted in recognition and awards for several local brands in Brazil and multinationals

New York, NY | February 02, 2022

AME's Grand Jury members are known internationally for award-winning work that is both ground-breaking and extraordinarily effective, the jury panel includes some of the world’s most creative and strategic minds in advertising, marketing communications, and brand building from around the globe.Their stellar reputations and commitment to both creative and effective work set the benchmark for innovation.

2022 Grand Jury member André Rocha brings over 10 years of industry expertise to the jury panel His work as a brand, product and business strategist has resulted in recognition and awards for several local brands in Brazil and multinationals.André co-founded Gooders, a Brazilian social impact startup internationally recognized by Web Summit Festival in Portugal and, today, he is a Partner at Hybrid, a consultancy focused on strategy in Brazil and Head of Strategy at New. In recent years, André has been leading strategic teams as Strategy Director since 2018. His experiences include brands such as Nubank, Citi, AB-INBEV, MRV, Inhotim Institute, Oi, Vale, Anglo American, among others.

In the interview below André shares his perspective on technological trends, mediums that will be dominant in 2022, the evolution of brand messaging over the years and much more.

AME Awards: What stand-out attributes do you recognize in award-winning creative effective advertising?

André Rocha: I believe that the main attribute nowadays, anywhere in the world, is advertising that reflects the culture of the people, the population, to create powerful stories and generate organic impacts.

AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards important?

André Rocha: It is the space for projects with impact to be seen, increasing the possibility of more people having contact with good works. Awards like the AME inspire and guide the next steps in global communication.

AME Awards: Speak to the evolution of brand positioning, values, and tone of voice during the past few years.

André Rocha: From what I have seen and worked with my clients, the positioning of brands that mark the moment and history are always based on context. The more brands are connected with contemporary and human dialogues, reflecting the culture, the more value they will have. After all, you don't have value for the brand if you don't have value for people.

AME Awards: How has brand messaging evolved and succeeded these past few years?

André Rocha: The ones that have evolved and been successful, without a doubt, are the messages that have courage and truth at their base. The channels are just the means of delivery, what counts for evolution is the story we tell and how connected this story is with people's daily lives.

AME Awards: What innovations are changing the way agencies engage consumers on behalf of brands?

André Rocha: From the perspective of strategy, I believe it is ecosystem/platform thinking. This way of thinking is open to constant innovation, open to the creation of new contact fronts with customers and allows the use of any platform that is relevant to achieve results. It's all a bit ambiguous: speaking of platform, can you stay out of the phenomenon of short TikTok content, or the boom in deep content like Netflix movies/documentaries?

AME Awards: What new technological trends have emerged and how have they helped deliver creative and effective results?

André Rocha: It's all about data. A.I, IoT, Blockchain etc are structures that came to revolutionize not only brands, but the business models that operate them. The results are, without a doubt, very relevant when we use these tools to better know our audience and create relevant narratives according to what they want.

AME Awards: What mediums will be front and center in 2022?

André Rocha: I would highlight the short videos market and, in parallel, the on demand video segment. The growing demand from TikTok's audience, for example, can be a warning for video-on-demand players, reviewing, for example, some product features to attract newaudiences. In addition, I believe that the media that stand out in 2022 will be those that are able to deliver accurate information on user behavior.

AME Awards: How have brands successfully transformed to adapt to consumers’ lifestyles and spending habits the past few years?

André Rocha: Creating using people's habits as the main briefing. Adaptation is about longevity. When we talk about brands adapting to people's habits, we are talking about positioning: what do you leave as a legacy if your brand disappears now? The brands that quickly adapted were those that not only plugged something into a trend to add value to a product, but built narratives and products that reflect people's habits. When we conceptualize and translate a habit into a narrative/product, we organize it for another to have linearity of perception.

AME Awards: Why did you agree to participate on this year’s AME Grand Jury and What do you hope to learn by viewing entries into this competition?

André Rocha: Honor and learning opportunity. I have always admired the AME NY Festival. I am very happy to be on the side of great people and professionals in global communication.About the works, I hope to see a lot of truth, genuine connection, powerful stories and constructive provocations for our society.

AME Awards: What is your favorite most successful ad and why? What campaign resulted in a global brand making an impressive pivot?

André Rocha: This is a complex question (lol). I don't know which one is the biggest, but it has an impressive one, which lasts for 7 years: REI (outdoor adventures store), closes on Black Friday for the seventh consecutive year continuing its annual #OptOutside campaign - encouraging customers to spend more time outdoors (despite the hard times of COVID-19). Cool, simple and true for 7 years. This isn't a campaign, it's a business decision that is deeply connected with what the brand believes in: people enjoying the outside.

AME Awards: What advice would offer to potential entrants on earning an AME Award?

André Rocha: Always try to look at your work with a human perspective. Few brands have the power to create new global conversations, but all of them can join existing conversations to generate value for people. If it's effective for people, it will be effective for the brand.