Looking Outside Marketing Creativity: Juan Isaza, Marketing & Strategy Leader, DDB

On this episode of Looking Outside we explore the intersection of creativity with marketing and what it takes to take a good brand to a great brand. Joining us is marketing and strategy leader, Juan Isaza, Chief strategy officer at DDB Latina, and Head of Brand and Social Media Strategy at creative agency 14.

While today Juan is an award winning strategist and experienced marketer, he didn’t start in the field. Ever since he was seven years old, Juan wanted to be a journalist. But having done a stint at a Columbian newspaper, after studying journalism and communications, he saw quickly that his love of uncovering great stories and telling them in a compelling way was better served in the world of advertising.

Juan shares how his journalism background helps him in strategy; particularly in being resourceful and telling engaging stories that hook the audience. But equally in telling better stories about people, by discovering them in unexpected places. Juan says this ability to find the emotive connection with culture is the biggest shift in communication taking place, and is a fruitful space for marketing.

But it’s not necessarily easy. Jo and Juan discuss how brands are operating in emotional battle fields right now within which they can get caught on the "wrong" side or in the middle. Juan’s advice to brands is not to talk unless you have the credentials for it, based on actions already taken. This is the reason consumers are getting tired of brands meddling in political or social issues, Juan says, and just because they don’t want brands to get involved in politics doesn’t mean they don’t want brands to do good things for society. “Your best cause is the thing you’re living inside your company,” Juan stresses.

Juan also shares his personal reflections of culture in the advertising world, where stereotyping still happens and freedoms can be inhibited. He says a lot of work is still to be done, and it needs to start with empathy, understanding and in-room representation. It’s part of the reason why Juan won DEI person of the year from the New York Festival for his work managing DDB Mexico, and it can – as the proof shows – lead to greater creativity.

Juan and Jo discuss the formula for successful campaigns, and the need for brands to leverage the power of creativity in their content, by opening themselves to more experimentation. Juan has seen a positive move over time towards long term brand building, without compromising short term measurement metrics, but stresses that the old school thinking of marketers in trying to control every aspect of their brand and planning every element of how their brand will show up, limits their ability to inject spontaneity into their work – a key element of creative marketing.

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To look outside, Juan looks for ideas in everything he observes. Inspiration for him can come from any place, information, source or conversation. He finds them often in papers from philosophers and sociologists who are analyzing societal shifts at a macro level.

Every year, Juan publishes a trend report, which started as a personal exercise, motivated by curiosity and led by a simple desired out come to discovery key topics emerging for brands. For this, Juan takes a few months towards the end of the year to create a mind map,, then synthesizes it at the quiet last week of the year.

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Juan Isaza is the Chief Strategy Officer at DDB Latina and leads the global Strategy and Social Media at 14, the DDB agency for SEAT and CUPRA brands (Volkswagen Group). He has worked in regional and global projects for major international brands such as Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Telefónica, BBVA, Bridgestone, Mars, and Clorox.

He led the team that was the first in Latin America to win a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions for Creative use of Data, as well as the first Grand Prix at Cannes Lions in Glass (Positive Change) for DDB Worldwide. He was elected as one of the 50 honorees of Adweek Magazine 2021 and Person of the Year by New York Festivals due to his commitment to diversity and inclusion in 2023.

Juan also has experience in political marketing, having served as a consultant for Iván Duque's presidential campaign in Colombia in 2018. He earned a master’s degree in Marketing from RMIT University in Australia and has been a member of the DDB Worldwide Global Strategic Council since 2008. He is also known for his annual consumer trend report, which reaches over 100,000 marketing professionals each year.

• Find more on Juan at www.juani...