Renata Maia, the first global chief creative officer of Wunderman Thompson Health, has a mandate given to her by the agency's CEO Patrick Wisnom: “Let’s break all the rules, so we can make a difference.”

Maia joined the WPP agency from Interpublic Group of Cos.' Area 23,  where she was executive VP, group creative director. In her new post, she will direct creative globally for brands including Pfizer, Janssen and Boehringer Ingelheim.

The move marks a homecoming for Maia, who has spent much of her career at WPP agencies including VMLY&R and Grey. During her 10 years at what was then Y&R, where she was regional creative director, she oversaw 19 countries and led three main creative centers of excellence. 

The following interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

What drew you back to WPP, and why Wunderman Thompson Health?

When you work at a global agency like Wunderman Thompson, the reach is much wider. As chief creative officer, I will be able to give a message to people that I could never reach before or be in places I could never reach before.

How do you plan to let that creativity flourish in a sector like health?

The mentality around health has shifted since about five years ago. The health category has exploded at every single shop, and if you see who is winning the [Cannes Lions] Grand Prix and the agencies winning the biggest awards are coming from health. Look at me, last year I won Grand LIA [at the London International Awards] in art direction in Pharma & Medical Craft. I won a Cannes Lion with a pharma client in the outdoor category—not the pharma health category. I think our advertising industry is starting to understand that a pharma or health and wellness brief can be a thousand times more powerful than a consumer brief. They’re breaking the bias. Because by its nature, you’re promoting saving someone’s life or at least offering the opportunity to improve quality of life.

You spent much of your career on the consumer side of advertising. What made you shift into health in 2019?

I had this enormous desire to bring creativity to the pharma and health and wellness industry, and I knew I was going to be touching something so powerful working in a category that will really help people’s lives. We’re talking about oncology or a product that could give the possibility of people having a better life. That is incredibly powerful. It also became very clear to me that health is an important subject for every brand. It’s not an option anymore. If you’re not someone who is starting to think about specializing in that way, you will be left behind.

How does DE&I intersect with health and the way you work?

The core of DE&I is about diversity. It’s about equity, it’s about inclusion. Health is not only about science. I grew up in Brazil, my brother's German, my sister's Brazilian, my grandfather's British and the other grandfather's Portuguese. When Wunderman Thompson Health hired me, they said to me, 'Renata, you have worked worldwide, you come from an eclectic family. We want that.' It’s so important when you have a different background to be open-minded and understand different points of view. It’s about collaboration. WPP has always seen that.

Where do you see the landscape of advertising in the health sector changing in 2023?

There are a few. One is the drastic increase in the importance of mental health. Another is a huge trend from the use of AI in healthcare, which is so exciting and offers us a way to reduce the disparity in healthcare. Technology overall is pushing our industry to break boundaries and change by the second. It’s pretty clear we are in a new age of collaboration and innovation. When you bring the knowledge, innovation and the power of storytelling, I think the future of health has never been so bright.