Ad Age is marking Hispanic Heritage Month 2024 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package, in which members of the Hispanic community revisit pivotal projects or turning points in their careers. (Read the introduction and all the essays here.) Today, Rolando Cordova and Gian Carlo Lanfranco, co-founders of New York agency L&C, write about the core lesson from their long journey in creativity.
L&C’s founders on optimism as a competitive advantage
Long before we started L&C in New York, we had the unique opportunity early on to emigrate from our hometown of Lima, Peru, in order to chase our dreams. Back then, advertising wasn’t a good career choice in Peru, because of years of political instability and the economic chaos that came with it.
This led most students to pursue safer and more stable career paths in fields like law, medicine and finance. But for us, we decided to stay true to our path, because creativity was more than a career; it was our passion and our way of life.
When we were just starting out in Lima, we would read and re-read interviews with inspiring Latino creative leaders who were successful in Asia, Europe and the U.S., like Alberto Ponte, Carlos Bayala, Marcello Serpa and the Molla brothers. We dreamed about being able to be like them and learn from them and all the other great creative leaders working at the best agencies around the world. But at the time, there weren’t any Peruvian creatives working outside Peru. Even though it felt out of reach at the time, we never stopped believing we could do it.
That began to change after we won the Cannes Future Lions in 2006, where we got an offer from Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore, the iconic agency where one of our creative heroes—David Droga—rose to fame. We immediately left Peru with a few suitcases, some very basic English skills, a little bit of naivety and a lot of optimism—and desire to learn and do great work.
Eighteen years later, our creative journey has taken us to Singapore, Amsterdam, Paris and New York, working at some of the best agencies in the world. We used everything we’ve learned at those shops to start L&C here in New York. Since opening our doors four years ago, we’ve never stopped pouring all our passion for creativity into making it one of the most creative and awarded independent agencies in the world. It’s by far our biggest personal and professional life achievement. It makes us proud and motivates us to do better work.
If you ask any Latin American what’s the one core fundamental that sets our community apart from others, it’s certainly optimism. We remember seeing our parents work hard every day. Even during the most difficult of times, they always went to work with a smile on their face, working toward a better life for their families. Their example of hope and determination is baked into our DNA. Which is why every idea we create for our clients starts with optimism.
Our industry is in a time of transition. Agencies are struggling to provide measurable and intrinsic value to brands. We all talk about AI, digital capabilities, leaner production models and even the level of creative thinking. All of these can be matched at some point by every single agency in the world. What can’t be matched, however, is the level of optimism behind every single idea. The passion for the game. The will and the ability to bring back better ideas when the ones on the table aren’t well received, even if it takes multiple rounds to get there.
That kind of desire to bounce back stronger can only be powered by positive energy, or as we call it in Spanish, “optimismo.”
At L&C, that optimism is the greatest value we can give to our clients. Even though it can’t be measured in KPIs, we make sure our clients can feel it in every idea we present to them.