Gut Buenos Aires works from the Argentine capital ‘for the rest of the world’

By most accounts, 2023 was a roller coaster of a year in Argentina. For the first time since the 1980s, the soccer-obsessed nation won the men’s World Cup (technically in December 2022 in Qatar, but celebrations continued well into the new year). In November, Argentina elected a new president, Javier Milei, ushering in a total shake-up of the country’s political landscape. And all the while, Argentina’s economy was in near-freefall, leading to mounting debt with the inflation of its peso rising more than 150% by year’s end. Gut Buenos Aires, meanwhile, thrived. (Gut Buenos Aires is one of Gut’s two founding offices—the other being Miami.) The full-service agency has continued to scale its headcount and revenue by “working from Buenos Aires for the rest of the world,” said Partner and Chief Creative Officer Joaquín “Joaco” Cubría. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here For PedidosYa, Latin America’s most popular delivery app, the agency made a cheeky move to celebrate the World Cup trophy’s arrival in Argentina, sending the app’s millions of users a notification reading, “Your order is on the way.” Many panicked, thinking they’d been hacked or scammed, but upon opening the message, they were greeted with real-time tracking data showing the winning national team’s flight back to Argentina. “When you win a World Cup, no one gives a fuck about brands in that moment,” said Cubría, “but we were able to be a part of that in a very organic way.” The day of the notification, PedidosYa received more attention on social media than either the soccer team or its star, Lionel Messi, garnering nearly 50 million impressions with a media spend of zero. Gut Buenos Aires, now entering its sixth year in business, also tapped into its home country’s financial troubles by working with digital wallet platform Mercado Pago and the Argentine version of “Big Brother” to sponsor what it called an “inflation-proof prize.” Instead of letting the TV show’s prize money of 15 million Argentine pesos (roughly $100,000 at the time of its airing last year, but now worth less than $20,000) depreciate by the day, its producers invested it in a Mercado Pago account, allowing the show’s winner to take home the original prize money plus interest. “I think that’s one of those very simple but interesting ways for an audience to understand a product,” Cubría said of the work. The partnership resulted in spikes in both traffic to the Mercado Pago app and investments in its online wallets, the agency said. Ad Age A-List and Creativity Gala Buy your ticket to the in-person event Click here The agency isn’t a one-trick pony, with Gut Buenos Aires demonstrating its ability to produce eye-catching work—including plenty that is unrelated to the recent highs and lows being experienced by the Argentine economy. Last year, the agency worked with Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of its largest accounts, to pay homage to centuries-old Stella Artois by looking at historical paintings featuring beer. But the campaign, ranked No. 14 on Ad Age’s Best Ads of 2023 list, didn’t just look at any beer. Factoring in elements from the drink’s hue to where the paintings were produced, “The Artois Probability,” as the campaign was called, calculated the likelihood of any given artwork featuring Stella. It generated more than 7.2 million impressions online and in-person via an exhibition at Buenos Aires’ Bellas Artes museum. Internally, the agency operates with a “People First, Work Second, Clients Third” philosophy, developing internship programs, diversity workshops and extended parental leave programs to support its staff of more than 115 people. In 2023, it was also certified by Buenos Aires’ municipal government as a “space committed to diversity,” and boasted a retention rate of 90%. But the bottom line, according to Cubría, is that if the agency has to make a move that benefits its staff at the expense of making a few extra dollars, it’s prepared to make that sacrifice. Starting with just five employees at the time of its creation, Gut Buenos Aires has since become a force in the Latin American advertising industry, with annual revenue up 22% last year and a roster of both Argentine and global clients that now includes the likes of Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz and the International Olympic Committee. Late last year, Gut sold a majority stake in its international operations—which include 500 employees across seven worldwide offices—to tech consultancy Globant, which had been one of the agency’s clients for three years prior. While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, the move marked one of the most significant agency deals of 2023. “Both sides have something to win in combining our forces,” Cubría said. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here

Gut Buenos Aires works from the Argentine capital ‘for the rest of the world’

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