Pulse Films has added Rodrigo Saavedra, to its U.S. commercial and music video directorial roster.
Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Saavedra has collaborated with an array of global brands including Coca-Cola, Heineken, Corona, Honda, VW, Facebook, Dropbox, and the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. He has garnered awards from D&AD, The One Show, Cannes Lions, 1.4 awards, AICP, Berlin Commercial, UKMVA, and MVF.
In the U.K. Rodrigo is represented by his own production company, Immigrant. Pulse and Immigrant will now jointly represent Saavedra in the U.K. music videos sphere, where he has collaborated with luminaries such as Selena Gomez, DJ Snake, Céu, and Niki & The Dove.
Mino Jarjoura, global president of commercials and music videos at Pulse Films, commented, “I have been watching Rodrigo’s career bloom since working together in Marseilles. We are still debating who instigated a tussle with a group of local pickpockets. I am absolutely thrilled to collaborate with Rodrigo at Pulse. His nuanced level of detail and boundless imagination are seamlessly interwoven in story, style, and character. A truly unique filmmaker, he has a vision, working alongside him promises to be an inspiring journey,:
Saavedra said, “When Mino first contacted me, he already knew I was a Flamengo supporter. That says a lot about him. Instead of the cliché ‘I love your work’, he tapped into culture to find common ground. And to me that’s what Pulse is about. They’re a company that champions culture, going beyond the norms of advertising, and when they do traditional ads they make sure that it seeps into the pop realm.”
Before assuming the director’s chair, he honed his craft as an art director and copywriter at advertising agencies such as Mother London, WCRS, and Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Prior to joining Pulse, Saavedra had most recently repped as director in the U.S. advertising market by The Directors Bureau.
Pulse’s branded division is represented by Hustle on the East Coast, Stephanie Stephens Reps on the West Coast, The House of Representatives in the Midwest and by Hands for music videos.
Forsman & Bodenfors Shifts Its Singapore Group Creative Director Ivan Guerra to Its NYC Hub
Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B) has expanded its creative leadership in New York by relocating longtime group creative director Ivan Guerra from the Singapore office to the Big Apple to support a quickly growing list of new client wins.
As a group creative director in Singapore, Guerra racked up numerous accolades and participated in a myriad of new business wins that fueled the agency’s growth year over year. He explained why now was the right time to come back to the states, adding more nuance in the process. ”Singapore is the business hub of Asia, New York is the business hub of the world,” he said. “Our office in Singapore was small when I arrived. Since then, we’ve more than tripled in size, and became the [number one] most creative agency in the country, and work with more and bigger clients than ever before. There’s always more to be done, but the agency I’m leaving behind is in fantastic shape and ready to take on the world, as I know they will.”
For Guerra, there’s an opportunity to replicate in New York the success he had in Singapore. During his career, he repositioned and promoted businesses and products across a wide variety of markets and industries including P&G, Coca-Cola and Booking.com. Some of his well-known work includes a campaign that increased Samsung’s sales in the Middle East by almost 200%, one of the most iconic films in the history of Converse, Verizon’s most successful sports partnership program “Data Dunk” with the NBA, and a “Proud Whopper” campaign in 2014 that reignited Burger King and garnered 13 Cannes Lions and a Grand Clio.
Coming back to New York after 15 years in the business, including a stint where he spent time at the likes of top-shelf agencies like R/GA,... Read More