Seeking to diversify the market to stop being a ‘creative boutique’ and become an advertising agency that offers real solutions to clients, the PVS agency was born, which today is positioned as one of the best in the country.
If the creatives who lead PVS Agencia know anything, it is that unconventional advertising is what conquers the hearts of their clients’ clients. It is for this reason that the team made up of partners Juan Guillermo Vargas, Francisco Serrano and Gustavo Eduardo Pilonieta has focused on this, and the efforts have filled them with recognition, both for their agency and for their clients and the city.
The agency was born 14 years ago, and the protagonists of its history tell of the many particular events that led them to join together in the adventure of creating a company in a sector that is quite competitive and marked by informality.
At first, it was called PV, since Gustavo and Juan Guillermo, who were ‘rivals’, decided to come together to manage a single campaign for two of the most recognized shopping centers in the city. The experience, which turned out to be very positive, ended up in a new advertising agency.
Then Francisco Serrano joined the team, who was based in Bogotá and had already completed almost 14 years of experience working in multinational advertising companies, trusting in the dream of being able to have, together with Vargas, his own agency in Bucaramanga.
After almost two months of negotiation, PVS was formed.
Today, Gustavo, although he is still a partner and an active part of the company, is also working on his digital agency project.
“PVS Agencia is an idea and a business ideal of a team of creative professionals who in 2003 decided to add their talent and experiences to create an advertising agency in Santander, but not just another agency, but one capable of competing at the height of the best in the country, ”said Vargas Harker.
With the society formed, growth began to take place gradually, and the idea that was born from two people today generates 27 jobs for the sector.
“The growth, we must admit, has been constant. We started two people and the team has always been growing, as we conquer new challenges, clients and territories. Not only have we opened our geographic coverage by serving national advertisers, we have also been pioneers in putting our creativity to compete with the best of the advertising elite in the country and Latin America ”.
Today, the partners recognize that precisely those 27 collaborators and all those who have passed through the agency developing their talent have been the key to the growth of the firm, aspects that are mixed in the way they seek to work to stimulate creativity .
“We have fun with each day’s homework. We must also update ourselves and exercise leadership. We also compete bravely, measuring ourselves against the best. And most importantly: firmly believe in local talent. Since our constitution, we have invested in hiring people from the region, training young professionals and becoming the main seedbed of publicists from Santander, who today not only stand out at the regional level, but also nationally and internationally ”, indicated the partner.
Despite the recognition, the partners also have stories of failure to tell, which have led them to be stronger in business. “Crises are inherent in the advertising industry, it is a reality recognized throughout the world. We have suffered the loss of important and emotionally very important clients, always for reasons unrelated to the quality of our work, but at the same time we have had the enormous fortune of having built a constant growth curve and we have always been able to cover these losses by obtaining of new clients and the opening of new businesses ”.
In the agency’s history, there are 14 recognitions, both national and international. “It sounds amazing, then going through each one of them is really very exciting. We have not only been pioneers seeking to measure ourselves in other latitudes, we have competed in the most important festivals in Colombia, measuring ourselves against giant multinational agencies up to 20 times our size and we have won. The gold in Nova 2010 was national news, nobody had us on the radar and it was tremendous, the FePi of Argentina put Santander’s creativity to work in South America, the FICE measured us in Latin America, then there are the awards in digital development that we made the best of Colombia again, El Dorado, which is where only the best of the best compete and win, and now the CLAP, where we are once again pioneers, to open the doors to local creativity, which will surely dump to participate next year with great success. All, without a doubt, are great achievements, all have marked various milestones, and therefore, all are very important, “said the publicist.
The challenges of the sector
Although they have been able to consolidate and add local talent, generating formal jobs, the truth is that the illegal competition in the sector is generating serious concerns for these types of companies.
“It turns out that while we are one of the most successful independent agencies in Colombia and the local talent of Bumanguese creatives is coveted throughout the country by large multinationals, some local entrepreneurs seem not to notice it. The problem for all of us who have a serious, organized and legal presence is that the number of companies in the city that seek creative services from outside agencies continues to grow. The worst thing about the whole equation is that many of those agencies do not have overwhelming differences and some others are actually far inferior. The truth is, we are worried; even participating in big festivals begins to lose consciousness. If the trend continues, the local industry will regress and very soon we will all have to downsize. A phenomenon that, on the contrary, does not occur in cities like Medellín. There we have noticed that for the Antioquia businessman the first option is always the agencies of the local scene and where for the latter, curiously, the main provider of creative personnel is us. The most devastating thing is that no one seems to care. In the end, the message is, no matter how competitive you are, no matter what level you are, that doesn’t matter much. ”
Source: Vanguardia https://www.vanguardia.com/economia/nuestros-empresarios/historias-de-exito-hechas-con-pasion-BRVL383323
DECEMBER 21, 2016