Creativity doesn’t have a geographical location, but it may be that the more places, people and cultures you experience in life, the more inspiration you have to draw on. If that’s the case, then Lucas Peon has an advantage.
Currently CCO of The Gate London, he was born in Argentina and raised in France and the United States. He’s also lived in Brazil and Mexico. He returned to Argentina, where he studied film, and then worked in Florida and Cincinnati before moving to sunny England.
“I do think that if you immerse yourself in other countries and cultures, you’re aware that there’s much more to the world than what you’re seeing in your daily existence,” he says.
The Gate was something of a departure when he joined in 2019, as it was very much a challenger agency compared to industry stalwart JWT London, where he’d worked for almost four years. The Gate had a distant history as a financial agency, but it was being dusted off and polished up.
“The motivation was the opportunity to build a creative department pretty much from the ground up,” he says. “I met the CEO, Jamie Elliot, who’d just started on the journey of repositioning the agency, and he was very clear that he wanted work that would put it on the map. The challenge was impossible to resist. Assembling a creative team from scratch – that’s one of the most exciting things you can do.”
A fascination with adland
Although he studied filmmaking as a youth, he was a natural fit for the ad industry when he started out. “From very early on, almost without being aware of it, I was attracted to advertising. I was the kind of audience you wish for nowadays: I really paid attention to the ads, engaged with them, remembered them. Even today I can still remember ads, jingles and logos from when I was very small.”
He’s sure that the urge to make films was connected to those experiences. “I knew I wanted to write stories and make stories. But my first paying job was in advertising. I met some amazing people: creative directors, agency producers, music producers, clients. I learned an incredible amount from them and they opened doors for me. So the fascination with advertising never went away.”
The more he learned, he says, the more he wanted to learn. “And I’m still the same today. I feel that we’re an incredible industry and I love being part of it.”
The Gate (now part of the MSQ network) has grown in size and status on his watch, with fun and touching campaigns for clients like The AA (the former Automobile Association), online retailer Very, the Royal Mail and the charity Childline (whose film “Nobody Is Normal” scooped five Lions).
Surprise to connect
I wonder if Lucas has a particular mode of creativity that he’s drawn to. Is he more of a visual guy, a digital geek, a crafter of activations…Naturally, the answer is “all of the above”. He says: “What I’m looking for is quite simply work that connects. Work that people engage with and remember. The media, the category, the label are irrelevant. As a matter of fact, I love that today there are so many ways to connect with people.”
What he’s always wanted from an agency, he says, is one that’s “consistently surprising”. That doesn’t repeat its successes. “One day it can be hijacking the news, the next it’s using the internet in a way that’s never been done before, and the day after that telling a highly emotional story on TV. I would love for people not to be able to guess what we’re going to do next.”
Lucas is not just creative in the office: he’s also published two collections of monologues, prose and short stories. How important is it to have a creative outlet outside work? “For me, at least, it’s fundamental. I’ve come to know myself over the years, and if I’m not creating, I get grumpy. I like experimenting – with writing, with film, with drawing, with music. I need to explore new areas, things I haven’t done before, so they feel fresh.”
But while being creative is important to him “as a person”, it also dovetails with his professional life. “It keeps me in touch with everything out there. There’s so much evolution in terms of technology, visual languages, approaches. In film, in art – I’m constantly blown away by how much creativity is happening all around us. But I do feel that if you’re not experimenting, and trying it yourself, you’re falling behind. You can’t just read about it. You need to feel it, to understand it. As a creative you’ve gotta get your hands dirty.”
Moving with the pace of change
The ad industry itself seems to be in turmoil, with the rush to integrate AI in the midst of consolidation, an exploding scope of work and clients who want everything faster. How does a relatively small agency like The Gate navigate that storm?
Lucas smiles. “It’s true everything is constantly changing, so we’re obliged to adapt and evolve. But you know what? It’s always been like that. As I said earlier, an agency needs to surprise people. In order to do that, it has to use everything at hand: technology, insights, context. You need to master all these tools to create something new.”
The main difference today, he concedes, is the speed of evolution. “You almost have to master something while you’re still learning about it,” he says. “That’s the real challenge – but you have to be prepared for tomorrow, because tomorrow is here before you know it. Last year’s technology is already old.”
This requires investment from the agency and commitment from staff. “But it’s essential, because the agencies who are best organized to move with the pace of change will win.”
And as smaller organizations are famously nimble, one of those agencies may well be The Gate.
