Gut Names Fernando Ribeiro as First Global CSO

As Gut continues to expand, the global independent creative agency appoints its first global chief strategy officer. The agency promoted Fernando Ribeiro to the newly-created global CSO role following the agency's recent expansion into Canada with a Toronto office. He will be responsible for overseeing strategy across Gut's network, leading and extending Gut's growing team of planners. "We have been growing quite quickly and we have a great creative reputation as an independent shop," Ribeiro told Adweek. "In order to keep growing, I would love clients to come to us for our strategic reputation as well. ... We have great local leaders when it comes to strategy. It's time for us to integrate all of these leaders into one single concise team of strategy leaders across the network. Ribeiro explained such integration centralizes sharing approaches across offices. New business efforts would be an important part of his role as Gut continues to grow. "We're so proud to announce Fer Ribeiro as Gut's global CSO, overseeing the strategy of our four Gut offices," co-founders Gaston Bigio and Anselmo Ramos said in a statement. "He is fluent in both 'client' and 'agency.' He loves data but also understands that data is nothing without guts, and that it's really about both guts and brains. He has this unique ability to distill complex business challenges into simple human truths, and he knows that a strategy is only great if it leads to great creative work." Ribeiro explained that his approach to strategy was informed by data in service of great creative, referring to data-driven strategy that doesn't lead to creative ideas as "mere philosophy." "I have been to a lot of agencies in the past where strategy in itself was the end result. When it comes to creative strategy I think that strategy is never the end result," Ribeiro said. "If it's not fueling creatives to come up with ideas, then I'm not sure what the purpose is." Ribeiro is described as a "charming human being with a quirky sense of humor." He joined the agency at the beginning of 2020 and previously served as head of strategy, leading strategy for clients and projects out in Gut's São Paulo office and began to set the stage for how Gut's strategy practice operates across its network. Prior to joining Gut, he served as strategy director for 72andSunny Amsterdam, leading strategy for accounts including Axe, Google, Sprite and Uber. This approach seems a welcome fit for an agency established on the creative reputations of its award-winning founders. Bigio and Ramos left David, the Ogilvy-aligned agency they co-founded a decade ago, in 2017, to establish a new venture of their own in Gut after years of award-winning work for clients including Burger King. "We need to pair our creative firepower with strategy firepower as well in order to keep growing," Ribieiro said.