Mad Men Of Riga (1/3)

"People don't need a circus around themselves."

Behind the scenes of McCann Riga – including an episode at Piens nightclub.

Tērbatas iela – part of the new town of Riga. Art nouveau dominates the street picture. The office of McCann is located ten minutes by feet from the city center of Riga. Gatis Mūrnieks, Managing Director of McCann Worldgroup in Latvia, welcomes me at the gate. We are on the fourth floor. It's a modern building. The first steps through the office are ... formidable. But more to that later.

Gatis' office is very simple. It's cosy. And it's stylish in a discreet way. His office offers a splendid view over Tērbatas iela. Gatis is one of those, let's call them, Tērb Men. In the first instance, I am deeply impressed: Gatis is just about 28 years old – "... almost 29 …", he adds with a kind smile. I am visiting McCann Riga, part of the global advertising agency network McCann Erickson. The latvian settlement of McCann has been founded in 1995. The office at Tērbatas iela is one of 180 offices around the world. Latvia is one of 120 countries where McCann Erickson is based. And Gatis manages it. After running his own business called FUSE Latvia, he worked for BBDO in Moscow and DDB in Riga. Today, this young guy is responsible for 120 people working in seven units and subsidaries spread on three floors. In addition to the advertising agency it includes departments like lobbying, branding, packaging, media planning and even producing. This set of services and this number of people turns McCann into the biggest agency of Latvia. Today, Gatis has been working in the advertising business for about, let's say, eight years. That means 15 people for each year working in the business. At the age of 65, Gatis will be the Managing Director of not less than 555 people. That might be almost the total count of people working in advertising in whole Latvia. Holy shit.

Gatis Mūrnieks, Managing Director of McCann Worldgroup in Latvia

But what kind of dude is Gatis? Well, he is not that kind of Mad Men you can read about in Jerry Della Femina's book; not that kind of Mad Men you can see in the television series; and not that kind of advertising guy you often run across – as I did later that day. Gatis is neither a dazzler nor a swashbuckler. He is kind. He is modest. He is calm. And he appears very concentrated. Gatis speaks about professionalism in the advertising business. And he definitely embodies professionalism. His idea of professionalism means "doing a good job on the account". And that means solving the clients marketing problems. In this way he seems to be very pragmatic: "We are more PC than Apple. Apple is sexy but PC sells more goods.", Gatis states seriously to my surprise. Eventually, all creative agencies and of course all creative people want to be more Apple than PC, don't they? And there is the rub. He describes McCann Riga more as an agency, creating marketing solutions for their clients – and not as a naked creative agency. Exactly what his modesty is all about. Finally, McCann Riga of course does creative ads – e.g.: commercials for CSDD (Road Traffic Safety Directorate), Latfoods/Ādažu Čipsi or GlaxoSmithKline. And they are able to celebrate their work ...

McCann BACKSTAGE from kristaps cīrulis on Vimeo.

"In the olden days", McCann Erickson was named "Global Agency of the Year" by Adweek – three times in a row! "In the olden days" means the pre-digital age at the turn of the millennium. Gatis faces the global problems of the McCann network very honestly. He speaks about a general struggle of McCann Worldwide. In his opinion the struggle is caused by oversleeping the digital revolution, by being bad in self-promoting and by loosing the power of a global network. But in a way, he is optimistic. No wonder, finally McCann Riga which is Gatis' personal affair, is ranked among the top agencies in Latvia. DDB and !MOOZ are also part of the race. In addition there are players like Guilty, TBWA and Saatchi & Saatchi and a couple of others, Gatis numerates. All in all, he seems to be very ambitious with McCann Riga. One of his main goals is to work as integrated as possible.

From Gatis' point of view, McCann Erickson in Romania is a role model in eastern Europe and illustrates a backlash versus the negative trend of McCann Worldgroup. In 2011, they won the title "Agency of the year" for the third time at the international advertising festival Golden Drum – and numerous other awards. "They let their work speak. And their work is great.", Gatis explaines. This attitude relates to Gatis, when he says: "I truly believe that your work should do the talking – and not the other way around." All in all, he is relaxed: "Each network has its ups and downs – that's quite normal. By now, we did our homework."

As mentioned above, the office of McCann is ... formidable. It's a trash style using a number of recycled materials. The architects Zane Tetere and Elina Tetere did a great job. Even though I like Don Draper and his lines, I cannot agree with his impression of McCann: finally, in place it doesn't look like a "sausage factory" (season 3, episode 13). Does it?

I am asking Gatis for the influence of the interior design on the people, on the way of working and on the quality of the creative output. Gatis makes a long story short: "It does." And he continues: "But we are not a hot-indie-creative-shop where you can find a coca cola machine or game boys or whatever. People don't need a circus around themselves." And he is right. It's a creative atmosphere without showing-off. There is no case history around them. They finally know their work – I mean they did it. And it's creative stuff they did. The people of McCann Riga seem to be inspired by the surrounding as well as being concentrated. There are no whiskey filled or pot smoking guys running out of their offices. It's a creative but professional atmosphere. Gatis describes the people of McCann as "mature and professional" compared to other agencies in Latvia. "That fits to the clients of McCann Riga", he adds. Cause Gatis characterises them as professional as well.

Well, after chatting for about an hour, I realise that Gatis doesn't really fit the image of those Mad Men. Even though he is a fascinating guy. But aren't there any Mad Men in Riga? No fancy stories, no crazy people, no sex, no drugs, no rock'n'roll? In search of those Mad Men Gatis recommends me to meet Eriks Stendzenieks, founder and owner of the Latvian advertising agency !MOOZ. Gatis maunders something of a nostalgia about the 1990s, when the advertising business was about to start in the states of the former Soviet Union. And Eriks would be the apposite lad to talk with. That sounds quite interesting – stories of communistic Mad Men. Isn't that a strange paradox?

Aristida Briāna iela – Piens night club, Wednesday 1 a.m. Before meeting Eriks from !MOOZ, I did a little side trip to the infamous nightlife of Riga ... I touched down in Piens. Piens is a small and cozy nightclub located outside the city core. That's why it is crowded only with Latvian and Russian guys – neither drunken tourists from the UK nor awkward bachelor-parties. By the way: Piens is latvian and means milk. Well, while enjoying the electronic music and a Mojito – the best one I had for months – a tall guy dressed with an even taller sack coat entered my causerie. My first impression: arrogant and crazy. My second impression: very arrogant and very crazy. Not till then he started talking. Sadly, I cannot remember his name. Let's call him Blitherings Idiots (in Latvia the letter „s“ is added to the end of each name). While shaking his – I would say – Long Island Icetea, Blitherings Idiots told ... nonsense ... absolute nonsense ... crazy sentences without content. It was a show. It was artificial. It was mad. He was mad."What are you doing in the daytime?", I cut his nonsense off. It was kind of a rhetorical question. "Advertisement.", he answered as cool as possible. Yeah, you are the man, honey. Unexpectedly, right there he was standing in front of me: a Mad Man of Riga, performing this myth. Well, let's call him a light version of a Mad Man, a wannabe, but anyway … For his defending I have to nourish, that he must be well-oiled by a couple of Long Island Iceteas … No harm meant, Blitherings!

Yours sincerely,

William James Carlton

 – – –

Upcoming story in December:

Mad Men Of Riga (2/3) – Behind the scenes of DDB
Before chatting with Eriks (!MOOZ) – which will be the final part of the "Riga Trilogy" – I had an interesting visit at DDB Riga ... Stay tuned ...