Ladoble is an audiovisual production company based in Spain, Mexico and Argentina. They define themselves as an innovative community formed by a group of people who bring ideas to life, turning them into exceptional audiovisual content while making friends around the world.
One of his latest creations was the PAINFULL TRUTH campaign shot in Los Angeles. Prescription opioid overdose deaths in the United States are very common. In response to this problem, Bayer’s Aleve and MAPDA launched this campaign starring alternative pain management experts. To do this, a real-life casting call was held involving people in pain who were considering opioid use. They had the opportunity to talk to an expert, who turned out to be a former opioid addict who had fallen into addiction because of a common medical prescription.
We want to know more about how they work in the production of projects like these. Rodrigo Lema, Managing Director, and Juan Torres, EP at Ladoble tell us more.
In each production, how do you shape your stamp and creative approach?
Rodrigo Lema:
At Ladoble, when the script arrives, the first person to receive it and read it is already thinking creatively about it. Even before the award, there is a creative vision from production in order to select and propose the director that we know will make the project grow.
The leaders of all the offices have worked, at one time or many, in an agency, and that means that from the beginning of the project, from day zero, we are giving it a creative focus.
Juan Torres:
We know how complex those beginnings are, we give support and the most suitable production solutions according to the project.
It is essential to work together to meet deadlines and be effective in adjusting budgets. Knowing where to invest that money in front of the camera according to each case is fundamental.
Rodrigo Lema:
I think that’s an important part of Ladoble’s hallmark, for us each project is more important than the last and that philosophy carries over to our directors and creative team, when they do some brutal treatments that exceed expectations every time.
Last, but most important: our philosophy of making friends with every step we take. We spend so many hours doing what we do, sometimes it’s even unintelligible to people outside the advertising world. We believe in a good work environment, we feel part of a team in each project and this translates into building relationships and bonds of friendship. Every agency and client that has worked with Ladoble repeats the experience. I think that perfectly exemplifies our hallmark.
We have noticed that you have received a great deal of recognition. What do you think has been the key to being an award-winning production company at an international level?
Rodrigo Lema:
Yes, we have been very lucky to be chosen and awarded throughout our history. In the last three years we managed to win several Grand Prix at Cannes thanks to the trust placed in us by our friends from agencies and brands. I believe there are no keys, only factors:
The first factor is that trust I was talking about just now. Fundamental. Then comes the talent, of course, of the three players, agency, brand and production company. We have met and will continue to meet very talented people during this time. When we bring together talent from both sides, it shows. And finally, a little bit of faith: to really believe in the idea. This has to happen in the agency, the production company and the brand. The support of all three players is fundamental for an idea to end up on the podium. If those three factors are in place… the rest is pure magic.
In relation to Bayer’s Aleve project, what challenges and challenges did you face in getting the campaign off the ground, for example, in casting real people with addictions or illnesses? How do you hope this campaign will impact public awareness of opioid use?
Rodrigo Lema:
The Aleve project was a big challenge…as big as it was beautiful. The premise of the idea was that the participants should be real and the challenge was to find former addicts to act as “experts” in the conversations and with others who were suffering some kind of pain and thinking about resorting to opioids.
The casting process took two months, much longer than conventional, but the decision to take that time was key to finding the right people.
Simon Brand, director of the piece, and the agency wanted the conversation between the “expert” and the “patients” to be 100% real to achieve the impact we needed, so the shooting format was with live shots of more than half an hour, where everything could go right or everything could go wrong. That decision was also a challenging one for the production and a great creative success.
I have been lucky enough to participate in a few mobilizing projects throughout my career, but never with such an important purpose and on such a delicate subject. And without a doubt this process was one of the most challenging.
In the process we heard some really hard life stories, which made us pause meetings to take a breath of air because we felt overwhelmed or because someone was crying. Rarely has a brand played such an important role in the face of a real and growing social problem such as the use of opioids to treat pain and its addictive consequences. Hopefully it will reach the people who really need it most and this will be one of those campaigns that change the world.
Do you have any new project in hand, advertising or otherwise, that you would like to tell us about?
Juan Torres:
We always have interesting projects on going.
Being so close to the Cannes dates, we are working on several campaigns, but I can’t tell you much more about them, just tell you that we are happy.
What is Ladoble’s long-term vision as an advertising film production company?
Rodrigo Lema:
Globally our vision is to grow in order to provide a better creative service to our clients, who have grown as we have, adapting as we have been doing for almost 25 years now (this year we turn 25!), to new ways of producing and bringing innovation in processes.
As for our headquarters in Spain, it is in full growth. We are incorporating new talent in both the production and management teams and we want to continue growing and, of course, always making friends along the way.
Interview by Carla Lara
