Growth is a values test, not a numbers game. Bravery is a scale, not a switch. Put people first and clients last.

Growth can mean many things. Internally it is growing your team and your business in a way that is sustainable and true to your philosophy. At GUT the values are strong: courage, transparency, intuition. So the question is how you grow through the lens of those values, in the people you hire and the clients you take. GUT is not an ordinary agency, there is a weight to being called GUT, so when a client wants to work with us the first thing to understand is whether it will be a genuine match on both sides.

The agency is designed around three values and the idea that bravery means business. We are a brave agency for brave clients, and that is the first line in every credentials meeting. We live those values, so we will tell clients things in transparency when other agencies stay quiet out of fear of losing the relationship, because transparency makes relationships stronger. We bring ideas that make clients uncomfortable in a good way, and we ask every client to react with their gut first, then rationalise with data and research.

Because of the sheer volume of information people are flooded with, it is hard to absorb everything. Brands do not only compete with their own category. Stella Artois does not only compete with beer, it competes with culture and with what is happening in the world. So you need to be brave to stand out in the sea of noise and connect with people emotionally, so they remember your brand.

Bravery is a scale, and GUT has built an actual assessment with clients that classifies every stage from zero to 10. Working with a client, you identify where they are and where they want to go, and you do not push a brand from two to 10, it happens in small steps. The work reflects that. For one brand, bravery means changing a positioning held for 30 years; for another it is a new visual identity. With Stella Artois the brave move was to step back to the core DNA of the brand.

Healthy growth is growing as slow as you can, the opposite of the rush to grab everything as the hot new thing. Taking on every account, without the ability to deliver quality or assess whether a client fits, is the wrong approach. Sustainable growth means understanding the exact client and relationship that makes sense, where the agency can have a real positive impact. If the ambition is not shared and both sides are not looking in the same direction, it might work at the start but the long road will not.

The earliest signal is culture and people. GUT has very little turnover, with people there since it started in 2018 with two offices in Miami and Buenos Aires, and now, by her account, 12 offices and 2,000 people, promoted from within. One principle is people first, work second, and clients last. New clients balk at clients last, but happy, nurtured people do the best work of their lives, and that is the only way clients end up happy. Reverse the order and you burn people out for a short term result.

In the first year GUT counted 27 nos, to the point the CFO asked whether Rodriguez understood this was a business that would eventually need clients. It was a conscious founder decision: it is about the right client. GUT uses a reverse RFI, sending its own questions back, on creative ambition, goals and what the client wants from the relationship, alongside chemistry. Even a client at zero on the bravery scale is worth investing in if the willingness and passion are there. But with all the money in the world and no ambition to do creative work, it is not a match. Saying no has felt wrong in the moment and proved right.

One thing that makes GUT different is that senior leadership are not just executives, they do the work. A pitch is not the last time a client sees Rodriguez; the founders Anselmo and Gaston are in day to day meetings and the CCOs are constantly involved. That generates trust, because the client sees the whole agency is invested. In long relationships like Mercado Libre and AB InBev, you cannot tell who is agency and who is client in the room, because it is one team with no ego, thinking about what is best for the brand. It is not you or me, it is us.

Having led businesses across many agencies and countries, Rodriguez still sees herself in the business of creativity, a creative rather than a businessperson. In GUT's pandemic era Founder's Chat, guests including Marcelo Serpa, David Droga, Cindy Gallop and Sir John Hegarty came to inspire the network. Hegarty said an architect studies the history of architecture and an artist the history of art, so people who sell advertising and ideas must study the history of advertising. Great campaigns get taken for granted. So even as a growth leader, creativity stays at the centre: growth with the purpose of creativity, not growth for the sake of numbers.

Clients want a deep partnership, trust, and agencies that understand their business problems. It is not about selling an ad, it is about selling creative solutions to business problems, which means understanding the business. Twenty years building beer brands with AB InBev meant learning the point of sale, supermarkets, sponsorships, events and how consumers deal with the category. Clients want agencies that are true partners in the weeds with them, and not every agency wants or is able to do that. It leads to truthful relationships, longstanding partnerships, and consistency, which pays off in the business and creatively, as eight years of GUT and Mercado Livre show.

On the shortlist jury for creative strategy, what stood out was strong insights executed in a simple way. The phase of complicated executions with QR codes and landing pages has passed; now it is human insights with global reach, executed simply, that make people say wow. Rodriguez is excited by work that resonates at the human level, iconic brands getting back to being iconic, and work that generates business results. On her 15th Cannes she still feels like the first time she spent whole afternoons in the dark film screening rooms, coming out amazed, and she still comes to see work she gets envious of, work she wishes she had done.