• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 9, 2018

Cultura Colectiva, an agency originating in Mexico City, began its move to New York in December 2017 after spearheading a successful campaign for Volkswagen with help from its network of 1,000 content creators including photographers, illustrators and poets.

Now the agency wants to take the business model and technology supporting its campaigns in Mexico to the United States, under the guidance of Sarah Vander Wal, head of brand at Cultura Colectiva.

The campaign that prompted the move celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Volkswagen (VW) Golf, which is popular among the older generation in Mexico. Through shareable content, the goal is to remind younger consumers — millennials and Gen-Zers — that the car exists.

Younger adults in Mexico typically either participate in a rideshare or ride-hailing program rather than spending the money to purchase their own car, Vander Wal said.

For this campaign, Iván Salamanca, an artist from Cultura Colectiva’s Creator Network, painted 30 illustrations of classic VW cars in 30 days. The goal was to create a sense of nostalgia to help combat any distress millennials felt when buying a car. The campaign, which highlights unique artistic content, initially ran on Instagram where about 48% of users shared it with their own network.

Cultura Colectiva is a Mexico-based agency, but as it expands globally, a creative sourcing concept is one Vander Wal thinks can grow worldwide.

This type of creative sourcing campaign relies on algorithms and a large amount of data that the agency collects from others sharing content to determine the specific strategy. The content network driven by artificial intelligence and data-drive algorithms proved so successful in Mexico that the agency decided to bring the content sourcing model to the U.S. The technology tells the agency on which platform the content will have the most impact based on the objectives.

“We’re ready to create in the United States that same value we created in Mexico,” Vander Wal said.

The Mexico City-based agency believe its network of content creators will grow as it expands worldwide to create a global chain of content creators.

Targeted brands to consider in the U.S. would include automotive and consumer product goods companies that want to reach a younger audience on social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

“We’ve contemplated also taking this model to spirt companies because clearly the idea of nightlife and fun is a passion for our audience,” she said. “Millennials don’t really care to have brands talk directly to them.”