Time to tie in - The advertising mogul who's helping NGOs to develop their work in Brasil

Texto: Yami Trequesser

Philippa White was an advertising exec in London. But then she went on holiday to Olinda with her Brasilian boyfriend and something clicked. During the trip, she came up with the idea of creating The International Exchange (TIE), a training programme that takes British marketing executives out to work with NGOs in Brasil. “TIE is a training programme for advertising professionals which makes use of their professional knowledge in a different context and compels the individuals in question to deal with challenging situations that aren’t part of their daily life back in the UK”, explains Philippa, who was born in South Africa but grew up in Canada.

In order to make her dream a reality, she returned to London, spoke to a range of advertising professionals and discovered that they were interested in taking part in a socially responsible initiative. As soon as she was certain that there was a demand in the UK, Philippa spent six months in Brasil and reached the conclusion that there was a similar need over there. “It’s shocking”, she reveals, “so many NGOs don’t understand the way in which advertising can raise awareness of the services offered by the organizations in question”.

The first participant in the TIE programme was Chris Jackson, an account director at the Leo Burnett agency. Chris worked with agency MartPet and Gestos, a NGO that cares for people with HIV in Recife. The second test-pilot was Penny Brough, an account director from Wieden + Kenned who worked in Cabo borough with agency Arcos and Plan, a British transnational organisation that fights for children’s rights. They both studied Portuguese before going to Brasil, but spent most of their time speaking in English.

“That’s why the companies we work with in Brasil must have some level of English”. Philippa has plans to expand the enterprise globally, but it all depends on logistics. “For example, the professionals going to Brasil have to take part in a preparatory day here in the UK, where they find out more about developing countries, what an NGO is and what life will be like over there and what kind of cultural differences they can expect – and when they arrive in Brasil they receive another two days-worth of training”, she explains. “So, if a business in New York wants to take part in the programme, either the professional will have to fly over to London or we’ll need to have someone giving this kind of training in New York. It’s these types of logistics that we’ll have to organize before expanding”.

During the programme, the advertising executives also keep a diary keeping a record of their impressions during their experiences. And at the end of the internship, TIE have an evaluation process to see whether they have managed to achieve their goals or not. TIE also look to allow these professionals to give presentations in venues such as the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising. The
aim isn’t just to share these advertising execs’ experiences, but also to make people more aware of the current situation in Brasil. JD

Time to tie in - The advertising mogul who's helping NGOs to develop their work in Brasil

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