Dream Teams: Serviceplan Spain’s Unusual Creative Duo
Teresa García and David Pérez de Quevedo are an unconventional team at Serviceplan Spain who came to work together out of an agency need. They break the standard mould of a creative duo, as Teresa is a senior copywriter and David is a junior art director. While Teresa had been working alone for a while, David joined the agency in 2020. This is when they found themselves working on the same projects together, which led them to become the “happy team they are today”. David describes them as “a couple of orphans” that were brought together by the grace of the agency, so they could start their new creative life as a dream team.
Despite the disparity between them –in both age and experience – the couple connected naturally from the start. “It didn’t take me long to realise that he was a very talented designer with a lot of potential and working together has only confirmed that,” says Teresa. “I also had the feeling that he was going to be easy to work with, and so it has been.” David agrees and adds that he has always been left surprised at how quick Teresa is when it comes to the ideation processes. “She has a very well-developed list of criteria, always brings a very global and mature vision and makes every idea great. She is the creative director that every advertising agency needs,” says David about his creative partner.
Their instant bond as well as their mutual belief in each other’s skills quickly led them into making some memorable work together. The first project they shared, according to Teresa, was “the creation of content for Puerto de Indias’ social media plan, a well-known Spanish gin.” For this project, they generated creative content and data-driven campaigns for six different markets - Spain, Portugal, Germany, the UK, the USA, and LATAM - while optimising tight budgets and engaging with the brand’s community all at once. This also happened to be their first project together, before they were officially dubbed as a creative duo.
And when it comes to later projects that they love, Teresa points to ‘The Most Unfair Bottle’, an idea they created also for Puerto de Indias, to raise awareness about the gender pay gap. “In Spain, women are paid 11.9% less than men for the same jobs, so we launched a bottle with 11.9% less gin, but at the same price. A brave gesture to make people get a taste of the injustice female professionals are suffering with,” explains Teresa. The campaign ended up snatching the silver for design at The New York Festivals Advertising Awards. David adds that the project was also constrained by the tight budget that the duo was given, which meant that they really had to squeeze every drop of possibility out of it.
What has kept them together since that very first project has been a long list of skills and mindsets that fit together perfectly from the start. “I bring experience and strategic thinking. David brings that fresh look that is so necessary in this industry, as well as his unexpected ideas,” says Teresa. She also says that she believes that spanning two generations - her being a millennial and him being part of the generation Z - means that they can understand both sides of the coin and create ideas aimed at each of them.
“We’re calm and don’t drag egos behind us,” adds David. “We have a great facility for establishing processes and because of that, creative disagreement rarely arises.” The key to keeping creative disruptions out of the duo’s day-to-day, according to Teresa, is keeping personal views and emotions at bay, and trying to look at the work for what it really is. “Even if there is no agreement, we choose to share it with our creative director so that he can give us his vision,” she says.
Beyond creative disagreement, they have, as with everybody, some traits that tend to frustrate the other. For Teresa it’s David’s obsession with healthy eating and sports - “It makes me feel terrible when I want to eat a burger or skip the gym,” she says. “Luckily, when I see how awesome his designs are, all frustration evaporates.” On the flip side, for David, his partner’s perfectionism is what drives him up the wall at times. “I can never fool her,” he says. “Just kidding, so far I really can’t find anything that would truly frustrate me in Teresa.”
Jokes aside, both sides of this creative duo see themselves as lucky to be part of a team. “Ideas grow in a creative partnership and are nurtured when you work as a team. Something you never thought of occurs to the other person, and vice versa,” explains Teresa. “That’s how we are able to get to places we would never reach on our own. And, of course, not having to stay alone at the agency when you have to work late is an added bonus.” David agrees, saying that a creative partnership is one of the sure ways to help your ideas grow to their fullest potential. “There’s a lot of sharing involved, and that helps a lot!”
When it comes to what they’ve been doing these days, Teresa tells us that they are building a Spanish winery brand, with its strategic positioning, visual identity, tone of voice, and the creation of its very first creative campaign to be launched on the market. “The winery is called Habla, and they wanted to take the leap into the world of communication, so we created a creative platform and revamped their entire visual identity,” says David.
A rather unlikely combo - David started his career shoulder to shoulder with Teresa, and Teresahas lived a whole creative life before him. Having recently found the true magic of creative partnerships, the duo work well to support each other. “David is super up-to-date with trends and culture, which is so essential for opening up new ways of thinking and generating ideas,” says Teresa. “I admire his calmness and ability to set limits at work to protect his personal life, while still hitting his tasks perfectly. He is super productive!” David continues, “Teresa is probably the person I’ve learned the most from, and above all, she has helped me step out of my way of thinking and mature in the time I’ve been at the agency.”
