Catalina Berton Interview – A world with no boundaries

Today we have selected Catalina Berton to take his Interview. She is the CEO Of Sud Creative.

First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?

COVID-19 has challenged the world to reinvent itself. For us, this pandemic gave us a chance to speed up our processes. We had to quickly learn how to position ourselves as a trustful brand among the increasing companies searching for their digital identity.

This crisis forced many businesses to turn to the digital sphere. We divided new clients into two categories: the first one was Clients with no digitalization, who were forced to turn to Social Media and e-commerce due to lockdown; the other category is Clients who were able to tackle the crisis and invested their resources in the digital arena.

At the same time, before COVID-19, we were playing with little time, sort of a day at a time. In 2020 we had to step up our game to become relevant.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company.

My background is in social communication and video production. I traveled the world working as a photographer for a few years, and that gave me a completely different perspective on how to face daily situations. I’m from Uruguay, but I never again believed my work had to be within my country’s boundaries when the world was getting smaller by the minute.

I founded Sud Creative with the belief that marketing unites people with the solutions they need. After years of traveling and working for big corporations, I noticed how difficult it was for small businesses to stay relevant, to reach their audience, even when the solution they were offering was magnificent. I wanted to be part of the growth of those entrepreneurs.

How does your company innovate?

We focus on providing the right solution for each client. After our initial brief, we create each team according to the project’s needs and not depending on who’s free at the Agency. That also allows us to interact with very talented people who don’t usually live in the same city, adding a unique condiment to the worldwide vision we want to show.

We have a remote-work methodology that allows us to be part of the Sud Creative community without lowering our anchors in a particular place. That broad world vision is clear when we work with clients from different cultures and timezones.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

As a company, remote work was our everyday thing, even before the pandemic, so the way we produce content, and the quality of our work didn’t change much. As we work with people from different countries, this pandemic affected each of us in a different way, and we felt the need to be there for each other.

We did have an increase in clients, and we were not ready for the growth, so we had to step up quickly not to lose the quality of our work.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Uruguay has done a great job coping with the COVID-19 virus: we never went into complete lockdown, and the number of cases has been stable for most of the crisis, so thankfully, we didn’t need to change much of what we were already doing.

I believe one of the most valuable lessons I was reminded of was that the team is the core of any entrepreneurship. Without trusting the people I was working with, I wouldn’t be able to produce more content, maintaining the quality. To be there for each other was paramount for Sud Creative during these times.

What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?

As we were already working remotely, we used the project management tools before are still good now. We use Asana as the Project Management tool, the Google Workspace for connectivity. We increase the flexibility on working hours, as well; also, we implemented a meet a week where we just get together to talk about things we like, to interact in a non-work-related way.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Digital Marketing is growing like crazy due to the pandemic. Our main competitors are the agencies already settled, with the economic power to rule out our growth and proposition. Simultaneously, we compete with a clear and concise strategy and an expert team formed according to each project’s needs.

Your final thoughts

The digital transformation is not an option anymore: the pandemic has made it mandatory. Especially for small businesses, this crisis has shown them to grow without being on the most expensive street or hiring more personnel.

This crisis has also shown that the world is getting smaller, a virus that started in China quickly and easily spread to the rest of the world; the same way happens with marketing talents, we can do great work from anywhere.