When Formula 1 races air in Brazil, thousands of motorsport enthusiasts now tune into a second-screen experience where popular automotive channel Acelerados provides real-time commentary and analysis. KitKat sponsors this content property, connecting with a targeted audience of racing fans through entertainment rather than traditional advertising. 

Behind this approach stands Mutato, a São Paulo-based agency helping brands engage with creator communities.

Founded in 2012 as a social content agency within WPP, Mutato emerged to help brands work in the then-nascent social media field when most traditional agencies lacked digital expertise. The agency initially managed social channels for clients but has since developed into a full-service partner for major brands like Toyota, Ipiranga, and L’Oréal.

“We are looking to places where we can create social-native content that people want to watch and be part of, create communities around strong topics, and then connect brands with that,” explains Daniel Cecconello, CEO and Partner at Mutato. 

This strategy represents a shift in how agencies generate value – moving from selling creative services to developing proprietary content products. According to Daniel, the traditional agency model faces a key challenge in the creator economy: billable hours don’t accurately reflect value creation.

“Ad agencies are struggling to charge for their work,” Daniel explains. “We are selling man-hours, but they don’t work those hours. They often work more than that.” This gap between effort and compensation has intensified as social platforms and creator partnerships require more agility and responsiveness than traditional campaigns.

“We should change this billing model for the services that we deliver,” Daniel asserts. “Change from services to products so we can quantify more what we’re delivering and thus charge better.”

Creators as Creatives

Central to Mutato’s value creation model is its reconceptualization of creators’ roles in the creative process. “We are working with creators as creatives,” Daniel explains, highlighting their core belief that modern content development requires creator-native thinking rather than traditional agency structures.

“We look for all types of creators, including copywriters and art directors, to deliver the content that brands need,” he notes. This approach positions Mutato between traditional agencies with their legacy creative departments and influencer marketing platforms that focus on volume rather than strategic integration.

Unlike influencer agencies, Mutato doesn’t manage creator careers. Instead, they start with brand strategy and then identify the right creators for specific objectives. “We look to what we have to do for the brand, what we need in that campaign or in that moment of the brand. Then, we do the creatorship work, craft a strategy of what we need, and we find the best creators to be part of that,” Daniel explains.

From Showrunners to Proprietary Content IPs

Building on their creator-centric approach, Mutato has reimagined how brands should communicate on social media. “We are calling our creative leaders ‘showrunners,’” Daniel says. “We start the year of a brand like a season. The showrunner will take care of this message throughout the year.”

This entertainment-industry mindset treats brand communication as ongoing narratives rather than discrete campaigns. “We know there will be key moments when we have to put inside our show for the brand, but then we have to keep the episodes attractive,” he explains. “We try to make this connection with entertainment, looking for brands as series and for always-on as seasons and for campaigns as spike moments in the communication.”

The most notable aspect of Mutato’s model, however, is its development of proprietary content properties that brands can sponsor. Their Formula 1 partnership with Acelerados exemplifies this: “We partnered with an automotive channel that is active on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram to create a second screen for the F1 transmissions.”

This content format, sponsored by KitKat, features Acelerados talent providing live commentary alongside races, with edited highlights distributed across social platforms afterward.

Mutato is quickly expanding this IP portfolio. “We have one about finance education for Gen Z coming real soon,” Daniel shares. “We are already looking for another one with soccer for the 2026 World Cup and then the 2027 Women’s World Cup that will take place in Brazil.”

Working Within Brazil’s Creator Market

As Daniel reveals, Brazil’s creator economy is facing challenges related to standardization and professionalization. “We don’t have an established pattern for how agencies work, how creators work, how they do their contracts, what they charge for,” he explains.

This lack of structure creates uncertainty for brands wanting to engage with creators. Many businesses remain hesitant because of concerns about professionalism, delivery consistency, and compliance issues.

To address this issue, Mutato leverages its position within WPP to provide compliance frameworks that make larger brands comfortable while still maintaining enough creative flexibility. 

“Being inside a big group does not allow us to be as quick as some operations need,” Daniel acknowledges, “but for brands that understand the need for compliance in the hiring and background check of creators, it works well because we check all the boxes those clients need.”

By developing more structured, product-based systems for creator partnerships, Mutato helps build brand confidence in Brazil’s creator field. “No doubt this marketing area is growing faster than everything else,” Daniel observes. 

Yet he believes many agencies and brands have an overly narrow view of the market potential. “They look to the influencer marketing side of the market, but the creator economy is a whole other world,” he explains. “Lawyers, doctors, and mechanics – everyone used to have a website, and now they have to be on TikTok to approach clients. That’s just a small example of where the creator economy is going.”

Implementing Change in a Traditional Industry

Introducing this new value creation model hasn’t been without challenges. “It’s hard to implement a new model in a market where you go to a pitch with other companies and the clients want the same structure that they are used to for hiring,” Daniel admits.

For Mutato, success has come from finding forward-thinking brand partners who recognize the limitations of traditional agency relationships. “We are looking for clients that believe in this approach of creators as creatives, that believe in the approach of a brand as a show,” Daniel says. 

The agency’s willingness to continuously reshape itself is embedded in its very name. “‘Mutato’ means ‘change’ in Latin,” Daniel explains. “We have used this statement of change ever since.”

As Mutato continues to develop proprietary content properties and refine its product-based business model, it aims to establish a new approach for agency value creation that better aligns with the functioning of the creator economy.

“Our main goal is to be part of the relationship that brands have with people in what’s now called ‘community building,’” Daniel concludes.

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