Our Pioneer in Los Angeles, USA: Duco Muller
Our Pioneer in Los Angeles, USA: Duco Muller
Our Pioneer of the week is CEO of Composite Agency and SpaceCamp Media™, Duco Muller. Having moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago, we catch up with Duco to find out more about life in America and what it is about living there that makes it creatively different and inspirational.
Through our Pioneers series, in collaboration with Nils Adriaans, we catch up with members of the Dutch Creative Community living abroad and ask them to send back personal ‘messages in a bottle’ about life away from the Netherlands.
How did you end up in Los Angeles? What drove you?
We moved to Los Angeles / Santa Monica 14 years ago to set up an office for 180Amsterdam. We won the global account for Sony Electronics and the US account for adidas. I literally stepped onto a KLM plane with a duffle bag with clothes and an acoustic guitar and never looked back. I was triggered to start something new from scratch on the other side of the world. We had nothing, we bought desks and chairs at IKEA and before we knew it, we had a staff of 50 people and a thriving start-up.
What makes you feel at home?
We are lucky to live in an authentic mid-century bungalow just a couple of streets from the Santa Monica beach. Every morning we wake up with sunshine, yoga, the smell of freshly made coffee, hummingbirds and our squirrel friends. Our home office view is looking out over the LA mountains with white snowy tops. So, it’s a bit of everything you need in life.
What stands out the most there (professionally)?
What I always admired about Californians is their positivity. Even if death and despair is staring them in the face, they truly believe they will make it out successfully. It’s a state of mind that I think a lot of immigrants have in their DNA. They are here to make it and will do everything to make it happen. I truly believe that this is why you see so many new entrepreneurs and a lot of innovation here in Silicon Valley and where we are at Silicon Beach. It puts a smile on my face when I see autonomous delivery robots driving down our street dropping off groceries because of Covid19, or SpaceX shooting up a rocket with another batch of satellites to connect every sole on earth to the internet. There is a lot possible here.
What inspires you extremely as a professional?
At this moment in time, it’s all about ‘disruption’ for me. I see a lot of opportunity in existing industries being disrupted by technology. Think about social media, transportation, energy, food, health care and the financial industries. This decade will see so much change that is being triggered by faster processing power, technical innovation and changing social needs.
What’s the best/most radical piece of work over there?
I was always a big believer of creativity through the board. What I mean by this is that every disciple in our industry has to be creative. From client management, research, strategy, data analysis, media and eventually asset production.
So, keeping this in mind I’m a big believer of the in-house agencies that have been on a rise or gained popularity in the last years. These in house agencies truly understand their brand(s) and their objectives, have first-hand access to confidential data from their sales teams and management decisions. They are also able switch gears when needed and are accountable for their actions.
A great example of an in-house campaign is for Facebook Groups – More Together.
What ‘souvenir’ would you bring home?
The one thing that I would like to bring home with me is ‘positivity’. A positive mindset in doing business and starting new professional relations is a key ingredient in my humble opinion. I’ve learned to step away from negativity.