Wieden + Kennedy, Portland creative director José Molla and his brother, Buenos Aires-based Joaquin Molla have launched a new agency, la comunidad, with offices in Buenos Aires and Miami.

José Molla has been with W+K for four years, while his brother was most recently a creative director with BBDO Argentina.

"We want to trash structures that ad agencies have right now -- most right now are based on the old model, industrial era. We want to do something more freely flexible; the main thing is the idea and the best way to protect it," says José Molla.

"The only value you have in an ad agency is the people that work for you and in some places they sometimes treat people unnecessarily and exploit them 'til they are warn down and then replace them."

Molla describes la comunidad (the community) as a group of open-minded people generating ideas not just for advertising, but all areas of brand and product development. Painters, philosophers, photographers, writers, designers and art directors are the creative types the Molla brothers seek to work with, and open-ended business arrangements are also part of the equation.

"We can work for specific projects and that's it. The client doesn't have to quit their agency to do it. We feel that ideas are the fuel these days and we just sell ideas but not in the traditional way of either TV or print," says Molla. "Communications is way bigger than that. We think in every aspect in which a person interacts with a product, in the store, street or online. For example, when we presented for AIWA, we wanted to hire 50 dancers to dance in the streets of Buenos Aires wearing AIWA shirts but with no music."

The Argentine branch of the agency launched at the beginning of the year to accommodate an influx of clients for that market; Sanyo, AIWA and Noblex, to name a few. Currently, José Molla is helping W+K replace him in Portland before he moves to Miami, a city replete with strategic significance.

"Someone told me something funny once: the good thing about Miami is that it's close to the US," jokes Molla.