Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrea De la Torre. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andrea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business
The story I’m about to tell is a bit of a bitter-sweet one. What I now remember as a funny anecdote, back then, was a moment I had to face all my fears. This is the story where we first realised the impact we had with our business.
The backstory requires a glimpse into my personal journey. At 18, I discovered I had MEN type 1, a genetic condition with a 50% chance of being passed on to my children. Science offered a hopeful future where my children could be free of this burden with new IVF techniques.
Fast forward to June 2023. After a heartbreaking first round of IVF, where all embryos inherited the condition and would not be implanted, life threw an ironic twist. Our side business was starting to grow into a full-time venture, and we landed a big potential client – an alcohol-free wine brand looking to market to expectant mothers. The irony wasn’t lost on me; I was to be the face of pregnancy joy at a time when my own maternal hopes were dashed.
I couldn’t turn down the possibility of getting our first monthly client, so we went ahead with the job and created the ads. While broken inside, I smiled into the camera, and told them how happy I was to be pregnant and having found the best alcohol-free wine to enjoy the next 9 months.
Weeks later, I started to receive many messages on Instagram from acquaintances, from friends of friends and even close friends; asking if I was pregnant. I was beyond confused. “How the hell did they find out I was trying IVF? I barely told anyone!”
And they all had the same answer: “I’ve seen you in an ad!”
My first reaction was fear. How many people that know me are going to think now that I am pregnant? As a person that was going through a tough IVF process, it just broke my heart to think that I would have to tell them that I was not pregnant when I wanted nothing more than to say, “yes I am!”
But afterwards a second thought came: “Wait a minute, this ad we created is reaching all these people?” All over Germany people were seeing our work, a campaign that we scripted, produced and finalised! Suddenly, there was only one feeling: pride. Here and there I knew that what we were doing was having an impact. Not only to the brands we were working with, but to the people that were seeing the ads.
Exposure on social media is part of our job; we are a young content marketing agency, and we still do a lot of the content ourselves. There are still moments where you feel terrified of what others may think of you when they see you on their phones. However, whenever self-doubt or fear comes, we remember that moment in summer 2023 when we realised our work doesn’t just sell products; it connects, it resonates, it matters.
Andrea, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I was one of those lucky kids that always knew that they wanted to be. I wanted to be a businesswoman. After my studies at Deusto Business School in Bilbao, life took me to Germany. A place I have now been living for the past 8 years, more than 5 of those, working for adidas in different marketing and communications departments.
In 2020, when Covid happened and we started to work remotely, something changed in me. It made me realise that by staying at home and dictating my own timings, I was way more productive and also happier. I had a better life quality, more time for things that brought me joy; and ironically, due to the lockdown and remote working, I was able to spend more time in between my two homes: Spain and Germany.
So, in 2022, I quit my safe and really great job at adidas Headquarters and started working for a little startup, before becoming a content creator in early 2023. Soon, I realised that this side hustle had the potential to become more than that. It was the very early stages of what is now known as UGC (User-Generated-Content).
Most of the time, when you think of a content creator, you think of someone that receives cool products for free and gets paid a lot of money for “very little work”. What you don’t see, is that a content creator is a creative scriptwriter, actor, producer, director, post-producer, accountant, and much more.
Content creators must transform from job to job, to translate the brands’ vision to life. When you see an UGC (User-Generated-Content) ad on social media, you believe that the person that is telling you their story, selling a product, is honest and true. He or she is a happy user telling us their experience because they are so happy, amazed, etc. with this product or service that they cannot wait to tell everyone else.
That is what UGC is all about. The receiver of that ad has to feel close to the person in the ad, just like a friend telling you about their new favorite tool over a cup of coffee. If that happens, you know you’ve done your job well.
At moo content, we specialize in helping businesses amplify their brand and increase sales through user-generated content (UGC). Our goal is to collaborate closely with brands, listen to their needs, and translate their vision into compelling content that speaks to their target audience.
We pride ourselves for obtaining high-quality content for brands that drive results. The secret of our success relies on having creators that perform. We prefer quality over quantity, and that is why we have a very selective process to choose the creators that will be part of our agency, and we train them in our data-backed content strategy; to ensure they deliver a fast and seamless experience from start to finish to our clients.
From ads for social media, to account management or social media strategy; we do it all. Simply put, we take care of all content needs.
But our plans don’t end there. We are currently expanding the brand, hiring new people that will help us take our agency to the next level. For performance marketing to integration of AI into our productions. We want to become the go-to agency for all content marketing related topics.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs
Just like this quote says, the pieces of the puzzle only reveal the final image at the end. This is a bit what happened to us. We always liked creating content and be out there on social media. For years, we were sharing information mainly about fitness and health, which led to a growing following on 3 different accounts, especially on TikTok. For us, part of the fun was figuring out what makes people watch one video versus another, see what works and what doesn’t. We didn’t think back then of becoming influencers or any of the sort.
In winter of 2022, Henry (my co-founder of moo content) received a message on TikTok from an agency saying that they were looking for an UGC creator to create a video for an insurance company. I remember Henry thinking it was a scam. Getting paid that much for one video?
And that was the day we discovered UGC. Since then, we started doing more and more UGC jobs on the side. We signed up to multiple platforms that connect UGC creators with brands and realised how much fun this was. We were getting very good feedback and brands wanted to keep on collaborating with us.
Very soon in this UGC journey, I realised I was at the right place at the right time to be more than just an UGC creator. There was a very clear need from brands and performance marketing agencies seeking for good creators in all places.
One girl at a company we worked with that was so desperate to find male creators that she even created a Tinder account to search for people interested. So, there was a clear demand, and the problem was that the offer wasn’t good enough.
This industry also attracts a lot of “wannabe” influencers who think they will get products for free without putting in the work. But with our strong marketing background and professionalism, I knew we could change the playing field. We would not only be able to help brands and agencies, but also create scale for us as creators.
That is the moment we decided to go from single UGC creators into a content marketing agency. And moo content was born.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Henry and I first crossed paths in 2016, as two eager 22-year-olds in different marketing departments at adidas Headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Our relationship evolved from colleagues to life partners, and after seven years together, including two years of marriage, we ventured into the entrepreneurial world as co-founders.
Our collaborative journey wasn’t initiated with the company; it was born from our mutual enthusiasm for fitness and well-being, leading us to organise fitness and yoga retreats. This was our first venture together and a testament to our synergy as a team.
Many are curious about how we manage to work so closely as spouses. For us, the idea of not working together is incomprehensible. We’re anchored by shared values that pass through both our personal lives and our enterprise. Our commitment to sports, our love for travel, and our pursuit of growth, both individually and as professionals, are the cornerstones of our union and business.
The commonly discussed notion of work-life balance seems flawed to us. It’s strange to think that life pauses during working hours. That would imply living fully for only a fraction of the week, discounting sleep. We believe in living fully, 100% of the time.
Our harmonious partnership thrives on our distinct, yet complementary, skill sets. My love for planning and strategic thinking naturally carved my role in leading the company’s course. Henry’s creativity and foresight keep us ahead of the curve, spearheading initiatives like integrating AI to revolutionise our industry and leverage it as our greatest resource.
In closing, our partnership transcends the personal and professional realms, creating a dynamic where life and work are not just balanced but integrated. This integration is the foundation of our success and the unique strength of our company, allowing us to live passionately and work purposefully, without compromising on either.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moocontent.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moo.content/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/98778532/admin/feed/posts/
Image Credits
Isabel Wallace https://www.isabelwallace.com/