Creative

Companies that harness creativity and data in tandem have growth rates twice as high as companies that don’t. Here’s how they do it.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

• Advertising is under fire.
• As a business, as an industry, as a cultural agent.
• Our relevance and our legitimacy as creators and guardians of the canon and its values is called into question literally 24/7.
• In the age of social media, everything we “create” is scrutinized and torn apart ipso facto by some troll with too much time in his or her hands.
• Everything our creatives come up with seems to be tin-eared, flat-footed or offensive in some way or other.
• Fair enough.
• Question is, do we really “create” in the ad business.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director/ LMMiami.com

• As I said in the first installment of this piece last week, casting “regular folk” in advertising has been tried repeatedly with spotty results at best.
• When I say “regular folk” I mean “racially realistic”.

Wonderful Pistachios announced that sportscaster and TV personality, Carmen Boquín, will serve as the brand’s ambassador during the most important soccer event in the world. 

In the latest episode of eMarketer’s “Behind the Numbers” podcast, we discuss a series of TV commercials from industry giants like Uber and Facebook that attempt to acknowledge their mistakes and move on. But will these ads work?

Amscot Financial—the Florida-based company providing convenient, consumer-oriented financial services through its network of retail branches— reveals its latest Spanish-bilingual campaign geared toward a growing and evolving Hispanic consumer segment. 

Copa Airlines, the Panamanian Football Federation (FEPAFUT) and many popular Panamanian recording artists presented “Sube la Marea,” (“The Tide Rises”) a new tribute song for the Panama National Football team that will participate for the first time in a Soccer World Cup.

Republica announced the promotions of Michael DeJesus and Federico Giraldo to creative directors. In their expanded roles, DeJesus and Giraldo will report to Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Milton Lebron and help lead the agency’s award-winning creative team.

Young Latina Fernanda Vazquez received her first paycheck and celebrates with her extended family in a tender moment of accomplishment in “Girl’s First Check” by Wells Fargo. Notable? Yes, as it was one of the first national ads that featured one of the biggest, yet least acknowledged, shifts occurring in the U.S. Hispanic market – the professionalization of Latinas.  By Stephen Palacios, Principal, Ahzul

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has announced the launch of the CMO Growth Council in partnership with the ANA’s CMO Masters Circle.

Back in January, Edward Kim Vice President, Strategy, Nielsen Catalina Solutions, presented “Five Keys to Advertising Effectiveness”. The presentation reported on the findings of over 500 studies of CPG brands conducted during 2016-2017 that sought to understand the sales contribution of five key drivers of effective advertising, including a comparison of TV versus digital.  by Nigel Hollis

By Gonzalo López Martí    Creative director, etc    / LMMiami.com

• Plastic surgery has been around for several decades now.
• What began as a technique to repair scarred tissue gradually evolved into human sculpting for aesthetic purposes.
• The goal: to increase the self-esteem of the “patient”.

Research suggests some ways artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, and blockchain are reshaping creative work.

Being in multicultural advertising, I’m always looking for images to use in presentations and on behalf of client work. What I’ve discovered is how hard it is to find any kind of diversity in the Hispanics represented in stock imagery.  by Karla Fernandez Parker

For the first time in history, a brand brings together two football superstars of Latin America, Lionel Messi and Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. (Messi and Neymar Jr.), in an integrated marketing and communications platform to score against childhood hunger and malnutrition in LAC.

No, no and no. Stop. Niet. Nein. Stay away! Don’t even think about it. Leave it to me! I do this for a living, seriously. It’s how I pay for my frijoles! Yankee go home!

Renée Lavecchia and Federico Hauri have been named Chief Client Officer and VP/ Executive Creative Director respectively for Y&R Miami and the Bravo Group.

I have seen ‘brand’ referred to as if it were something to rank alongside production, supply chain and capital; a part of doing business rather than something reflective of how people remember their interaction with a brand. But to do so diverts attention from the importance to shaping and framing those memories to best effect.  by Nigel Hollis

LUNA United announced that Adrian Castagna has joined as Head of Integrated Production.

Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. got the nod of approval by the competition’s judges for a wide assortment of work created on behalf of its clients, including Walmart, Community Coffee, Lone Star College, the Houston Dynamo, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and highlighted by a “Best in Show” in the Broadcast category. This marks the 15th consecutive year that the agency has earned “Best in Show” honors.