Roberto Alcazar is EVP Managing Partner & Executive Creative Director at 305 Worldwide, a division of Horizon Media, the largest media agency in the U.S. Roberto has worked with some of the biggest brands out there, and has been awarded numerous advertising awards, including Clio, Addys, New York Festival, and Advertising Age Creative Award, among others.
I wanted to catch up with Roberto to trade notes on the big changes the media environment is going through these days and also talk about his non-profit initiative, Corazon Latino, a national organization that seeks to generate social, environmental, and conservation initiatives that foster natural resource stewardship.
We talk about the central role of culture in effective advertising, how shortening attention spans are affecting messaging, and the rise of longer-form ad units that are today’s equivalent to VSLs (Video Sales Letters).
We converse about the short tenure of CMOs and the often-observed folly of brands doubling down on performance-focused marketing while forgetting about brand-building when a recessionary macroenvironment looms. As Roberto observes, “the moment your brand becomes a commodity, it’s done. Because a commodity will always get replaced by a new shiny thing.”
We then do a deep dive into the creative process, and how great teams — not just talented individuals — are essential in ideation and execution.
We finish our conversation with a discussion of what Roberto is excited about for 2023, with special regard to how AI is likely to change the way advertising is ideated, executed, and delivered to consumers.
