All Inclusive: “Our Creativity Was Built on a Tradition of Sharp Analysis and Cultural Honesty”
ALTERED.LA is fighting for more equal representation and an all-inclusive general market. Over the course of 20 years in the biz, Marcos Cline, ALTERED.LA founder and EP, has seen the power of Latin audiences grow exponentially and is passionate about ensuring this market is authentically and creatively catered to. Representing top-notch award-winning directors, ALTERED.LA believes it's important for Hispanic representation in front of and behind the camera and is advocating for clients to pursue this demographic as part of growing their business.
For this new LBB series, ALTERED.LA will be speaking to representatives from the biggest agencies in the industry to see what they too are doing to advocate for more authentic bicultural storytelling, how this will grant the next generation of Hispanic talent a foot in the door and why this will result in greater Latin representation within the General US Market overall.
Joining the community as chief strategy officer in 2022, Lee Maicon is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of the global creative agency, developing insights that drive creative solutions, and ensuring that client campaigns align with their business objectives. But a key aspect of his role is helping the community deliver culturally attuned campaigns, steering the agency's approach towards creating impactful, resonant work for clients.
With his diverse background in the industry, Lee taps into his deep experience in brand management, consumer insights, and strategic planning, harnessing data-driven insights and fostering creativity to deliver successful marketing strategies that eradicate exclusive and ensure multiculturalism across all projects.
LBB> How does the community ensure that Hispanic voices are authentically represented in the projects you undertake?
Lee> We ensure authentic representation in two ways.
First, authenticity with the new mainstream and Hispanic community is baked into our DNA. We don’t take it for granted, but since we were founded in Buenos Aires and Miami, and now with a major presence in NY and CDMX as well, from the start we’ve worked in spaces that are more representative of the communities we help brands connect. And that’s key to who we are and what we stand for.
The second part is about our point of view. We work hard to keep a POV that centres around cultural honesty. We talk a lot about cultural honesty. Which works both ways: helping brands be their most authentic selves in how they act and what they say as well as being honest to the people they want to connect with. Those conversations put us on the road to that level of authentic representation.
LBB> Can you share a recent project that exemplifies the community’s commitment to authentic Hispanic representation and storytelling?
Lee> From our work with Verizon to Volkswagen, Porsche, and more, we have a lot of solid examples. With that said, my favourite from the past year is definitely our Super Bowl campaign with Verizon, The Leak, which started with an ad on Univision. The goal was to demonstrate the strength of the Verizon network and was centred around a “leak” of J Balvin’s phone number—within the spot, as he’s bombarded with texts, photos, and video messages, the Verizon network doesn’t miss a beat.
This led to an experience via text and online that ensured every single fan who messaged him had a good experience. To do this, we created an AI deep learning language model that could reply as J Balvin would. Mimicking his tone of voice, expressions and emojis. So fans felt as if they were exchanging messages with Balvin himself.
LBB> How have you seen the demand for Hispanic/bicultural content evolve over the past few years, and how is the community responding to this?
Lee> It’s exploded and we’re here for it! We’ve responded in three ways: first, even though we’ve grown to play lots of roles with clients as a lead agency, we’ve never departed from our roots. We have kept our culture despite our growth and continue to invest in keeping roots with the community.
Second, we have the right resources. Whether it’s an investment in original research on consumers or the continued development of our network of makers through our sister agency Plural, we have the means of production we need to respond to the growth.
And third, the content is much more diverse than it used to be, in terms of audience, language and platform. We work hard to keep our sensibility to drive the best work that has value as opposed to just making stuff to fill channels.
LBB> What are some of the biggest challenges your agency faces in advocating for more Hispanic representation and how do you overcome them?
Lee> The biggest challenge? Not every brand feels a sense of urgency to do what we all know they need to. Nor do they have clarity on how to do it. So we start as simply as we can: with the data .
We’re a creative agency with a long history of great creativity. But what people sometimes forget is that our creativity was built on a tradition of sharp analysis and cultural honesty. That honesty is built on a rigorous application of the data stack we’ve invested in to make sure our creativity can fly because it’s grounded in reality.
LBB> In what ways do you believe increased Hispanic representation can contribute to societal change and cultural enrichment?
Lee> It is as simple as “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” 90% of success is showing up. There’s a vague desire for representation, but the reality is that there has been a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) exclusion of Latinos from both representation in front of and behind the camera, let alone in the offices in which the lion’s share of decisions are made.
Precisely because Latinos are not monolithic, we bring a consistently diverse, inventive and often disruptive point of view to the conversations of which we’re a part. It's an example of leading by our behaviour and by our energetically different set of assumptions
LBB> How do you stay inspired and motivated to push for more inclusive representation in the industry?
Lee> I’m inspired when I see just how far we’ve come! When you put in the work, it works… Both the leaps we’ve made and the gaps that remain inspire me.
