Hispanic Heritage Month: ALMA Agency

Gabriel Ferrer
Creative Director Alma


 As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close on October 15th, we wanted to cap it off by highlighting talent at ALMA Agency in Florida. 

From quirky hobbies to killer instincts for working with brands, the team at ALMA is more than meets the eye.  

 

  

 

Gabriel Ferrer, Associate Creative Director


Gabriel Ferrer, A.K.A Gabe, was raised on cafe-con-leches and cheeseburgers like all true Cuban-Americans are. He’s most recognized for his T-shirts, his dog Hendrix, his Help Kenya Not Kanye project that raised $10K for charity, and his year-long commitment to wishing ALL of his friends a happy birthday via rap: Birthday Bars.

Gabe is an Associate Creative Director, with experience developing creative ideas for brands like State Farm, McDonald’s, Clorox, Netflix, JetBlue, Google, and Barnes and Noble. His work has earned a Cannes Lion, a Grand Prix at El Ojo de Iberoamerica, a shortlist at Radio Mercury awards, and has been published in Creativity, Archive, ADWEEK, and D&AD. He's spoken at SXSW and a wedding in Lebanon. Have we mentioned he just turned 30? Check out Gabe’s portfolio at BrainOfGabe.com

 

 

 

Jackie Zima, Senior Strategic Planner


You know the saying "hit the ground running"? Jackie Zima was so eager to start her advertising career, that she chose a start date BEFORE her graduation ceremony from the University of Florida. (No worries, she didn't actually miss it). She joined ALMA over 5 years ago as a Junior AE, and her innate curiosity and insatiable fascination with people, culture and the intertwining of the two, led to her role today as Sr. Strategic Planner. Jackie has played an integral role in the strategic development of multiple brand re-launches and continues to work tirelessly to breathe life into communications that authentically connect with the Multicultural consumer.

Jackie also leads Alma’s Social Media Lab. Through comprehensive social media listening, she has the exclusive responsibility of keeping a pulse on Hispanics’ real-time conversations online and producing quarterly reports detailing the most important findings and their implications. This past March, she helped complete the first ever research paper on Generacion Zeta (the Hispanic Generation Z) and presented solo it at SXSW - no biggie. In her spare time, Jackie enjoys sports, coaches a youth basketball team, and delivers food to one of San Fran's homeless shelters every Tuesday. Where does she find the time? We're not quite sure. What we do know is Jackie is only getting started in rocking the advertising industry.

 


Luis Miguel Messianu, CEO Creative Chairman and Founder of ALMA Advertising


“Luis Mi” is the founder and CEO of ALMA and your typical Mexican-Romanian. He has played a respectable and influential role in the most important developments in the U.S. Hispanic market during an advertising career that spans three decades. Back when Hispanic was just an afterthought in marketing strategies in the U.S., Luis Miguel had the foresight to target this vast and rapidly growing market. When he opened the doors to ALMA in 1994, he had a higher purpose in mind: to elevate the image of Hispanics in the U.S.

He's worked with blue-chip brands like McDonald's, Clorox, Netflix, State Farm, to name a few, and has earned virtually every top creative award out there. Luis Miguel has been recognized as a diversity trendsetter in our market by ADWEEK and an Adcolor Legend Honoree for his work in elevating the U.S. Hispanic presence. Today, he has grown ALMA from a startup into the largest multicultural agency in the U.S. and the most creatively awarded agency in its market (Crema Ranking), yet he continues to take every single ALMA staffer to lunch for their birthday. He makes it look so easy.



Gabriel Ferrer
Creative Director Alma