Carlos Martinez Cabrera Pelaez
Cuban Society of Social Communicators is presently holding its first Social Communication Festival, in Havana. The event, with Hotel Nacional’s halls as venue, is being attended by prestigious national and international figures in terms of communication, advertisement, marketing and public relations.
CDN has interviewed Spanish guest Carlos Martinez Cabrera Pelaez, Bachelor of Laws and Master of Business Management, director of El Sol, Latin American Festival on Advertising Communication, who participates in this event as a member of the Spanish Association of Advertising Agencies and chairman of Contrapunto creative agency. He gave an interesting conference titled: La publicidad del siglo XXI, un camino de búsqueda de la eficacia (Advertising in the 21st century, a way to achieve efficiency), which was very welcomed by the attendees.
How important do you think the communication is within the Latin American context?
Well, the communication is very important in Latin American, just as it is in the rest of the world, the communication is indispensable, human beings communicate with each other and represent idea speakers, and therefore, we not only have communication, but I think that we work in the world of ideas, which can build a better world. We are a far-reaching speaker for people to have the capability to find new dreams, new needs and challenges. I strongly believe that every element of growth and human development is linked to the communication.
Latin America represents an example of development in this historic moment, I mean, when the world is facing a general crisis, Latin America is moving forward.
That’s right, but history teaches that crisis come and go. Spain is going through a brutal crisis. We’ve been facing a deep crisis, 2007 - 2013, and Latin America is spectacularly growing with double numbers. This is great news for me, but I would say that we have to be ready for the future because this increase doesn’t last forever, so we have to learn from our mistakes, in Spain for instance, in order to have a more constant, progressive, gradual and consistent growth.
What can communicators do to come out of this hole?
We can keep on pushing, being capable of making a change. We, advertising executives, don’t easily face changes. We theoretically are a modern profession, but it remains just as it was structured dozens years ago and it’s hard for us to change because we have had lots of privileges and we’re not aware that we have privileges to learn how to generate something new, this is not about a change of age, but a high-scale change of mind. I think that the crisis has come to stay, therefore, we should wait for a change to take please, but we are to do and that’s our reality.
What about Contrapunto as an agency?
It’s mainly a creativity agency. It was born back in 1974, was the first Spanish agency to win the Grand Prize of Cannes’ Advertising Festival for TVE. But, above all, it’s one of the agencies that have developed the more successful and applauded campaigns.
Does your presence in the Latin American market give you any trend to be applied in Europe?
In Spain we are currently creating an experience, there are many Spanish companies all over Latin America, such as Telefonica, Santander, BBVA, Repsol and, consequently, we are creating communication networks. I believe that has happened in Spain is easy to understand by the idiosyncrasy of some countries. Sometimes you don’t have the brand and it’s all about looking for synergies, through the local spirit, global but local.
Is there any significant difference between social networks in Latin America and Europe, in Spain…?
They are pretty-well developed in Spain, the boom is brutal, results of the young generation, thus representing a spectacular whirl and speed in terms of growth. And what we are learning in communication is how to put it as a useful tool for brands, and how do the media do to make economically profitable.
You told me that this is your second visit to Cuba, what do you think about this country, if compared to the image you had preconceived?
I’m a man without any preconceived idea and I think that this is a great opportunity for me. I always say that satisfying expectations is a reality, I find expectations and the reality widely surpasses them, so I’m very pleased with this meeting.
In such a Festival like this one, a communicators festival, attended by over 300 people, were expecting this level of quorum?
No, actually I thought there were going to be less people. I think that there is an atmosphere of curiosity and illusion, the president of the Association and some members are eager for knowledge and I’m happy bring my experience, share it and, at the same time, learn a lot about the culture and ideas they have here in terms of communication.
