Creative 100: Rising Agency Talent You'll Want to Remember

These up-and-coming creatives were behind some of this year’s best work. Remember their names, because they could be the leaders of tomorrow. Mike Alfaro, Founder, creative director, Millennial Lotería Game night: After leaving his full-time agency job, Mike Alfaro took his wildly successful Millennial Lotería—a humorous take on the popular Mexican bingo-like game lotería—to new heights. The game, which started as a personal art project, is now available in Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble and hundreds of small Latino-owned stores across the United States. McDonald’s even reached out to bring an exclusive edition of the game to franchises across Southern California for game nights. Alfaro also partnered with Disney to create 45 unique Millennial Lotería posters for the movie Wish. Children’s literacy: Alfaro wrote and published a line of bilingual children's books called ¡Sí Sabo! Kids. The first book launched in March and taught children early Spanish vocabulary from street vendors, who are an important part of the Latino community. The next two books will be released in September 2024, followed by a 3-in-1 bilingual learning game coming exclusively to Walmart in October. David Martin Angelus, Creative director, BETC Paris No mistranslations: A true globetrotter, David Martin Angelus has worked around the world for international brands including Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Deezer. He was the mind behind Duolingo’s “The Tattoo Duo Over” campaign, which poked fun at people who tattoo languages they aren’t fluent in on their bodies—risking embarrassment when it isn’t actually correct. Duolingo offered to cover up the tattoos of these victims of mistranslation. Working with Pride: A member of the LGBTQ+ community, Angelus is most proud of his “Silver Pride” work for hosting platform Misterb&b. The campaign helped aging LGBTQ+ people attend Pride marches by offering them comfortable and accessible places to gather along parade routes. “The initiative to bring them back to Pride marches across the world is a wonderful one,” Angelus said. “Especially because many LGBTQIA + seniors live alone and suffer from higher rates of depression.” Advice to aspiring creatives: “Be very curious about everything,” Angelus said. “What’s new today is old news tomorrow so you need to keep up with the tech and the trends.” Allison Apperson & Chase Zreet, Associate creative directors, The Martin Agency Setting social media ablaze: Allison Apperson and Chase Zreet get the credit for creating one of the most talked about ad campaigns of 2023. The Solo Stove campaign featuring Snoop Dog had every major news outlet and social media feed ablaze as people discussed the rapper’s decision to go “smokeless.” Some of Hollywood’s biggest stoners even publicly committed to quitting weed in solidarity with Snoop. A second wave of coverage swept the advertising biz as the campaign ignited an industrywide dialogue about the role of virality in larger marketing strategies. Fierce mentors: Apperson and Zreet have a track record of fighting for the teams they lead, supporting good ideas from junior creatives and sharing the spotlight when those ideas strike gold. Throughout the Solo Stove press whirlwind, they both regularly praised their junior talent who worked on the campaign. Their motto: “Stubborn tenacity gets us pretty far.” Vanessa de Beaumont, Associate creative director, Mischief @ No Fixed Address Fooled you: Vanessa de Beaumont has a history of making culturally relevant, viral ad moments, and 2023 was no different. She was the brains behind the 2023 Super Bowl’s most disruptive campaign: Tubi’s “Interface Interruption,” which fooled millions of viewers into thinking someone was changing the channel. The 15-second spot prompted 70,000 people to log into Tubi and kicked off the brand’s most successful year yet, with viewership jumping 71% year over year. Other highlights: De Beaumont also continued Coors Light’s successful partnership with NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes with the creation of the “Coors Light Bear.” The ad, which shows Mahomes in typical beer-drinking situations, is accompanied instead by a bear, poking fun at the NFL’s rules on players and alcohol advertising. De Beaumont ended the year bringing back Chili’s iconic “Baby Back Ribs” jingle with a fresh take from Boyz II Men, which was released on vinyl and featured in a series of spots showing how catchy the tune is. Noah Bramme & Andreas Karlsson, Senior creatives, Johannes Leonardo Roadtrip: Swedish natives Noah Bramme and Andreas Karlsson took a journey through American history this year when they created Volkswagen’s first Super Bowl campaign in a decade, telling the story of the first Beetle arriving on U.S. soil in 1949. A nostalgic and emotional film, “An American Love Story” led to the German automaker being the most engaged brand of the night, quadruple the engagement of the next highest car brand. The duo also created a heartwarming Volkswagen commercial for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, drawing attention to the United States women’s national soccer team’s identity off the field. School buddies: Bramme and Karlsson are old school friends and began working for Åkestam Holst, one of Sweden's largest agencies. Three years later, they jumped across the pond, moving to New York City for their current roles at Johannes Leonardo. Advice to aspiring creatives: “Work hard and be passionate. Our experience is that advertising is fair, in the way that you get what you give. So far we’ve been generous with our time, energy and ideas—and in return we’ve been getting a lot of opportunities, trust and recognition back. Just keep swimming.” Sean Buckhorn & Gonzalo Navarro, Creative directors, Droga5 New York Dynamic duo: Having partnered during their time at Ogilvy & Mather, Sean Buckhorn and Gonzalo Navarro traveled to Droga5 together in 2018 and slowly established themselves as a creative force, working together on some of the agency’s most well-known clients, including Dos Equis, ESPN, Allstate and IHOP. This past year, the duo were pivotal in the creation of Levi’s “The Greatest Story Ever Worn” as they combed through the brands archives, Reddit threads and even community newspaper obits to find stories worth telling. ADWEEK named it one of the best ads of 2023. Family affair: In November, Buckhorn's and Navarro's sons were both born within two weeks of each other—and the duo almost immediately began production on the Paramount+ “A Mountain of Entertainment” Super Bowl spot, which ranked in ADWEEK’s top 10 ads of the Big Game. They believe it's their wives who should be on ADWEEK's Creative 100 list for Most Understanding Spouses in Advertising. Kate Carter, Group creative director, Mojo Supermarket Keeping the lights on: Running Mojo Supermarket’s creative department for the last two years, Kate Carter has been responsible for growing the agency’s portfolio, culture and revenue. In the last year, she was key to bringing on TikTok and Peloton, establishing Mojo’s successful social and performance marketing capabilities just to win the business. The two accounts are the agency’s second and third largest by revenue. Witty creative: Last year, Carter was also the creative mind behind Match’s “Adults Wanted" campaign, which was inspired by vintage Help Wanted signs and drew emotionally mature adults looking to bring fun and excitement back to dating. The out-of-home installations plastered lines like, “Fall stupidly in love with someone who’s actually really smart,” and, “Get really naughty with someone really nice,” on installations around New York City and Los Angeles neighborhoods with the highest population of adult singles. Telling stories: Carter recently wrote a children's book for her niece and nephew entitled Please Don't Be a Brat. Lydia Choi, Creative director, Colle McVoy Choose your own adventure: An outdoorswoman with a passion for variety, Lydia Choi’s work for the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation drove eco-conscious consumerism and gave women of all ages an outlet to bolster their confidence outdoors. The “Find Your Best Self on the Water'' campaign framed fishing as essential for the success of creative women, and a Vanity Fair takeover saw actress Ellie Kemper going fishing for the first time. Responsible ecotourism: For Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Choi launched the town’s “Stay Wild” platform, an awareness campaign to encourage people to visit while teaching tourists to become stewards of the land. Her “California Road Snow Show” went to three snowless cities to encourage people to visit Jackson Hole. João Corazza & Bruno Reis, Associate creative directors, David Miami Scrappy creative: Getting their start in a small market nearly 400 miles away from São Paulo, Brazil, João Corazza and Bruno Reis had a scrappy way of working that relied less on big budgets and more on delving into pop culture for commonalities in public appeal. The method served them well when they arrived at Africa Creative (DDB São Paulo) in 2019 and nabbed more than 15 Cannes Lions over the next four years. The creative streak continued when they joined David Miami last year. Poking the bear: In 2023, Corazzo and Reis took a swipe at Apple for their new client Android. The launch of the iPager—a satirized Apple product mocking Apple’s use of 30-year-old technology—associated Apple with outdated SMS technology and changed perceptions of both Apple and Android. The campaign struck a chord: Less than two months after the iPager debuted, Apple retired its SMS messaging for the more secure RCS chats that Android uses. Sara Cummings & Abby Gross, Creative directors, Fallon Full calendar: Sara Cummings and Abby Gross were quite busy in the last year. They were the ideators of a Showtime brand voice update, an Entenmann’s rebrand, plus a new summer campaign for Little Bites. They also helped write the script for a 23-episode "RomCommerce" series for Walmart, hitting on all the classic tropes from an old flame meet-cute—in a Walmart of course—to a messy love triangle. So fetch: The highlight of their year was creating Walmart’s Black Friday commercial that brought the cast of Mean Girls back together, but as parents. Cummings and Gross treated the source material as sacred doctrine, continuing Cady, Gretchen, Karen and Damian’s stories authentically while incorporating Walmart products into the script. The storylines were brought up to date, with Gretchen Wieners returning as the spouse to a “cool Asian” and mother to her own vicious teen daughter, while Karen Smith capitalized on her breast-based weather forecasting talents for a journalism career. Sally Fung & Sara Radovanovich, Associate creative directors, FCB Canada Number 321: Sally Fung and Sara Radovanovich have spent the last year working closely with FCB Canada’s longtime partner, the Canadian Down Syndrome Society. First they launched "Runner 321," where Adidas asked the largest organized marathons to reserve bib number 321—which stands for Trisomy 21, another name for Down syndrome—for a neurodivergent athlete. The campaign kept Fung and Radovanovich in close contact with Chris Nikic, the first Runner 321, and went on to win five Cannes Lions. Outsmarting the algorithm: The duo worked again toward equity for people with Down syndrome with their Inployable initiative. The campaign started an employment network on LinkedIn for those with Down syndrome, outsmarting the algorithm by “hiring” people with Down syndrome to a company page, giving them instant job experience to include them in job searches. Fung and Radovanovich worked with the Down syndrome community to best represent them while LinkedIn added skills to the platform to represent the community. Gabriel Gama & Guilherme Grossi, Creative directors, The Community It’s electric: Gabriel Gama and Guilherme Grossi—affectionately known to their colleagues as “The Gs”—brought Netflix and General Motors together last year to promote electric vehicles at the Super Bowl. The key to the campaign was getting Netflix to commit to featuring at least one EV in every title they produce. The campaign brought Will Ferrell into all of Netflix’s recent hits to discuss just which titles should feature EVs, with Love Is Blind and Squid Game making much more sense than Bridgerton. Other work: Friends since they were six years old, Gama and Grossi have been a creative team for more than 12 years, working across three countries. In addition to their Super Bowl work, they created a new brand platform, "Come Back to Your Senses," for Bath & Body Works that saw a 10-foot candle touring the United States. The duo also created Perfect Bar’s first out-of-home campaign. Brynn Good & Shiran Teitelbaum, Vice presidents, creative directors, Deutsch LA Perfect match: A recent pairing, Brynn Good and Shiran Teitelbaum connected at Deutsch LA to bring a combination of unconventional, vibrant curiosity and competitive ambition to the shop. With Good as the artist and Teitelbaum as the wordsmith, their partnership has brought brands like PetSmart back into the cultural foreground and given legacy companies like Snapple a renewed relevance. Creative AI: Last year, Good and Teitelbaum took Snapple’s signature cap facts into the future. Using generative AI, Snapple facts became the Snapple fAIct generator, allowing users to discover their own facts about whatever noun they can think of. Generative AI helped again when the duo used it to assist volunteers, staff and fosters at PetSmart Charities make compelling profiles for adoptable pets. Now any animal shelter can use the tool to help pets find their forever homes. Jen Hart & Anthony DiMichele, Associate creative directors, Goodby Silverstein & Partners 'Having a Blast': Jen Hart and Anthony DiMichele were the creative masterminds behind this year’s Mountain Dew Baja Blast Super Bowl campaign, “Having a Blast.” The 30-second spot, featuring the aridly dry humor of Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman, put the product in every single frame of the commercial and made 51 Best Of lists. The campaign was so successful, PepsiCo awarded GS&P the Mountain Dew creative account outright. Quick work: The “Having a Blast” ad took five minutes to write and one frantic day to shoot. “It sounds crazy, but the spot we ended up making is eerily similar to what we wrote that very first day,” said DiMichele. The duo made very few concessions, with the kids party, the UFO, the wrestling ring, the nightclub, the gaming scene and even the Nick Offerman cameo all in the original script. Kelsey Heard, Art director, & Nell Stevens, Copywriter, Wieden+Kennedy New York Party time: It takes a youthful exuberance to answer a brief from the largest fast food chain in the world, McDonald’s, with a party. But Kelsey Heard and Nell Stevens did just that when tasked with devising a summer campaign last year. They threw a party for beloved McDonald’s icon Grimace, complete with a collaborative birthday playlist and a partnership with Krool Toys to make a retro video game for customers to play online. But the star of the party was the Grimace Shake, which took the internet by storm. Picture this: Heard is most proud of the fake birth certificate and baby photos she made for Grimace, which were the foundation for the campaign’s commercial. “The highlight of my life was deciding to give him buck teeth and a little hat,” she said. “I'm glad the internet loved him just as much as I did.” Advice to aspiring creatives: “This is a very unserious business. Try to make yourself laugh at every step of every project,” said Heard. Stevens added: “Never sacrifice your passions or your happiness for your silly little job.” Katie Jensen, Group creative director, Mekanism Women’s health: While Katie Jensen has worked on household brands such as General Mills, P&G and Toyota, her passion is women’s health. She led the launch of an industrywide initiative to codify menopause benefits in the workplace; called “the Menoclause,” the initiative outlines six policies that every company should adopt and includes a website to educate HR professionals on menopause statistics. Be weird: Jensen is also an advocate for more creative freedom with her team and the industry at large. She thinks creatives should put more of themselves into the work they do, be weird and be authentic. “Instead of sitting in front of the screen, we need to go see more movies, go to more shows, read weird poems, take long showers, go on walks, do mushrooms, go to art museums, do mushrooms at art museums,” Jensen said. Matt Miller & Tommy Yong, Associate creative directors, Courage Fry funeral: Matt Miller and Tommy Yong found a rhythm working with KFC in the last year. When it introduced a new recipe for seasoned fries, they held a funeral for the brand’s old french fries. They teased the event with clips of a casket full of fries before holding an actual hourlong livestream event, which included a eulogy to the old spuds. The duo also apologized to utensils on KFC’s behalf with a campaign that reminded the public why KFC is “finger lickin’ good.” Have a break: Armed with the knowledge that prompting AI platforms with human empathy to “take a breath” could improve its accuracy, Miller and Yong introduced the “Have AI Break” campaign for Kit Kat. They authentically connected the brand’s DNA to a cultural moment while helping the public use AI more effectively. Lexi Rodriguez & Olivia-Jené Fagon, Creative directors, Giant Spoon Powerhouse creatives: Combining their backgrounds in art and experiential, Lexi Rodriguez and Olivia-Jené Fagon joined up at Giant Spoon to make waves. As two subversively creative women of color, the duo have brought the agency its biggest new business wins to date. For her first campaign at Giant Spoon, Rodriguez helped Savage X Fenty break into sportswear with its first TV-driven “Power X Play” campaign. Fagon won Walmart’s DEI experiential business in 2023 with a new strategy to connect to the retailer’s Black consumers, including launching four Walmart Makers Studio events and the Black & Unlimited Clock to celebrate the extra day of Black History Month. Joining forces: Together, Rodriguez and Fagon won the competitive pitch for Ritual Vitamins’ brand awareness strategy with their “Trace Like a Motherf*cker” campaign. The centerpiece spot is a humorous, expletive-riddled take on a mom who does her research and only uses the best vitamins: Ritual. Advice to aspiring creatives: “Be more uncompromising,” said Fagon. “Be respectful and self-aware, yes, but don’t be scared to hold the line of your ideas or reach for bigger and better than what’s being made available to you.” Jeff Schermer & Jose Ramirez, Creative directors, Gut Unexpected: Jeff Schermer and Jose Ramirez have a history of turning expectations on their head for campaigns. For Super Bowl 58, instead of leaning into AI, they used practical visual techniques in the “Javier in Frame” campaign for Google Pixel. The ad, which brought the experiences of a blind person to life, was the first time ever a Super Bowl commercial was directed by a blind filmmaker. In March, the duo launched the global platform for Stella Artois, “A Taste Worth More,” with a cheeky out-of-home campaign that turned David Beckham, one of the world’s most recognizable faces, into a hand model so the beer could shine. Culturally relevant: With a strong grasp on the cultural zeitgeist, Schermer and Ramirez devised the “Roam Free Little Bird” spot for Vital Farms in response to Elon Musk removing Twitter’s iconic bird. They also launched Verizon’s “Test Force” in a nod to the wireless company’s nostalgic Test Man campaign and were behind the “Memes to Dreams” campaign for Popeyes, which made the “Popeyes meme kid” into the brand’s first spokesperson in nearly a decade. Teddy Souter & Frazer Price, Creative directors, Maximum Effort Poking fun at advertising: Teddy Souter and Frazer Price have a history at Maximum Effort of creating quirky and dryly humorous ad that often poke fun at the medium itself—much like the agency’s co-founder, Ryan Reynolds. For National Change Your Password Day on Feb. 1, they partnered with password management software 1Password to help protect people from bad actors who want to steal their data. So the duo cast a spokesperson who is notorious for bad acting: Tommy Wiseau. For the comedically meta ad, Wiseau mocks his own infamous cinematic skills while warning viewers of thieves online. Unserious business: In their previous job at Droga5 London, the duo created some of the shop’s most celebrated work. In another irreverent ad campaign for Kahlúa, Souter and Price personified the brand’s belief in living life unseriously by creating an exhibition of images that have never had any likes on Instagram. Fashioned like a real art gallery, the Zero Likes Given exhibition included random pictures of flowers, legs and even the oldest unliked picture ever posted to Instagram. Check out Adweek’s full Creative 100 list for 2024 here.

The Creative 100

Creative 100: Rising Agency Talent You'll Want to Remember

These 2024 honorees are tomorrow's leaders

Mike Alfaro, Founder, creative director, Millennial Lotería

Aleda Stam

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

Mike Alfaro, Founder, creative director, Millennial Lotería

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Aleda Stam