Hernan Cerdeiro of Alma DDB: When a tale is simple and well-told, it gets its point across that much better

Hernan Cerdeiro, creative VP of Alma DDB, spoke with PRODU about his participation as guest leader of the guided tour of Graphics entries that competed this year at the Ibero-American Advertising Festival, or FIAP.At the exhibit he was particularly impressed by student participation. “I was really struck by the role of students, you can see there’s a bunch on the way up with a lot of enthusiasm – of all the pieces we saw I think 20 percent were by students” Cerdeiro said.As for the quality of the pieces, the exec said the entries were of a very high level, especially those seeking to express the essence of an idea through simplicity. “A lot of pieces stand out for their simplicity. Sometimes we see entries that try to make an impact with overblown production values, so there begins to be a battle between who has more or less money for production” he said.“If an idea is simple it has to be told simply, and if an idea is complex it especially has to be told simply, but if it’s a bad idea it needs a lot of money spent on production to make it presentable” Cerdeiro said.About the current status of the Hispanic market and how it is influencing the evolution of multicultural agencies compared with those of the general market, Cerdeiro said “it’s harder for general market agencies to win in the Hispanic market because they don’t live in two cultures – it’s much easier for us to take some of their market” he said.