Gerety Awards Presents: Gerety Talks Argentinian Creativity

Nov. 27, 2023

Just like the award show, the Gerety Talks series puts some of the marketing and creative industries true changemakers in the spotlight and at the centre of the conversation for a refreshing take on what leadership looks like.

The panel includes:

• Josefina Casellas, VP Executive Creative Director, R/GA Buenos Aires
• María Luján Donaire, Executive Creative Director, HOY by Havas Argentina
• Natalia Benincasa, Chief Creative Officer for Latin America en Edelman

As Executive Creative Director SS LATAM, Josefina Casellas is at the forefront of R/GA's creative work for the Spanish-speaking markets of Latin America.

From her role, she works generating value and accompanying local and network clients, such as Nike, Google, Samsung US and Global, Verizon, Uber, Slack, Ally, Johnson & Johnson, Patagonia, Pepsico LATAM, Kimberly Clark, among others.

With more than 19 years of experience in the industry, Josefina joined R/GA in 2018 as Creative Director, later taking over as Group Creative Director leading a team of multidisciplinary talent with Tech, Visual and Production profiles.

Specialist in the leadership of integrated teams, throughout her career she has participated in different types of projects from different positions, which gives her a macro vision and holistic knowledge for approaching brands.

Graphic Designer, she began her career at Ogilvy, working for clients such as Santander Río and Motorola. She also went through La Comunidad, to later join BBDO, where she spent 9 years and developed as Creative Director starting the digital department, of which she was in charge for 3 years, working for brands such as Nike, Pepsico (Argentina and LATAM, Aerolineas Argentina , among other.

After getting her bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations at Universidad Católica Argentina, Malu started her career as a copywriter.

For the last 15 years, she has worked on projects for Argentina and all over the world for very important brands such as: Volkswagen, Coca-cola, Chevrolet, Unilever (Knorr, Hellmann's, Dove and AdeS), Clorox Latinoamérica, Huggies, Santander, Philips, SC Johnson, Citroën, HBO Max, etc.

Many of her creative works have been awarded at Cannes Lions, Sol, Cresta Awards, PHNX (Ad-Forum Awards), Ojo de Iberoamérica, Diente, Wave, Fiap, Effie and Effie Latam. In 2019, she was recognized as one of the most awarded women in Ibero-America by Ojo de Iberoamérica. She is Top 3 Creative Director of Argentina in the ranking of Lürzer's Archive. She has been winning in Cannes Lions Festival for the last 3 editions.

Besides her job at the agency, she co-founded Círculo de Creativas Argentina (Argentina’s Creative Women Association). A community created to support and promote female talent at creative departments. This mission, that she share with an brave group of creative women, is beginning to generate changes and gave her the opportunity to spread their purpose through 2021 Ojo de Iberoamérica Festival where she was speaker of the conference “When a woman wins, all women win” Currently, Círculo de Creativas is integrated by +300 creative women in Argentina and +1500, in 14 countries of Latin America.

Natalia is Regional Chief Creative Officer for Latin America at Edelman. Previously, she was part of many of the most renowned agencies in the industry, such as Wunderman Thompson, FCB, Leo Burnett México, VegaOlmosPonce, BBDO, among others, leading multicultural campaigns.

She was honoured being part of the best Chief Creative Officer in the world, recognized as #2 in Latin America and #13 of the world, in the Global Creative Ranking of the One Club for Creativity, in 2023, #32 by The Drum the same year. In 2020, she was recognized as Creative of the Year at the Jerry Goldenberg’s awards, for the excellence in communications in Argentina, by editorial Dossier and in 2019, she was named one of the most outstanding creative leaders in Mexico.

Among many awards at local and international festivals, such as Cannes, LIA, Clio, Effies, SXSW, FIAP, Ojo de Iberoamérica, Effies, El Sol de San Sebastián, Art Directors Club, D&AD and The One Show; she appreciates the Innovation Grand Prix at Cannes 2021, the first one for her native country and the impact that campaign had in others and herself.

Under her creative leadership, Wunderman Thompson Argentina was named Local Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions ranking 2021, Regional Agency of the Year at LIA ranking 2021; New York Festival, Gerety Awards and Creativepool Latin America Agency of the Year 2022, The One Show top 5 agencies the same year.

Beyond award winning, Natalia believes in creating brands with relevant meaning for these times and puts all her passion in building a more inclusive and humane communication and live in a new era of perfect work-life balance.