Biography
Marcello Serpa was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1963. Germany was his first contact with the world of advertising and, specifically, with art direction. Marcello moved to Munich in 1983 and studied Visual and Graphic Arts at the Munich Fachhochschule für Graphik-Design for seven years. After his studies, he worked with the German agencies GGK Düsseldorf and R.G. Wiesmeier (Vaske, 2001).
Upon his return to Brazil, Serpa continued his advertising career in DPZ Rio, DPZ São Paulo and DM9 working with the top Brazilian creative people like Washington Olivetto and Nizam Guanaes (at DM9). Following his work with Guanaes, he joined Almap/BBDO in 1993 becoming the Creative Director and co-CEO of that agency along with Jose Luis Madeira, who is in charge of the account planning of the company (Vaske, 2001; Canneslions.com, 2002).
Serpa has had one short but highlighted career. He is still in his 30's, but he has received more awards for his creative work than any other art director in Latin America. He has won gold, silver and bronze awards in advertising festivals both locally in Brazil and in the international scenario. It was in the Festival of Cannes of 1993 that he won the first Grand Prix for Latin America with his campaign for Diet Guarana, along with Nizam Guanaes when he was working in Guanaes' agency DM9. After that, he won more than 40 Lions during the last nine years, two Grand Prix at the New York Festival, three Grand Prix at the FIAP (Festival Iberoamericano de Publicidad), gold and silver Clio Awards, Gold medal at the One Show (the first Gold for Latin America). His successful career has given him the chance of being awarded with some motivating distinctions like to be the first Brazilian becoming President of the jury at the London Festival in 1998, Chairman at the 3rd Asia Pacific Advertising Festival, and President of the jury at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France in 2000.
In spite of the mountain of honors that he has received for his job, Serpa is a man that prefers to care about his clients instead of thinking too much about winning awards. As Leonardo Senna, brother of the passed away Formula One Ayrton Senna and President of Senna Imports, importers of Audi in Brazil, explains:
"The work they do aims at brand building and sales, not awards," Mr. Senna said. "And there are no superstars at the agency like in many others in Brazil. The people are pleasant and serious. And close, too. They know a great deal about the car business." (Penteado & Wentz, 2000).
Among the selected group of clients who have worked with Almap/BBDO we can find names like Audi, Antarctica, Patagon, Volkswagen, Miller Beer, Mizuno, Bayer, Havaianas, Pepsi, Visa and many more. The situation of Volkswagen is extremely special given the fact that in almost all the other countries the VW's account is handled by DDB Worldwide or its affiliated companies, but not in Brazil, where the advertising of VW is operated by Almap/BBDO (Penteado & Wentz, 2000).
The achievements of Marcello Serpa and other Brazilian creatives are impressive if we consider the volatility of the Brazilian economy in the last years. "It (the economical situation) is like a roller coaster (…) We are not used to the stability. We enthuse ourselves quickly with it, but we start worrying again with the same speed", affirms Alexandre Gama one of the most respected creatives of Brazil (Wentz, 2000). In spite of the economical situation, Serpa and his colleagues have placed the name of Brazil in a high position in the world of creativity, and -by doing so- Brazil has become a model in terms of advertising for other countries of the Latin American region.
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