Last year was Alma’s 12th consecutive year of growth—and also saw the highest revenue rise in its history, up 10% over 2020. Alma attributes that to its ability to reach both general market and multicultural audiences with its work.
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“What has happened in our industry is that agencies like ours had to play defense for many years, and now we're playing offense," said Luis Miguel Messianu, Alma CEO and creative chairman. “Based on our growth, based on what's happening in the world, we don't have to explain ourselves. Just like a number of great agencies that compete with us that were born with a Latino DNA, [we] are mainstream, because if you think about it, the mainstream is no longer white. The mainstream is a mix of skin colors and perspectives. We don't have a chip on our shoulder. We look at ourselves as an agency that's prepared to address the realities of an ever-changing country.”
Better With
There’s no better example of this than Alma’s “#BetterwithPepsi” campaign. While Pepsi is undoubtedly an iconic soda brand, nine of the top 10 burger chains in America serve Coke, which has a larger market share than Pepsi. In August 2020 a blind taste test conducted on Pepsi’s behalf showed that among 233 adults who visited fast-food burger joints, about 60% said they preferred a McDonald’s Big Mac, Wendy’s Dave Single and Burger King’s Whopper with Pepsi rather than Coke.
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Tapping into this insight, Alma came up with the idea for a print and social campaign on National Burger Day in which it "hid" the Pepsi logo in paper bags of those three burger chains. To create the pictures, which also showed up on billboards near those outlets, the agency worked with an origami artist to re-craft paper bags in ways that made the Pepsi logo visible. VaynerMedia also played a hand in the campaign, creating imagery that involved mascots of these burger chains.