Continuing our Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration of Creative Excellence, we have Armando Samuels, creative director at DoorDash. Guest Editor and Founder of Hyphenated Will Esparza turns the spotlight to this vet of agencies including Phenomenon,  Deutsch LA, 72andSunntm TBWA/Chiat/Day LA and Translation. Born and raised in Panama City, Panama, Samuels’ creative ideas have spanned major brands including Activision, Adidas, DoorDash, Gatorade PepsiCo, the Grammys and State Farm. Despite the industry accolades his work has received, he says he measures success on how much his ideas inspire and break through to consumers and mainstream culture. 

Here, he shares a campaign he helped create while at Phenomenon, the expansive “Word Smash” push for the DC Universe content platform that cleverly put the brand at the center of bold, modern messaging showcasing the entertainment property’s characters across out-of-home, digital and more.

The campaign’s simple, sharp idea placed the DC logo at the center of billboards and signs featuring powerful copy and characters from the DC Universe. Ads honoring Women’s Equality Day and Pride Week also unabashedly addressed communities traditionally underserved in the comics world. A digital component also allowed fans to create their own “Word Smash” art. 

Inspiration is a currency in our line of work and although thankful for being featured, it would be naive of me to do so without acknowledging the endless amount of inspiring Latinx talent that are in this industry. I’m so grateful for all the ones I’ve had the privilege of working with and learning from. I truly believe that when you look at every great piece of work in this industry, you’ll see us represented. We’re making it and we need to make sure that future creatives see that there is an important space for us in this industry. 

The DC project was an interesting one as the challenge was to create a cohesive campaign that brought awareness to the platform with a very small budget. Our execution allowed us to create endless amounts of assets while keeping the brand literally at the center of the whole campaign. This was a true team effort, from the client to the entire team pulling together and generating new, fun assets. In true Latinx fashion, we did a lot with very little.