Culture is not a niche. It is the growth engine. Fix the brief and the org chart before you touch the creative.

It was mostly a translation industry. The pioneers of the first generation paved the road, but they had to push hard to set Hispanic apart, and in the process they leaned on some of the cliches. When Messianu first got in during the late 1980s, it felt like a different planet, and he had to justify the very existence of Hispanic work. In most cases the team was retrofitting a strategy and a platform never conceived for the audience. In a way it has come full circle, because now it is less about reaching the Hispanic audience and more about understanding how this person lives, what their passion areas are and their sense of identity.

First, results. Back then there was no data, so it was the trust me, I am Hispanic syndrome, and clients took a leap of faith. Now there is almost too much data, but it goes back to the basics. This is not only a consumer segment, it is about cultural intelligence, about understanding what moves your audience.

The first generation created agencies almost as a business idea. Messianu came from a creative upbringing, writing as a copywriter since 17 and never stopping writing for a living and living to write. Starting the predecessor to Alma, Del Rivero Messianu, his vision was that no single multicultural agency had really focused on depth of strategy and creative excellence. He pointed to Chiat Day and Fallon, and wanted an agency that stood head and shoulders above the rest.

He began his career in Mexico as creative director on General Motors, L'Oreal, McDonald's and Coca-Cola at McCann, then had to start all over again in the US. He went back to Mexico from 1990 to 1993 on a regional role when his father got ill, then returned because there was something to be done. His personal mission has become to help dignify and elevate the image of Latinos in the US.

The brief has not changed. We still see briefs that put us on a path of retrofitting, make this work, like a cover of someone else's song. For 29 years Messianu was head creative for McDonald's, the last two as global chief creative officer over 46 markets, and at the end of the day it is about the power of the idea and the connection.

His take on AI is augmented imagination. We have to embrace and leverage it, and he has for a while. The beauty of subtlety, nuance and the intangibles is what will set brands apart. A lot of people are afraid of what AI will do, but he is optimistic: it will make us faster, smarter and more visionary. Every time we get a new technology we get smarter and get to dream more, so we will go back to the beauty of great ideas.

Specificity brings authenticity. The more specific you are, the more authentic the work and the closer the connection. Messianu's upbringing as a multicultural creative taught him that the universal tends to be a bit generic, kind of beige, kind of vanilla. There are many colours and flavours, and it is about understanding what role a brand plays in people's lives. We reach brains and hearts, but you have to make a connection at the stomach level.

Hispanic was a great springboard, because it forced the team to develop human truths and insights that built unique platforms. Messianu took that discipline into general market and global work: find the truth, understand the customer, the competition, culture with a big C and context, which matters more now that channels are everywhere. A recent campaign for Centenario Tequila celebrates Mexican greatness while being mainstream and global, very specific and very universal.

It is a constant battle, but this is no longer a niche. It is what is driving growth for brands, in many cases the only audience where growth is coming from, in categories that are flat in the US, and the data is there. We do not have an awareness problem anymore. We have a structural and organisational problem. Messianu tells clients to make sure that from the board to the C-suite to leadership they have people who have lived the culture, because reading and watching movies is not the same as the living experience.

Growth is coming from cohorts with a different upbringing and view on life. We are not martians, but there are subtleties, and when you get it right Messianu calls it the wink factor. Even on general market television, if the work is subtle and not stereotypical, the audience knows you get them.

Change starts with the brief and an audit of the briefing process. People say think outside the box, and Messianu disagrees: you have to think inside the box, but as close as possible to the lines. It takes two to tango, and as you build trust and show results, credibility follows, which is why Effies alongside Lions matter, short-term success for the long-term success.

Clients get paid to protect the past, so a new marketer's first document is a manual of brand guidelines. Agencies are paid to break the mould with something new and unexpected, so there is a natural tension, almost a paradox. Creatives have to show empathy for the pressures clients are under, but if we really want to be visionaries we have to take smart risks. And you have to respect the audience: we are an uninvited guest, and you cannot crash a party to be boring and tell an old bad joke.

In 2007 Messianu's ex-partner left Del Rivero Messianu, and he had always felt uneasy about his name on the door. At the dawn of search engine optimisation he wanted a name starting with an A to come at the top, and he loves words that start and end with the same letter, with an Easter egg in the middle: LM, Luis Miguel. He wrote a mantra he still believes: brands like people have soul, we are in the business of turning them into soulmates. Now, post-COVID and post mergers and acquisitions, MEL is built from the top down, with a strong leadership team of eight full-time people and bespoke crews per project, such as the Mexican creatives assembled for Centenario.

You know an agency needs reinvention when it starts losing its soul. You have to establish a belief system. At Alma it was curiosity, collaboration and accountability, or pride, fun and money in that strict order. Messianu quotes Burnett, how big do we want to be before we become bad, and Bernbach, a principle is not a principle until it costs you money. He cares about business but more about the creative output, and would rather look elsewhere than work with clients who are not committed to it.

Leading McDonald's across 46 markets was not that different from multicultural work, because Messianu understands the differences and, more importantly, the similarities in what makes humans react, engage and give loyalty. We are not in the business of creativity, we are in the business of optimism, paid to find the bright side of things. That optimism is more alive in Latin America, Italy and France, but everyone understands the importance of an emotional connection, and across owned agencies, partnerships and representation, what prevailed were the values.

Messianu, the son of Romanian immigrants who started over in Mexico, believes you have to give back, since US Hispanic-made creative talent is scarce. He taught at the Miami Ad School from 1994 and founded Circulo Creativo as its first president. It should not be called mentoring, he says, it should be sponsoring, because every young creator deserves a sponsor. He looks for people who cannot see themselves doing anything else, and reminds us that we cannot be a one size fits all industry, that cultural insight will be the saving grace in this big equaliser.