Sajo Ruiz de Sajo//McCann
The Cuspide National Advertising Festival, which honors the creativity and innovation of the advertising industry in Puerto Rico, now completes 40 years and to celebrate it has created the theme for 2022 called Breaking Stigmas – or making good by breaking down whatever obstacles might appear. “To take this historic step on our 40th anniversary, more than drinking champagne or sharing a sponge cake, we wanted to celebrate the importance that advertising has assumed in this country, an importance measured by the doors it has opened on a new society,” said Sajo Ruiz, CEO of Sajo//McCann and director of this year’s edition of the festival organized by the Advertising Association of Puerto Rico.“Advertising everywhere in the world contributes to the development of culture,” Ruiz said, adding that Puerto Rico is no different, since “advertising, the commercials, the advertisers; the advertising messages across these 40 years have created a cultural definition of who we are as a country. And on the year of our anniversary we wish to emphasize how the industry has contributed creatively to developing the well-known messages of inclusion.”The awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 1. The registration of further entries has closed and the works already accepted are currently in the process of evaluation. The event was open to all and a full house is expected.For Ruiz, Puerto Rico’s contribution to creativity has not only spread through the region but around the world, and includes the participation of Puerto Rican advertising personnel as jurors in other festivals at home and abroad. He noted that six years ago an additional Cuspide festival was created, the Cuspide Strategy and Effectiveness Festival, held parallel to the awards ceremony on the same night, and which recognizes the effectiveness that the ad campaigns have had on clients’ business results. It is judged by a different jury made up of clients and strategy directors of the different agencies that form part of the association. .The Advertising Association also approved a 2030 Plan, which will serve as a guide to take the country’s advertising industry to where it wants to be by the year 2030. “We developed this strategic plan taking into account how the association could be more inclusive and open,” Ruiz said. “In addition to the opening, the plan has as a pillar the element of education. We have the responsibility not only to have universities educate the next participants in the different agency positions, but also that our work groups stay up to date with all the latest global trends, just as innovation now spearheads our work day by day,” he said. The Advertising Association also works so that in future editions the festival covers activities currently absent from the event.
