LOS ANGELES (Nov, 2024) – Award-winning global creative leader, Leo Macias, is launching Noad Creative, the creative thinking studio, to put brands in front of people in unexpected and engaging ways. With a storied career in brand marketing at Amazon and Snap Inc. and advertising at Omnicom Group’s DDB, Macias believes that Noad, or no advertising, is the way to connect with consumers today, as skipping ads and utilizing ad blockers is the norm. The last four years of his career at Snap and Amazon proved that creative storytelling entertained and engaged audiences, more so than ads.
“Ninety-nine percent of advertising agencies start their presentations with a manifesto and a film, a gigantic act of ‘conformity’ in a world where the innovative possibilities for a brand to really impact its audience are vast,” said Macias, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Noad. “It’s crucial for agencies to step out of this comfort zone.”
Noad Creative does not default to traditional advertising, instead seeking to solve clients’ objectives through a universe of audience connection points. Fittingly, Noad’s vinyl album cover for celebrated Brazilian singer Jair Oliveira’s new release, Tekoá, is so extraordinary, it’s nominated for Best Packaging Design award at the upcoming Latin GRAMMYs, taking place Nov. 14 in Miami.
For Tekoá, Noad created the full creative concept, marketing strategy, title, streaming distribution along with the innovative accordion-style cover. The cover features a unique image for each track, which, when unfolded, reveals a sculptural piece. In a world of “no ads,” other brands could be expressed by a signature scent or a letter, fragment of music, art installation, experience, a wearable–anything that expresses the brand and creates authentic connection with audiences.
“It was absolutely incredible to work with Jair Oliveira and to visually express the Brazilian popular music of Tekoá through one-of-a-kind package design,” said Macias, who will be attending the Latin GRAMMYs. “We will always avoid conventional formats and media.. Our focus is to craft compelling and fresh narratives that truly engage. People have little patience for boring ads and today, they have the tools to skip them.”
At Noad, Macias curates a team of advertising creatives,strategists and producers with global vision and decades of brand experience, to create next-level creative solutions. He draws upon a career that spans creative leadership roles at Havas, Ogivly, Publicis and DDB engaging different cultures and leading local and global teams. Macias has supported dozens of global brands including Nike, AbInBev, Foot Locker, BBVA, Canon, Nestlé, McDonald’s and P&G. At Laundry Service, Macias focused on influencer and social storytelling campaigns for global brands.
Moving on to the client side, at Snap, Macias was Head of Global Creative, tasked to enthrall 380 million global daily users and turn AR-fueled entertainment into lasting engagement. Most recently, as Global Vice President Marketing & Activation – Amazon Prime Video & Studios, he led a team of 300 covering brand strategy, activation, social and more, and ran successful launches for 40+ films, multiple documentaries and series and the Thursday night NFL franchise.
“This experience of working on both sides—agency and brand—along with leading high-stakes, global programs with billion-dollar-plus investments gave me a profound sense of responsibility and a broader vision of what clients truly seek and what agencies often fail to deliver,” said Macias. “It also highlighted how agencies can be more efficient in seeking creative solutions that drive business without just following the same tactics that are no longer as effective as before.”
