Carlos Zuniga’s Post

I got a 25th Anniversary Adobe pin, but it’s a lie! 🤫 My first time using #Adobe’s #design software was in 2000 when I landed a summer job as an apprentice editorial designer. Illustrator was THE tool of the trade. In 1999, just the year before, I learned basic layout design using QuarkXPress to work on my school’s magazine. It’s funny to think that the professional standard tool changed from one year to the next, and probably most of you reading never even heard of QuarkX 🪦. That is thanks to Adobe InDesign. 🔥 Do I sound old? Sorry, I’m turning 40 in a couple of weeks. In perspective, for the past 24 years, I’ve been using #AdobeIllustrator, #Photoshop, #InDesign, Lightroom and whatever else comes our way from Adobe, to play, experiment and work. I must admit I have been reluctant to use Firefly and Express, the latest Adobe tools, as they seemed like funny novelty. However, after what I saw yesterday at #AdobeMaxLondon, I’ve reassessed. I’m not a stranger to using #ArtificialIntelligence in my everyday life, but not necessarily in design. However, the advancements in Firefly’s capabilities from last year to now are breathtaking or at the very least, incredibly time-saving. And the best part? It’s now directly integrated into my everyday tools. The same that I’ve been using for A L M O S T 25 years. 😅 #adobemax #adobemax2024 #adobelondon #designlife #branddesign

☕️ Making the rounds at The London Coffee Festival is now a yearly tradition. Beyond self-declaring as #coffee dependent, some of the #branding projects I’ve enjoyed developing the most have to do with these magical and funny beans: #specialtycoffee, #coffeeshop franchises and #RTD #coldbrews. So much flavour and kick, so many ways to have it, and so many ways to ‘sell it’. It’s a highly competitive space, and from far away it might seem saturated and even in decline. However, the fact remains that the coffee industry hasnt peaked with reports projecting growth (‘the 4th wave’) tied to innovation, sustainability and creativity. I can’t wait to ‘sip’ what’s coming! Ba dum tss… *And yes, espresso martinis count as coffee. #coffeebranding #coffeebrands #coffeebrand #londoncoffeefestival #londoncoffeefestival2024 #coffeelife #madreconsulting

What’s your ultimate #branding goal, to fit in among your peers, or to stand out in a crowded ecosystem? I had to reshare 😅🤘🏼 Max Ottignon

And the winner is… Charatan! 🏆🇬🇧 What a way to crown this half-year of fun with the amazing Tor Imports Limited Team. Charatan 160th took home the award as Best Cigar 2023 in the most prestigious gala for the UK’s cigar industry. An amazing milestone for a historic brand that has made it this far fairly under the radar. But that’s about to change. Charatan London is one of the most exciting projects I started working on this year. We are revitalising an iconic heritage brand that dates from 1863, pouring the love and thought it deserves to properly share its history and values in the UK and beyond our borders. Nevermind the outstanding blend and profile. It’s a proper British cigar. A taste of British taste. We believe in proving doubters wrong, and most importantly, in proving ourselves right, just like Frederick Charatan did 160 years ago. From Mansell Street, London in 1863, to Boisdale, Canary Wharf and winning UK Cigar of the Year in 2023. Watch this space! 🦄🔥🌏 PS1: A heartfelt thanks to Scott Vines for inviting me to contribute to this new chapter of Charatan’s story. PS2: Kudos to my esteemed colleague Cally Humphrey, nominated for Cigar Communicator of the Year on the same night. PS3: If you’re into the leaf, make sure to follow @torcally on IG. #charatanlondon #atasteofbritishtaste #newworldcigars #premiumcigars #finegoods #cigars #cigarbranding

I travelled 63 hours halfway across the world for Chispafest 2023. Was it worth it? Hell f____ng yes! 💥 Purpose, like love, is a powerful thing. I grew up in #Nicaragua hungry for access to world-class #creativity. As a rising professional, I was able to satiate it by travelling and attending inspiring events. But what about the many other young Carlos out there? What if they could access world-class inspiration earlier, easier, and at a fraction of the cost? That’s what sparked #Chispfest, the country's first International Creativity Festival. Since 2016, we have brought top talent to share ideas with a hungry community. We can only make it happen by partnering with wonderful people and institutions, like Istituto Europeo di Design, with whom we give out a scholarship to a young and talented creative mind. This is a thank you note: To everyone who came to #ChispaRestart 2023. To the amazing speakers who lit the creative spark in all of us lucky enough to be present: Martha Soler, El Feo Revollo, Elliot Tupac, Pupila, Omar Polo, Ricardo Ramos and Ricardo Cuellar. To our friends at ONAP Armando Castillo, Oscar Amador Torres, Dax Meneses, Ernesto Robleto, and Carlos Cuadra for working hand in hand to make this happen. To Pixel Producciones Luis Alberto Coco Torrente, Michelle L. Sequeira, to the outstanding brands that supported this effort and to a passionate team of volunteers. Last but certainly not least, to my peeps and the badass OG team at Madre Consulting for bringing it home: Amanda Cuadra, Karen Torres, Eugenia Lacayo, Daniel Aragón H., Inti Ruiz, Dainin Solis, Ulises Josué Rodríguez Osegueda, and Capeto Carrion S. Nos vemos el próximo año. 😎

Are you Team Tortoise 🐢 or Team Hare 🐇? Here's a small end-of-the-year reflection. I often find myself in a similar conversation, and no, it's not centred around children's fables. This discussion revolves around marketing strategies and determining what works best in the real world. It might come as a surprise, but I've encountered numerous brands unaware or indifferent to categorising their marketing endeavours, failing to connect them to specific outcomes. Yes, they do execute marketing activities and are familiar with concepts such as organic and paid ads, and they do witness positive results from their actions. Yet, beneath the surface lurks a vital question: could they achieve even greater results and get more value with a more intentional approach? 🐇The Hare symbolizes performance—an exceptional sprinter with remarkable skills and techniques. Its approach is tactical, mirroring what we call 'performance marketing': a collection of data-driven, results-oriented strategies such as SEO and targeted call-to-action ads. 🐢 On the other hand, we have the Tortoise, which has a more prolonged, sustainable perspective. Let's classify this method as 'positioning marketing,' focusing on long-term perception, recognition, reputation, brand equity, emotional connection, customer loyalty, and market leadership over time. Les Binet and Peter Field, aka the 'Godfathers of effectiveness,' have done the fact-checking for us all in their publication titled: 'The Long and the Short of it: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies' (link in comments). So, what's the optimal mix according to their research? While nothing is set in stone, consider these ratios as inspirational guidelines: 💵 Financial services: 20% performance vs. 80% positioning 🥤 FMCG: 40% performance vs. 60% positioning 💼 B2B: 54% performance vs. 46% positioning What about newcomers versus established brands? 🚀 Start-ups: 65% performance vs. 35% positioning 🏆 Category leaders: 28% performance vs. 72% positioning So, who are you betting on in the marketing race? Are you team tortoise or team hare? I'm Team Turtle, as we at Madre Consulting champion ‘positioning marketing’ efforts. We delve deep into strategy, communications, and design for brands, fostering a focus on long-term growth. However, I do recognise that only through strategic overlap, collaborative efforts, and synergy in approach with performance experts, can a brand genuinely unlock its full potential. Unlike the fable, in the marketing world, victory belongs to a Tortoise-Hare joint effort. Brands that grasp the distinctions between these two marketing perspectives and leverage them in a balanced approach are the ones that will ultimately get the trophy. 🏆 *Illustration by Ulises. #positioningmarketing #performancemarkting #brandstrategy #positioning #brandgrowth #theshortandthelong #marketingstrategy #madreconsulting #brandpositioning #positioningstrategy

As a teen whose dream of studying abroad seemed far-fetched, being able to facilitate that dream to someone else makes me over the moon happy. 💜 At Chispafest, this 29th of November, we’ll give away another Istituto Europeo di Design Summer Course for a young, talented Nicaraguan to get a taste of world-class #creativity. Storytime: As a teenager and throughout my 20s, I dreamed of studying design in an iconic city like New York. Yet, it seemed unattainable. I ‘knew for a fact’ it would never happen for me. 💔 It was out of reach. I didn’t have the means, and there were many other ‘life obstacles’ I won’t bore you with on this post. But then, as years went by and my professional journey evolved, the once-distant thought of studying abroad began to inch closer to reality. In the end, it wasn’t New York. Instead, I chose Barcelona. 🇪🇸 At 30, it finally happened for me. Instituto Europeo di Design, a school I had heard great things about, became my school. I felt right at home. I was finally surrounded by more beings of my same species. The professors, the staff, the lessons, the ambience, and the city were fantastic. I enjoyed my time pursuing a Master’s in Strategic and Creative Direction for Brand Communications (it’s a mouthful, I know). Thank you, IED Barcelona for supporting #Chispafest once again. For trusting and backing an alumni project and this ‘updated dream’ to share a bit of global creativity and IED’s magic with #Nicaragua. #chisparestart #chispa #chispanicaragua #creatividad #creativestudies #creativescholarship #iedbarcelona #institutoeuropeodidesign

After experiencing my first creativity festival at age 27 (a bit late in creative life), I couldn’t stand still. I was so energised and so f$%^&* inspired. My brain exploded, and my heart burst. I became obsessed. And while I thoroughly cherished everything that was happening around me in that packed venue, another stream of thoughts took me back home. - Am I the only Nicaraguan here? - It would have been great to share this experience with friends and colleagues. - Why didn't I come to this 10 years ago? I’ve been missing out. - What if we had something like this in Nicaragua? - I’m going to make it happen. A simple premise and a legitimate wish to share such a special experience. If I haven’t bored you to death with it by now, please allow me to tell you about the project that gives me the most satisfaction: Chispafest, the International #Creativity Festival of Nicaragua. But what is it exactly? It's a platform for world-class lectures on #creativity, #design, #technology, #advertising, #culture and #innovation. A mix of the best creativity experiences offered out there, tropicalised to the very peculiar and changing realities of #CentralAmerica. I’ve taken inspiration from OFFF in Barcelona, Adobe 99U in New York, the London Design Festival, INBOUND in Boston, FID in Costa Rica, the Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño - DIMAD, and many other amazing industry events I’ve been privileged to be a part of. Since 2016, #Chispa has given me so much, including the privilege of giving back. 💜 #Chispafest has offered over 80 talks and practical workshops for more than 4,000 attendees. 💜 Once again, Chispa 2023 will provide a summer scholarship to IED Barcelona, one of the world's finest educational institutions for creativity. 💜 And, believe it or not, thanks to Chispa, I even met my wife. But that's a story for another post. 🇳🇮 #Nicaragua: get ready for #ChispaRestart! 29 November 2023 @ Teatro Nacional Rubén Darío. #creatividad #festivalcreativo #quenoseapaguelachispa #managua #creativityfestival

20 years ago to date. That’s 19-year-old Carlos hanging out with Daddy Yankee. But it’s so much more than that. This photo pinpoints the start of my entrepreneurial journey. Let me explain: After freelancing for a few years, in 2003, I joined forces with Manuel Diaz to offer web design services. Back then, it was a novelty for brands. We both had experience designing and developing sites independently. After collaborating on a few projects, it became obvious that his coding was better than mine and that my design skills were better than his. So we became business partners and managed to keep it civilized for the following 9 years. During that time, we worked in every sector and category imaginable and constantly experimented with expanding our offering (that’s how it eventually became clear to me that my calling was in brand development, which later turned into Madre Consulting). Besides working on client projects to pay the bills, we thought of ourselves as a laboratory, creating and taking on products and services of our own. Most failed, but that was different for Bacanalnica. This entertainment site featured the agenda and event coverage for Nicaragua’s nightlife. Its ‘message board’ (so old-school) became the country’s social media channel, hosting the largest Nicaraguan online community. It quickly became the most-read blog. Remember that this was before the term social media existed, way before Facebook, Twitter and everything that came after. Bacanalnica was a hit, becoming the 3rd most visited site in the country, right after the two most prominent national news outlets. Boom! That level of exposure, engagement and accomplishment sparked lots of cool projects with major brands. We got to introduce the most renowned Nicaraguan beer brands to the digital space. We developed joint ventures with newspapers and TV channels. There was never a dull moment. It also meant that during those 9 years, I had ‘all-access’ to clubs, press conferences, concerts, backstage and anything included in 'nightlife VIP status'. It was a blast for that 19-year-old kid in the photo, hanging out with a then-up-and-coming reggaeton artist. This is a photo of a clueless but determined entrepreneur, being backstage as a sponsor for the very first time. This is also me, in my fishbone-necklace-wearing phase, hanging out with the guy who a year later threw ‘Gasolina’ onto the world. 😅 #dalemasgasolina #Throwback #20years #Throwback #entrepreneur #StartupLife #CareerJourney #lifebeforefacebook