Francisco Cardenas

Francisco is the Principal of Digital and Social Media Strategy at LERMA/, a multicultural agency based in Dallas, Texas which was recently named independent agency of the year by the acclaimed festival FIAP. He has worked on brands like Avocados from Mexico, Barcel, BanCoppel, Clamato, Dr Pepper, Metro by T-Mobile and Southwest Airlines.

He started his advertising career in Mexico City at GibertDDB and JWT. He has an MBA in Sports Management from the Universidad Europea de Madrid where he worked for former Augeo Sports & Entertainment (Zertior Sports & Entertainment) creating proprietary digital concepts for European Football Teams, players and artists. 

He later returned to Mexico where he started his own creative shop which landed, on a short period of time, the french pharma company account Sanofi aventis. Shortly afterward he partnered with Lead2action, a top digital shop in Mexico where he restructured the agency, established ad culture, and developed digital experiences for brands like Audi, Banamex, Best Buy, Hasbro, P&G, Porsche, and Volkswagen. His efforts lead to its acquisition in 2013 by the Publicis Groupe which was renamed to Nurun and just recently Digitas Mexico.

Dieste Inc. brought him back to Dallas, as the Digital Strategy Director for Nissan, AT&T, Heineken, Hershey, and P&G on the multicultural segment where he built a Social Media team and earned multiple awards including two Cannes Lions, El Sol, and Clio. 

His creative background has allowed him to work on other brands like José Cuervo, Gatorade, Hyundai, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Pepsi and Lay’s.

He has led the Digital Strategy practice from the agency side for Avocados From Mexico in 8 consecutive Super Bowl campaigns earning each time the top spots on brand buzz and increase on Purchase Intent for the brand as reported by YouGov.com

Some industry recognitions:

Cannes

Clio

El Sol

Ad Age Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards

London International Advertising Awards

FIAP

Radio Mercury Awards

AMCO (Asociación Mexicana de Comunicación)

Totem Awards

Creativity 37

The Eagle Awards

ADDY Awards

IABConnect

IABMixx Awards

USH IDEA

El Ojo De Iberoamérica

One Show

D&AD

Wave Festival

Facebook Awards

New York Festival