Radio Mercury Awards Final Round Judge

Luis Miguel Messianu

President/Chief Creative Officer, Messianu/Edelman/Lerma (MEL)

Luis Miguel Messianu has played a respectable and influential role in the most important developments in the U.S. multicultural market during an advertising career that spans three decades. His award-winning work for multinationals such as McDonald's, State Farm Insurance, Clorox, Molson Coors, Sprint, Pepsi, among others, is a testament to that effort. Luis Miguel Messianu is an innovator, a mentor and an example followed by many distinguished professionals in the multicultural marketing community.

In 1994 he started his own Hispanic agency, winning soon after the McDonald's and State Farm Insurance accounts. Twenty-nine years and numerous award-winning campaigns later, both clients still trusted their multicultural strategy to Luis Miguel's previous creative shop, called alma. Under his watch the agency fueled exceptional business growth through creativity, earning 35 Cannes Lions and 27 Effie Awards, as well as numerous Radio Mercury Awards, One Show, Clio, ANA, and New York Festival Awards.

In 2019 he was inducted into the CMC Advertising Hall of Fame, one of the highest recognitions in the multicultural industry. Luis Miguel was also one of the founders of the US Hispanic Creative Circle more than two decades ago and was elected its first President.

From February 2022 to July 2023, he was DDB's Global Chief Creative Officer for the McDonald's account. Messianu oversaw the creative output of the McDonald's brand across 46 markets, where the DDB network is responsible for the account.

In June 2023 he left DDB and alma, the agency he founded, and launched a Multicultural Creative Content Consultancy under the name "Included" going back full circle as a creative entrepreneur who really loves to build cultures and companies from scratch. Soon after he engaged in conversations with Pete Lerma and Richard Edelman, who wanted to partner with him, who in turn are now giving birth to MEL. This new Latino Earned Media enterprise will allow him to recommit to his personal and professional mission of helping dignify and elevate the presence of Latinos in the U.S.