Written by: Diego Plazas, CSO LatAm for Havas Group
As part of our Inside the Jury Room series, we spoke with Diego Plazas, CSO LatAm for Havas Group hear his perspective as a judge for this years Festival of Media Latin America Awards 2026.
In the interview, Diego shares his views on the biggest opportunities for media over the next 12 months, how media’s role in shaping consumer behaviour continues to evolve, and the ways brands are using AI to drive greater relevance and effectiveness. He also highlights the campaigns and brands setting new industry benchmarks, what excites him most about this year’s entries, and his advice for entrants looking to impress the jury.
Although the final deadline for the Festival of Media Latin America Awards has passed you can contact our team now to request an extension for your entries. Enter now to benchmark your work against the industry’s best, gain global recognition, and secure your place among the world’s leading media campaigns.
Request an extension today: Fomawards@festivalofmedia.com
What do you see as the biggest opportunity for media over the next 12 months?
Trust!, this is one of the biggest opportunities of media in the next year, people will use trust as the best proxy for choosing the media they want and love, so once you build trust, love will become growth through active desire and that what we are all about at Havas!
How has the role of media evolved in shaping consumer behaviour in recent years?
Instead of looking for ways to use different touchpoints to funnel down on a purchase, media and brands are collapsing the funnel so much that we’re facing the era of no funnel at all.
How are brands leveraging AI in smarter ways to create more impactful campaigns?
The fact that an idea or campaign has AI in it is no longer differential. Nowadays is about where are you putting AI into the idea: is the idea is based on AI, it won’t make the cut, but if its based on culture or behavior and you’re using AI to maximize of enrich the experience, that’s another story!
Which campaigns or brands do you think have set new benchmarks recently in the media industry?
Vaseline is a great example of great use of media.
What advice would you give to entrants of the Festival of Media LatAm Awards who want to impress the jury this year?
Be very smart on creating your case! Sometimes you could think that every idea can be a media idea if you put media in it, but media has to be the origin of your idea, not part of it.
