Wieden+Kennedy opens office in Mexico City

Wieden+Kennedy increased its global footprint earlier this month by opening a new office in Mexico City. This marks the independent agency’s 10th office, joining Portland, Oregon; New York; London; Amsterdam; São Paulo; Shanghai; Tokyo; Mumbai and Delhi, India.

This is also W+K’s first office in a Spanish-speaking country, a move the agency had been considering for a “long time,” according to W+K CEO Neal Arthur.

The agency looked for an office in Mexico City about five years ago, Arthur said, “but at the time it felt like there weren't as many opportunities, even though culturally it’s really interesting. But now it's lining up where there's really high client interest.”

Global expansion continues to be part of the blueprint for the agency, which took over global creative and brand strategy for Ford in October. The Mexico office will handle some Ford work to begin with, along with expanded work for other clients.

Finding executives who were already established in the region was a big consideration for the move, Arthur said.

“Our Wieden model is you don't really try to actively manage people in these offices. You give them the freedom and autonomy to do their thing,” said Arthur, adding that each office operates under its own P&L.

The office currently has 20 employees, with Ogilvy’s former Latin America Chief Creative Officer Jessica Apellaniz serving as executive creative director. During her time at Ogilvy, Apellaniz created work for brands including Coca-Cola, BP, Mazda, Aeroméxico, KFC, Starbucks and American Express. Under her leadership, the agency won the first-ever D&AD Pencil for Mexico and the first Cannes Lions for Honduras and Bolivia.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only work for Wieden+Kennedy but open an office for Wieden+Kennedy,” Apellaniz said. “I've had offers to go abroad, but Mexico City—it's in my heart.”

Apellaniz will lead the new office alongside W+K Mexico's Managing Director Pablo Arteaga, who most recently led IBM’s experience design practice called IBM iX in Mexico. Arteaga in 2021 co-founded a tech-focused M&A company called Pipeline Capital, which he will continue to lead moving forward.

Prior to his role in the consulting space, Arteaga held multiple senior leadership positions at Publicis' Leo Burnett Worldwide, BBH London, and BBH São Paulo. As CEO of Leo Burnett Mexico, Arteaga led the 2015 merger with a Mexico-based agency called Olabuenaga Chemistri, and worked with clients such as AB InBev, Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Kellogg and Samsung.

With the Mexico City office opening this month, the agency is solidifying its Latin America offering. “We're treating it as these aren't going to just be separate offices, they're going to function together,” Arthur said. “Our clients don't want to go from office to office and reinvent themselves all the time. They want to have relationships with Wieden+Kennedy globally.”

Around 30%-40% of the agency’s business is global, according to Arthur, who said global work has been a point of emphasis.

The agency’s biggest global clients include Ford, McDonald's and AB InBev.

“We have a history of big creative ideas,” Arthur said. “Oftentimes those have come from North America, but now it's coming from more places and we've got a lot of big work that comes from small offices and the more connected that our offices are, the better our work is getting.”

One goal for the agency will be continuing to hire Spanish-speaking creatives, according to Apellaniz, who says she’s already conducted over 50 interviews for open positions.

“Mexico City is attracting a lot of talent all over the place so being that platform for this talent to shine globally, it's something we think we can provide,” Arteaga said.