Dieste Names Abe Garcia Chief Creative Officer | Succeeds Ciro Sarmiento

Garcia, executive director at the multicultural agency since 2015, succeeds Ciro Sarmiento

Multicultural communications agency Dieste has named Abe Garcia as chief creative officer. He succeeds Ciro Sarmiento, who left the position one year ago to become chief creative officer at Weber Shandwick. 

Garcia, who joined Omnicom Group-owned Dieste in 2015, had been executive creative director at the agency. He will report directly to Tony Dieste, chairman of the agency, which counts among its clients AT&T, Cricket Wireless and Goya Foods. 

“To lead an agency is obviously important to me and now that I have the reins I’ll instill that same sort of creative culture that I put upon myself, upon my work and upon my teams that I was leading prior,” Garcia said. Among those team members are Group Creative Directors Valentina Sulbarán and Benjamín Jara.

Evolution of multicultural agencies

The appointment comes as Dieste works to improve brand relevance amid an evolving multicultural marketing landscape. “We need to understand people and race and ethnicity better, but also means that we need to understand subcultures better,” said Tony Dieste. “People are identifying themselves behaviorally and identifying themselves in subcultures more than ever before.”

Dieste’s recent work shows that range. Its campaign for Dunkin’, themed “Work for Home,” highlights the Hispanic community’s contribution to the foodservice, construction and agricultural industries, showing that they are working for home rather than from home. Its “Deja tu Huella” spot for Cheetos Omnicom does not publish specific results for Dieste, but the agency says it posted double-digit revenue growth in each of the past three years. In 2021 it landed three new accounts: Victor Pet Food, Advanced Auto Parts and Buff City.showcased artist Bad Bunny to demonstrate that the Latino community is bold, loud and boundary-pushing.

Omnicom does not publish specific results for Dieste, but the agency says it posted double-digit revenue growth in each of the past three years. In 2021 it landed three new accounts: Victor Pet Food, Advanced Auto Parts and Buff City.

Despite “the two crazy years of the pandemic,” said Garcia, “somehow we’ve managed to keep that culture alive and keep the work fresh and modern.”