Marcello Serpa

­­Marcello Serpa studied Graphic Design in Germany where he worked at agencies GGK and R.G. Wiesmeir.
In 1989 he returned to Brazil, the country of his birth.
Here he was an as art director at DPZ and DM9DDB.
In 1993, he left the agency to become partner and Chief creative officer at AlmapBBDO.
Havaianas was Serpa’s first account at AlmapBBDO, and for 17 years he has been the mastermind of its award-winning advertising in Brazil as well as internationally.
Throughout his career, Serpa has been noted as Brazil’s most honoured art director, having won gold, silver and bronze medals in the principal Brazilian and international advertising festivals for clients such as Volkswagen, Audi, Pepsi, Mars and many other local and international brands.
At the Cannes Festival he won Latin America’s first Grand Prix in 1993 and has since raked more than 150 Lions.
In 2000 he was the youngest TV and Press jury president at the Cannes festival of Creativity. In 2014 he was again Jury president at 60º. Cannes Lions for the Press category.
Among others, Marcello presided twice UK’s D&AD, London Festival, Asia’s Ad Fest and twice the Clio Awards juries (2000, 2009).
During his time as partner and Chief Creative officer AlmapBBDO won 3 times the Agency of the Year at Cannes and was the first-ever double winner of Agency of the Year in the Gunn Report.
In 2008, he was the first non-Anglo-Saxon to receive the 2008 Clio’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to worldwide advertising.
In 2016 after leaving AlmapBBDO Serpa won in Cannes The Lion of St Mark for his contribution to the worldwide creative industry.
In the same year Serpa moved with his family to Hawaii to continue something with what he considers his Life’s passion: to create images but now with paint on canvas.
His first exhibition was at Apart Gallery in NY in October 2017 where he showed 14 paintings.