Horacio Genolet and Laurent mom phone number data Ezekiel: “The Latin human touch will be important for AI”Genolet and Ezekiel (dressed in the brand of the major client they work for): “We believe that we are bringing together two very innovative companies: Coca-Cola thrives on innovation and so does WPP.” (Photo: WPP Press for Adlatina)
By Pancho Dondo
Editor-in-Chief of Marketers by Adlatina
Adlatina: Ezekiel, a geographer leading, from Open X, the communication destinations of a global brand like Coca-Cola is curious and, at the same time, unexpectedly appropriate for these times. What personal academic knowledge do you bring to bear in your daily work?
Laurent Ezekiel : I think it's a great question to start with. I would say that one of the things that I bring from geography is a hunger for local knowledge, local cultures, and geopolitics. Actually, I would say that those two things definitely fuel my passion and my interest in working on global and hyperglobal brands. And there is no more hyperglobal brand than The Coca-Cola Company. It gives me a lot of pleasure to discover new knowledge, cultures, people, and ideas around the world. Geography helped me drive that. But also, the dynamics of the world, the politics of the world, the geopolitics of the world, which is what I focused on in my career, geopolitics. And I think it's not a big leap to say that that fuels my interest. And I love to travel, so that rounds it all out.
A: But does all of that have anything to do with what you dreamed of when you were studying geography?
LE : When I was studying geography, I thought I was going to save the world. With that in mind, I dreamed of working for one of two organisations. One was the World Bank and the second was the UNHCR, which is the humanitarian division of the UN. I thought that I would definitely end up working for one of them. In the process, I stumbled upon a one-week internship at a small advertising company called Saatchi & Saatchi ( laughs ). And one week led to two weeks, two weeks led to three months, and three months led to 25 years! That’s how it happened. But I’m still in touch with the people and ideas of the geography era. That’s the story.
