Ampro’s executive president reveals that she always had to show her skills with doubled effort, as she did not present the aesthetic standards
The only publicist in the family, Heloisa Santana has worked for companies in different segments, including advertisers, vehicles and agencies, such as the extinct Transatlantica Turismo, Editora Abril, Folha de S.Paulo, Santander, AKM Performma, Repense Comunicação, McCann WorldGroup, FCB, Salem Propaganda and Gray Brasil, until reaching her current position as executive president of Ampro (Association of Professional Marketing).
And my journey was the classic one: I started as a marketing assistant and am currently the CEO of an entity and participate in networking groups, including Uma Sobe e Puxa a Outra, created in June 2022, which already has more than 240 Brazilian women, scattered throughout Brazil, says Hel, as known in the market.
Among the challenges mentioned by her throughout her career, the first one concerns the fact that she came from a humble family structure. In addition, the environments in which I worked were laden with racial prejudice and prejudice with women in the spotlight.
The executive reports that her career has always been based on racial prejudice and, unfortunately, experiences continue to this day. In agencies, I have always worked in the customer service/business area. I always had to show my skills with double effort, because I didn’t present the aesthetic standards. I remember that one of my clients simply asked not to be seen by me, because he couldn’t explain it, but he didn’t like black people. This situation was very marked for me, reveals Heloisa.
Hel comments that he has always had an eye on communication, content and visual references. I didn’t really know, because I came from a family where those with technical/higher education had classic professions such as law, administration, pedagogy. Even with the arrival of other generations, I am still the only publicist in the family! I became a technician in publicity and advertising, with emphasis on creation. At the age of 16, he already had the conviction of the market that he would act, he recalls.
In his opinion, the difficulty of entering the market has always existed. When I joined, the communication market offered fewer verticals. We’re not talking about digital and we’re not talking about consumer experience either! With grit and determination, it was possible to get into big brands (whether agency or advertiser). Today, the market offers more positions/opportunities, but the supply of professionals is significantly greater than in the past, she reflects.
To face the fears and challenges, Ampro’s executive president says that it’s only necessary to have a lot of passion for the profession, curiosity to learn, work in different verticals of communication and, above all, like people.
I was also lucky to work with managers who inspired me and opened doors to challenges that became opportunities. More recently, at Ampro, I was surprised by businessmen, academics and colleagues from other entities who welcomed and supported me in an extraordinary way, highlights Hel, who took over Ampro in April 2002.
For the future, she hopes to continue being one of the agents of evolution in the live marketing market, together with the Ampro team and volunteer entrepreneurs in the work groups (board, committees, etc.), to reap results in the short and medium term. And follow a path that opened up less than a year ago: facilitating conversations to talk about representativeness. Learning and having fun on the journey, always!, she says.
Regarding the expectations for the live marketing market this year, the executive points out that she would like to see the segment moving faster, in terms of sustainability between advertisers and agencies. This is one of Ampro’s pillars to promote good dialogs and cases for our industry, in addition to also looking at the education/training pillar. And to see the resumption of our sector and a market that believes and applies representativeness quotas, she concludes.
