ABA’s executive president reveals the trajectory she has followed in her 39-year career and brings data on the advancement of women in the advertising market
A native of Poos de Caldas, Sandra Martinelli was 14 years old when she decided to become an advertiser and embarked on a 39-year career. I met one of my sister’s roommates, in Campinas, who did advertising at Unicamp and I was delighted with her books and her talk about the course. Exactly three years later, I was starting the 1st year of Social Communications. Then I took a postgraduate degree in advertising and marketing from ESPM and an MBA from Dom Cabral, says the executive president of ABA (Brazilian Association of Advertisers).
Leading the entity for eight years, she started as a trainee at the Dow Chemical plant in Guaruj, and has 20 years of work in banks (Unibanco and Santander) and ten in large agencies in the advertising market. For the executive, the most important thing is to try to do what we love. Because that’s the only way, putting love into everything we do, is being genuine. I built my career with a lot of study, love and dedication, which makes me grateful for my entire journey, not only for where I am today, but for every place I’ve been, learning a lot and leaving my legacy. And that’s rewarding, believe me.
Having worked at Ogilvy and Gray in the customer service area, Sandra says that her passion has always been dealing with people. If I could define my professional journey in a few words, I would say that it is based on humility in learning, on seeking to share time and knowledge, on love and compassion for people, on genuine pleasure in developing people, on respect for diversity, on healthy relationships in the environment. professional, in partnership with employees, suppliers, peers and leaders, and all of this combined with proactivity and results. I’ve always had a genuine interest in people, so I’ve always worked to develop myself and my teams, she says.
At ABA, the executive president states that the purpose of the entity is to remain firm in our vocation for collaborative protagonism and we understand our responsibility to publicize and stimulate inspiring initiatives to support the leaders of the mar-
keting so that they are in constant evolution and active, in favor of a more conscious and responsible society, as well as we also understand our need for constant evolution as an entity.
Furthermore, according to her, the challenge of doing more with less, and achieving better results, is constant in marketing. CMOs, leaders, and marketers live with this challenge daily! That is why one of the roles of the ABA, as an association that represents advertisers, is to be an environment for promoting content, discussions and debates, which can guide these professionals in all these senses, from challenges to opportunities, he emphasizes.
Winner of more than 200 awards throughout her career, Sandra says she has never been a victim of gender bias, but recognizes that this journey is not common for most women, especially in the advertising market.
I am happy to see the female universe tracing paths never explored before, with more and more female leaders reaching positions that they could not reach in the not so distant past. A study by the consultancy Spencer Stuart, presented last year at a meeting of the CMO Club, an initiative by Exame with the Zmes agency, supported by the ABA, showed that women currently represent 71% of new CMO hires and hold a 51% share in the entire market. This victory is a great achievement for all women marketing professionals in our country!
But, despite perceiving the demand for more space, voice and representation advancing, the executive points out that we still have a long way to go to reach the state of the art of equity. Exercising the responsibility of managing the ABA, I am committed to directing the entity
in supporting initiatives in favor of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, from hiring different teams, as well as so that publicity
pay attention to sexist games and practices, stereotypes and prejudices. Brands that have women in charge of their market strategies have changed approaches, renewed their look and raised their share and profit rates, points out Sandra.
