Global independent creative network GUT has appointed Pedro Porto, the former director of Twitter Next Latin America, to the newly created role of chief content officer. He will be based in Miami and will report to Andrea Diquez, global CEO at GUT.
Porto’s key responsibilities in his new role include helping clients identify opportunities to create content that makes them more relevant to audiences and building impactful brand experiences driven by brave and creative approaches. His work will focus on the U.S. and Canada. Porto will also head GUT’s content department, alongside chief data intelligence officer Christian Pierre, which was launched last year and leads social and content communications on agency clients’ owned channels, allowing them to react with content at the speed of culture.
The news of Porto’s appointment comes on the heels of GUT’s five-year anniversary, the recent opening of its new Amsterdam office (the network’s first in Europe), the appointment of Diquez as GUT’s first global CEO and the promotion of Ricardo Casal and Juan Javier Peña Plaza to NA CCOs–all within the last year.
An accomplished executive with 24 years of experience in the advertising and digital marketing industry, Porto has operated out of the U.S., Brazil and Singapore, and engaged teams and clients across markets in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, including Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, China, India, Australia and more. As director of Twitter Next Latin America, he led teams of strategists, creatives, marketers, content specialists, managers and developers to help brands like Apple, Amazon, and Disney–as well as agencies–craft innovative ideas and rapid-response solutions. A content pro with a proven record of gathering intimate knowledge of multicultural audiences, Porto was instrumental in building localized and global practices for brand success before, during, and after two Olympic Games and two World Cups, while establishing Latin America as a creative powerhouse, developing services and technologies that were exported worldwide.
“I’ve spent 10 years working at a social media platform that is considered the pulse of the world, and from that, I’ve learned what people expect from brands and how I can help deliver on those expectations,” said Porto. “I love bringing fresh perspectives to the table, and having the chance to be a part of the agency that’s redefining communications.”
Prior to Twitter, Porto served as convergence VP at Fischer & Friends, where he led the digital integration between online and offline teams in the areas of creative, planning, media and operations. He has also held key roles as interactive director at NBS and Santa Clara, among others. His ever-growing expertise as a digital pioneer also traces back to his founding of two interactive agencies in the early 2000s.
Porto has spoken at several events across the U.S., Latin America and beyond, including in Tokyo, Singapore, Mumbai and New Delhi, and at IAB Connect and Ogilvy Talks. He has served on the jury of The Festival of Media Latam–Miami, the Effie Awards, the Wave Festival and CCSP in Brazil. In Miami, he is also a volunteer advisor for The Underline, a 10-mile urban park, trail and art destination being built under Miami’s Metrorail.
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More