The best way to keep learning is to treat each day as if you had never won
In Buenos Aires, the Argentine marketing community gathered not merely to distribute trophies but to articulate a collective identity at a moment of profound industry transformation. Five professionals were honored across categories that together mapped the terrain of modern marketing — innovation, reinvention, emerging talent, sustained contribution, and cross-border influence. Beneath the ceremony ran a deeper current: that resilience forged under constraint, combined with a clear-eyed relationship to artificial intelligence, may be precisely what positions this region as a laboratory for the future of the discipline.
- The Argentine marketing industry faces a defining tension: how to harness AI without surrendering the human judgment that makes strategy meaningful.
- Keynote speaker Giuseppe Stigliano warned of 'AI myopia,' urging marketers to stop treating artificial intelligence as a tool and start treating it as an enabler — one that executes while humans direct.
- Mercado Libre's Sean Summers reframed Argentina's notorious economic volatility as a competitive asset, positioning the Southern Cone as a pressure-tested laboratory for bold marketing experimentation.
- Five honorees — from Netflix's Louise McKerrow to AB InBev's Eugenio Raffo — embodied distinct but complementary answers to the question of what durable marketing leadership looks like.
- The evening landed not as a celebration of past achievement but as a forward-facing manifesto: risk-taking, direct customer ownership, and irreplaceable human creativity are the industry's path through digital disruption.
Buenos Aires hosted the 2026 Marketers Argentina awards in a spirit that felt less like a gala and more like a profession taking honest stock of itself. Adlatina Group CEO Belén Martínez Cima opened by framing the evening around professional journeys and the relationships that sustain marketing work across a region — continuity over celebrity.
Sean Summers of Mercado Libre sharpened the tone, arguing that growth demands risk and positioning the Argentine market not as a peripheral outpost but as a testing ground for the entire Southern Cone. The region's capacity to adapt under pressure, he suggested, was a strength worth celebrating and leveraging.
Before the awards, Giuseppe Stigliano delivered a keynote challenging the industry's prevailing assumptions about AI. Marketers, he argued, were misclassifying artificial intelligence as a tool rather than an enabler. His four principles for navigating the shift: create content machines can process and humans will remember; deploy your own AI agent proactively; own your customer relationship directly; and offer something genuinely incomparable — resistant to commodification.
The five honorees spanned the industry's range. Netflix's Louise McKerrow took the innovator award, acknowledging a decade of connection to the Argentine market. YPF's Agustina Pelfini was recognized for business model transformation, crediting results-driven culture and mentorship. Mostaza's Carola Garibaldi was honored as the top marketer under 40.
The most resonant moment came from AB InBev's Eugenio Raffo, who accepted the career trajectory award by speaking of the scars a long career leaves — then offering a counterintuitive prescription: treat every day as if you had never won anything, remain perpetually a beginner. In a room built around achievement, it was a quietly radical thing to say, and it captured something essential about how the discipline actually survives.
Buenos Aires hosted the 2026 Marketers Argentina awards ceremony, a gathering that felt less like a trophy presentation and more like a profession taking stock of itself. Belén Martínez Cima, CEO of Adlatina Group, opened the evening by framing the awards not as individual accolades but as recognition of the professional journeys and connections that shape the industry. The tone was set immediately: this was about continuity, about the relationships that sustain marketing work across a region.
Sean Summers, who leads retail media and serves as chief marketing officer at Mercado Libre, reinforced a harder message. Growth, he argued, requires risk. "We felt called by these awards, which is why we decided to host them here," he said, speaking to a room of marketers who know Argentina's particular combination of constraint and opportunity. He positioned the Argentine marketing community as something more than a local market—as a testing ground for the entire Southern Cone, a place where reinvention and resilience could become competitive advantages. The implication was clear: this region's capacity to adapt under pressure was not a liability but a strength worth celebrating and leveraging.
Before the awards were distributed, Giuseppe Stigliano delivered a keynote on what he called "AI myopia in marketing." His argument cut against the grain of much industry conversation. Marketers, he suggested, were making a category error by treating artificial intelligence as a tool to be wielded. Instead, they should understand it as an enabler—something that handles execution while humans provide direction and judgment. "AI knows the how. Humans know the what," he said. He then outlined four principles for marketers navigating this shift: design content that machines can process and humans will remember; deploy your own AI agent rather than waiting to be chosen by others; own your customer relationship directly, reducing dependence on intermediaries; and offer something incomparable—something that cannot be commodified or easily replaced by algorithmic alternatives.
The awards themselves recognized five professionals across distinct categories. Louise McKerrow, Netflix's director of marketing and publicity, won the innovator award, recognized for her distinctive use of digital marketing tools. In her remarks, she thanked her team and acknowledged a decade of connection to the Argentine market, signaling Netflix's continued investment in the region. Agustina Pelfini, chief marketing officer at YPF, received the award for business model transformation, crediting her organization's results-driven mindset and the mentorship she had received along the way. Carola Garibaldi, marketing director at Mostaza, was honored as the top marketer under 40, a recognition of emerging talent in the field.
Eugenio Raffo, vice president of marketing for Latin America at AB InBev, won the career trajectory award—a recognition of sustained contribution over decades. His acceptance speech carried an unusual note of humility. He spoke of the scars that come with a long career, then made a striking claim: the best way to keep learning is to treat each day as if you had never won an award, to remain perpetually a beginner. It was a counterintuitive message in a room celebrating achievement, but it captured something true about how marketing actually works—the moment you believe you have mastered it is the moment you become obsolete.
The fifth award, for regional and global impact, was not yet presented at the time of reporting, but the evening's arc was already clear. The Argentine marketing community was being positioned not as a peripheral market but as a laboratory for ideas that could scale across Latin America and beyond. The emphasis on risk-taking, on AI as enabler rather than replacement, on the irreducible value of human judgment—these were not abstract principles but practical guidance for an industry in transition. The awards ceremony itself became a kind of manifesto: this is what we value, this is how we see our future, this is the kind of marketer we need to become.
Notable Quotes
The Argentine marketing community is in constant growth. If there's one thing that characterizes us, it's our capacity to reinvent ourselves. This is a moment to use our resilience and risk-taking to make the Southern Cone a zone of experimentation.— Sean Summers, EVP of retail media and CMO of Mercado Libre
The best way to keep learning each day is to act as if you had never won an award. That is my message.— Eugenio Raffo, VP of marketing for Latin America at AB InBev
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does an awards ceremony in Argentina matter enough to cover it this way? It's not like the Oscars or Cannes Lions.
Because it's where an industry is talking to itself about what it actually values. When Summers says Argentina should be a testing ground for the Southern Cone, he's not being poetic—he's describing a strategic shift in how multinational companies see the region.
And the AI stuff—Stigliano's keynote—that felt like the real story underneath the awards.
Exactly. He's telling marketers they're asking the wrong questions. They're worried about being replaced by AI. He's saying the real risk is not understanding what AI can and cannot do. Humans decide the strategy. Machines execute it.
But that's optimistic, isn't it? Assumes humans will stay in control.
It's not optimistic or pessimistic. It's a framework. He's saying if you own the relationship with your customer directly, if you offer something that can't be commodified, you stay relevant. If you don't, no amount of AI skill saves you.
Raffo's comment about treating every day like you haven't won anything—that stuck with me.
That's the thing nobody says at awards ceremonies. Most people use the moment to consolidate what they've already achieved. He's saying the opposite: the moment you think you've figured it out, you're done. It's a warning dressed as gratitude.
So what's the actual forward motion here? What happens next?
The Argentine marketing community is being given permission to experiment, to take risks, to see themselves as a laboratory rather than a market. Whether they actually do that depends on whether companies back it up with resources and patience.