Native of Canary Islands Builds a Nest in Los Angeles

0

When Carlos Sosa, a native of a small town in the Canary Islands, arrived in Durango, Colo., 22 years ago as an exchange student, he didn’t think he would end up staying.

Sosa came to the United States to spend a year learning English, but 12 months wasn’t enough time to explore the country. He decided to stay longer to study and work in advertising, which had always been an interest.

Today, Sosa works at downtown L.A. advertising firm Castells & Asociados, which focuses on connecting clients to the Hispanic market. He signed up as a group account director about three months ago, after leaving PlanetWoot Advertising in Huntington Beach. Sosa handles one account, Time Warner Cable, one of Castells’ largest clients.

He was able to get off to a fast start in his new position, having worked as a marketing director at El Segundo-based DirecTV, a satellite TV provider and Time Warner Cable rival.

It’s the competition among digitally delivered TV services that makes his job so challenging, Sosa said.

“Everything has been done and said,” he said of previous advertising campaigns. “You have to really understand your clients and communicate with them to sustain a competitive edge, especially in this category, where everybody’s offering similar services.”

Working in a fast-paced and creatively demanding environment is not always easy, Sosa said, but it’s a business he’s been interested in for a long time.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I was fascinated with commercials,” he recalled. “I used to wait for commercial breaks and enjoy watching them instead of the actual TV shows. Commercials are the most creative parts of television you have to tell a story in 30 seconds.”

Sosa lives with his partner, Greg Nise, and two dogs, Darby and Pancho, in Los Angeles. In his free time, he likes to surf.

No posts to display