I’m Tona Olvera, a Creative Director & Brand Strategist based in Zurich. I help brands feel authentic without losing their edge, building campaigns from the ground up so they resonate where it matters. Over the past decade, I've collaborated for Nike, Spotify, and Netflix, not by following playbooks, but by rewriting them. I specialize in turning complex business challenges into cultural moments that people actually care about.…

Tona Olvera

PRO

I’m Tona Olvera, a Creative Director & Brand Strategist based in Zurich. I help brands feel authentic without losing their edge, building campaigns from the ground up so they resonate where it matters. Over the past decade, I've collaborated for Nike, Spotify, and Netflix, not by following playbooks, but by rewriting them. I specialize in turning complex business challenges into cultural moments that people actually care about.…

Available to hire

I’m Tona Olvera, a Creative Director & Brand Strategist based in Zurich. I help brands feel authentic without losing their edge, building campaigns from the ground up so they resonate where it matters.

Over the past decade, I’ve collaborated for Nike, Spotify, and Netflix, not by following playbooks, but by rewriting them. I specialize in turning complex business challenges into cultural moments that people actually care about.

See more

Language

Spanish; Castilian
Fluent
English
Fluent

Work Experience

Creative Director at Spotify
December 5, 2022 - August 31, 2025
Appointed as a dedicated Strategic Partner to lead high-stakes Brand and GTM initiatives for Spotify. Responsible for the end-to-end creative orchestration of cultural properties, ensuring alignment between global brand governance and local market execution. GTM & Positioning: Led the product marketing strategy for the first-ever Spotify Podcast Awards. Defined the value proposition for a market of 27M listeners, resulting in 19M+ organic views and a 100% repeatable global blueprint. Experiential Innovation: Directed the "Wrapped House" (260M media impressions), converting digital streaming data into a high-impact physical ecosystem for 160+ top-tier creators. Stakeholder Alignment: Navigated complex matrix organizations, managing cross-functional relationships between internal global teams and external production partners.
Creative Director at Netflix
January 9, 2023 - August 4, 2025
Led the creative strategy and experiential GTM for high-priority series and documentaries. Focused on transforming entertainment properties into cultural conversations that drive retention and trending status. Audience Conversion: Developed the launch strategy for "América vs. América," securing a Top 5 spot on Netflix for three consecutive weeks with 646K+ views in the premiere week alone. Authentic Storytelling: Engineered "unvarnished" launch experiences that garnered coverage from 66+ global media outlets, moving beyond traditional PR into cultural currency. Localization & Adaptability: Adapted global marketing toolkits for regional relevance while maintaining the high-quality bar of the Netflix brand.
Creative Director at Jose Cuervo (MX & US)
October 1, 2015 - September 1, 2025
I convinced Jose Cuervo to build a music festival at the base of the Tequila Volcano—the literal birthplace of their product. Not a sponsorship. A proprietary IP.
Result: 93M+ impressions, sold-out tickets for 8 consecutive years, and the blueprint for how brands can own culture instead of renting it.
Senior Experience & Brand Designer at Nike
August 10, 2015 - June 30, 2025
Led the creative direction and experiential strategy for Nike’s priority regional campaigns. Focused on translating global brand playbooks into hyperlocal, high-performance brand moments that drive community engagement and product trial. Cultural Leadership: Spearheaded the "After Dark Tour", fusing nocturnal youth culture with performance sports to reinforce Nike's position as a cultural leader. Product Launch Excellence: Directed the creative strategy for the "Speed Room" and "Hypervenom 3" trials, converting technical product features into competitive social challenges (850K+ digital impacts). Operational Scale: Managed end-to-end execution for large-scale activations involving 10,000+ participants, focusing on world-class customer journeys and brand consistency.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Communication & Media Studies at UT University
December 1, 2003 - December 14, 2007

Qualifications

Cannes Lions
January 11, 2030 - April 23, 2026
D&AD
January 11, 2030 - April 23, 2026
Effie Awards
January 11, 2030 - April 23, 2026
Clio Awards
January 11, 2030 - April 23, 2026
Jury Member - Effie Awards (Marketing Effectiveness)
January 11, 2030 - April 23, 2026
Jury Member - WINA Awards (2025 International Jury)
July 14, 2025 - July 14, 2025

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Consumer Goods, Software & Internet, Retail, Professional Services, Travel & Hospitality, Telecommunications
    uniE621 Netflix America vs America
    AMÉRICA VS. AMÉRICA — Netflix Documentary Launch The Challenge Club América is the most followed and most polarizing football club in Mexico. Netflix's *América vs. América* docuseries chronicled the club's tumultuous season with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access. The brief: create a launch campaign for the most popular team in the country that matched the emotional intensity of the series—not a corporate screening or standard press conference. My Role Creative Director (2023) I led the campaign strategy and designed the launch experience from the ground up. My focus: put journalists and influencers in the headspace of the sport before they watched the show. I directed: Campaign strategy & positioning Launch event experience design Art direction & spatial storytelling Media outreach & influencer coordination The Solution I don't do traditional press junkets. For this launch, I built an experience that felt like the sport itself—raw, emotional, impossible to ignore. The venue became a stadium proxy. I directed the art direction and experiential design to recreate the sensory markers of match day, not a premiere. Every detail reinforced the narrative that this wasn't entertainment *about* football—it was football as entertainment. The creative decision: make the event feel like the series itself—unvarnished, emotional, rooted in the culture that surrounds the club every Sunday. Results Media Impact: 66+ media outlets attended (sports, entertainment, general interest press) Streaming Performance: Landed in Netflix Mexico's Top 5 for three consecutive weeks 646K+ views in premiere week Strategic Win: The event primed the cultural conversation; the show sustained it Proved that launch campaigns for cultural properties don't need spectacle—they need authenticity that journalism can't ignore Key Deliverables ✅ Campaign strategy & narrative positioning ✅ Launch event experience design ✅ Art direction & environmental storytelling ✅ Media strategy & press coordination ✅ Influencer outreach & activation What Made This Different I transformed a launch into a cultural moment by making the event as authentic as the series itself. The result: a story so compelling that 66 media outlets covered it, and the show stayed Top 5 for weeks. When the experience *is* the story, the content sells itself.…
    uniE621 Spotify Podcast Awards
    SPOTIFY PODCAST AWARDS The Challenge Mexico is Spotify's 1 global market for podcasts, with 27 million listeners in 2024 (up 19% YoY). The brief: create the first-ever recognition platform for podcast creators in the region, position Spotify as a cultural leader—not just a streaming service—and build a blueprint for branded properties that could scale across priority markets. Global leadership was watching. My Role Creative Director & Brand Strategist (2025) I led the full creative development from concept to execution: Campaign concept & naming Complete brand identity system Voting mechanism design (2-week fan voting via Spotify app across 10 categories) Experiential design & OOH campaign On-site art direction for the live event The Solution I rejected traditional awards ceremony logic entirely. No seated audience. No speeches. Instead, I built an immersive experience designed for moments: green carpet glamour, dynamic hosting, live performances, and TikTok livestream integration that turned the event into participatory content, not passive broadcast. Fans voted through the Spotify app, turning the awards into a community-driven property before the event even happened. Results Event Impact: 420 guests 40 national media outlets 653K TikTok livestream views Media Performance: 19 million impressions across earned media and creator-shared content Strategic Win: Spotify now has a repeatable model for creator recognition platforms in priority markets globally The event became an internal case study for how to build cultural leadership through branded IP Key Deliverables ✅ Campaign concept & naming ✅ Complete brand identity system ✅ Voting mechanism & app integration ✅ Experiential design & spatial strategy ✅ OOH campaign & media strategy ✅ On-site art direction & execution oversight What Made This Different Spotify had never done creator awards in LATAM. I pitch…
    uniE621 Nike After Dark Tour
    NIKE AFTER DARK TOUR The Challenge Nike launched the After Dark Tour in 2025—a global women's race series across seven cities. Mexico City hosted a 21K half marathon as the tour's largest market. The brief: translate the global campaign into a hyperlocal experience that reflected the convergence of performance, youth culture, and nocturnal energy. My Role Creative Director (2025) Working with Nike Running Mexico, I led the creative translation of the global campaign playbook for the Mexico City market. My role: take After Dark's DNA and amplify it to match the city's vibrant, unapologetic energy. I directed: Conceptual and visual identity across all campaign touchpoints Spatial design and art direction for race environment Narrative tone and cultural codes Ensuring the experience felt distinctly Mexico City while staying true to Nike's global positioning The Solution The approach: fuse the runner's high with nocturnal celebration aesthetics. I created an "underground but upscale" atmosphere that honored both athletic achievement and the city's nightlife culture. The visual system balanced Nike's bold graphic language with hyperlocal intensity, using spatial storytelling to position After Dark as cultural celebration, not just athletic event. Results Mexico City's execution became one of the standout markets in the global seven-city series Proved that rigorous creative direction rooted in cultural fluency can amplify a global campaign without diluting it Successfully positioned Nike as a cultural leader, not just a performance brand Key Deliverables ✅ Visual identity translation & localization ✅ Spatial design & environmental storytelling ✅ Art direction for race touchpoints ✅ Cultural coding & narrative framework ✅ On-site creative oversight What Made This Different I didn't just execute a global playbook—I rewrote it for the city. The result was a campaign that felt unmistakably Nike and unmistakably Mexico City at the same time. When you understand local culture deeply enough, you don't dilute global brands—you make them stronger.…
    uniE621 Jose Cuervo Tradicional Akamba
    AKAMBA FESTIVAL The Challenge Jose Cuervo needed to reconnect with Gen Z—a generation with zero emotional relationship with tequila. Traditional sponsorships weren't going to work. They needed a proprietary cultural moment that positioned the brand as a creator, not just a sponsor. My Role Creative Director & Brand Strategist (2018–2026) I led the project from concept to execution: Developed festival naming, brand identity, and visual system Pitched the concept internally to national/international stakeholders Curated music lineup and directed art installations Transformed agave fields at the base of the Tequila Volcano into festival grounds The Solution I didn't pitch "another music festival." I pitched the only festival that could exist at the literal birthplace of tequila. The location was the strategy. The agave fields at the base of the Tequila Volcano became the festival grounds—irreproducible authenticity. I curated artists for discovery, not recognition: Timber Timbre, Hollie Cook, Sinkane, Mayer Hawthorne, Nicola Cruz. The Akamba Express—a vintage train from Guadalajara to Tequila—seeded media conversation before gates opened. Results Inaugural Edition (2018): 4,000+ attendees 93.2M digital impressions PrendeAkamba: 22.8M reach Sustained Success: Ran annually for 8 consecutive years (2018–2026) Became western Mexico's reference music experience Established as unique brand IP Key Deliverables ✅ Festival naming & brand identity ✅ Music curation & artist partnerships ✅ Art direction & installation coordination ✅ Stakeholder presentations & buy-in ✅ Media strategy & execution oversight What Made This Different Most festivals are sponsorships. Akamba was brand IP. I built a repeatable cultural property that ran for 8 years and became synonymous with the brand itself. When creative direction and cultural fluency converge, you don't create an event—you create a movement.…