Mario Jiménez takes a break from his busy schedule as Founder of theGarage, our Spanish FOOTPRINT partner, to lift the lid on all things comms in Spain, his background, influences and some highlights from his career.

1. How can foreign companies make a success of their comms and PR in Spain in 2026?

Hyper-localisation and cultural empathy. In 2026, you cannot simply translate a UK press release, swap the currency to Euros, and hope for the best. Spain’s media ecosystem relies heavily on personal relationships; what we call ‘el tú a tú’ (face-to-face connection). Foreign brands succeed here when they tap into local nuances, leverage regional micro-communities, and understand that building trust in Spain takes time, real conversation, and often, a shared coffee. Don’t just land; integrate.

2. How are you feeling about the current media and digital landscape?

Optimistically cautious. We are currently experiencing a massive pushback against AI-generated content fatigue. Audiences are craving radical authenticity. While traditional media in Spain face monetisation challenges, niche Substacks, premium podcasts, and independent journalism are thriving. It’s forcing PR to move away from vanity metrics and focus on deep, high-impact storytelling. It’s a great time to be a creative agency because quality storytelling is the only thing cutting through the noise right now.

3. What are the biggest trends happening in Spain going on this year?

Three main things are defining 2026 for us:

  • The ‘human-first’ premium: Audiences are actively filtering out automated content; they want stories with a pulse, raw emotion, and transparency.
  • The audio renaissance: Daily podcast consumption and conversational audio have exploded in Spain, becoming a prime channel for thought leadership.
  • B2B micro-advocacy: In the corporate sector, macro-influencers are out. Trust has shifted to ultra-niche experts and internal employee advocacy.

4. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received that had nothing to do with PR but changed how you approach your work?

I’m a huge Freddie Mercury fan, and of course, this isn’t advice he’d give me (I wish he had), but towards the end of his life, while recording the album “Made in Heaven,” he used to tell the band: “Don’t worry about anything, just give me more lyrics, more lyrics, more lyrics… and I’ll sing them.” It’s a way of approaching things that has personally helped me a lot on many occasions: staying focused, not giving up even when things get tough, and always looking ahead.

5. What’s the strangest pitch you’ve ever successfully landed for a client?

A client specialising in tourism experiences had launched a campaign to highlight their offering in relation to the current craze for traveling to Mars. Their idea was something like, “With everything you can do on Earth, you don’t need to travel to Mars.” With this in mind, we convinced them to organise an alien invasion in Madrid, featuring extraterrestrials who, after discovering everything the city has to offer (culture, tapas, climate, monuments, free tours, etc.), decided not to return to their planet. For several days, the aliens explored Madrid (later we did the same in Mexico DF) and interacted with people on the street. We won an award for this campaign last year.

6. How do you wind down after a big week?

Making plans with my wife and daughters (we are very “foodies”, so we love to discover new restaurants). Apart from that, playing video games (for a long time, and before my PR career, I was a video game reviewer in the main magazine in Spain), running or reading are perfect options for a “detox weekend”.

7. If you weren’t running a PR agency, what career would you have pursued?

I´m a journalist and I started my career in radio, so going back to this would be wonderful. And apart from the comms and media world, my dream was to play guitar in a rock band (I actually play guitar, but just for myself at home). Sommelier would be another good option, since I love wine and everything that has to do with.

8. What personal quirk or habit has unexpectedly helped you in your PR career?

I’m a very curious person; I like to delve into the reasons behind things and understand why they happen. I also maintain a sense of wonder at the simplest things, and I think that has helped me a lot in my career as a PR professional, and also in creating and running an agency like theGarage. We work in an industry where everything happens very quickly, and having that curiosity and that need to understand it is very positive.

9. If your PR career had a soundtrack, what three songs would definitely be on it?

In fact I have this soundtrack (I did it for the party of the 10th anniversary of the agency last year).

  1. Scandal – Queen: Very related to our profession, is a direct protest against the invasive British tabloid press in the late 1980s. The song was primarily written by Brian May, who was being aggressively hounded by the press over his divorce from his first wife.
  2. Start me up – The Rolling Stones: For that burst of energy you need when launching a brand from scratch.
  3. A day in the life – The Beatles: Blending surreal real-world news with mundane, autobiographical morning routines, it represents the beautiful, fast-paced chaos of agency life where everything feels like a crisis, but you’re still having a blast.