Anniversary Special Article · September 2026
15+ Years of Alterno: A History of Ideas, Change, and Transformation
2009
—
2027
In 2009, the digital world looked very different. Facebook was just beginning to gain relevance for brands, Instagram didn't exist yet, and in Puerto Rico, many companies were just discovering what it meant to have a digital strategy.
Amid that shift, Alterno Media was born—a small agency with a clear vision for its time: there was another way to connect brands with people. More than 15 years later, almost everything has changed: the platforms, the technology, the audiences, the clients, and even the agency itself. But that drive to find a different way of doing things still remains.
2009–2015
AN ALTERNATIVE.
Alterno was founded in 2009 under the leadership of R. Luquis, with a combination of human behavior, advertising, and technology that shaped the agency’s way of thinking. The early projects were tied to the emerging ecosystem centered around Google, Facebook, Twitter, websites, blogs, and digital advertising. Back then, people still needed to be convinced why a website mattered or why allocating part of the budget to digital media could be a wise decision.
Alterno found its home there, starting with its first office in Hato Rey: small, beautiful, and welcoming to those who were part of those early years. Between 2009 and 2014, that space was filled with meetings, proposals, ideas, and the optimism of a project that was yet to be built.
2012–2013
GROWING THROUGH IDEAS.
Growth came on a project-by-project basis. During that phase, Alterno worked primarily as a digital partner to advertising agencies in Puerto Rico and off the island. It did not yet have a significant portfolio of direct clients: more than 20 agencies trusted Alterno to work behind the scenes and, through them, participate in projects for dozens of brands, working on campaigns, websites, interactive media, strategy, and technology.
It was a period of learning by doing. Each project introduced a new platform or a problem with no established solution: we had to research, experiment, make mistakes, and try again. That problem-solving ability became, almost without us realizing it, part of the agency’s culture.
The team also grew. Alterno welcomed young professionals who had just graduated or were starting their careers in copywriting, account management, design, programming, art direction, and digital media. Many continued to advance in the industry, and some now lead teams and brands.
That, too, is part of Alterno’s story: employees, freelancers, photographers, producers, creatives, and professionals from various disciplines, both in Puerto Rico and abroad. The team has never been exactly the same. The ability to bring talent together around an idea, however, has remained constant.
2014
A DIFFERENT KIND OF AGENCY.
By 2014, digital was no longer just an add-on. Clients needed strategy, content, creativity, social media, websites, media, and technology working together in an increasingly integrated way. Alterno also had to change.
That year marked the beginning of a new chapter on Loíza Street in Santurce, which had been Alterno’s home for more than a decade. The space hosted clients, collaborators, celebrations, and hundreds of projects.
Loíza Street has also changed over the years, but in 2014, it was all just getting started. Alterno expanded its scope and went beyond simply being an option for executing digital projects: it began to integrate strategy, creativity, design, content, media, and technology.
That year also marked the beginning of one of the agency's longest-running partnerships: Aba Laser Hair Removal was part of Alterno's journey for nearly 12 years, starting in 2014.
EVOLUTION
A BRAND HAS TO CHANGE, TOO.
Building an agency over so many years means realizing that the advice we give our clients eventually has to be applied to ourselves as well. Brands need to evolve, and Alterno is no exception.
Growth also transformed the role of its founder: shifting from doing good work to building teams, delegating, handling difficult situations, acknowledging mistakes, and surrounding himself with people who have different knowledge and perspectives.
The new visual identity reflected that phase: the red square and a simpler, more direct, and more recognizable image would accompany the agency for the next few years. It would not be the last change.
2016–2017
WHEN PLANS CHANGE.
By 2017, Alterno had once again revamped its digital presence. The new website was a sign of growth and of the plans to come. In August of that year, one of those moments occurred that, viewed in hindsight, takes on an unexpected meaning.
On August 21, 2017, during the solar eclipse, Puerto Rico paused for a few minutes to look up at the sky. That same day, the team held an important meeting to chart the agency’s future. There were plans, ideas, and a clear direction. Weeks later, almost none of that mattered in the same way anymore.
21.08.2017
Plans
→
Interruption
20.09.2017
Adaptation
First came Irma. Then came Maria. Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, and transformed life on the island. With no electricity and limited telecommunications, Alterno switched to survival mode: growth was no longer the priority. The focus shifted to solving problems, helping others, and finding a way to keep operating as the country began to get back on its feet.
Adapting wasn't an option. It was part of surviving.
The plans discussed during that eclipse never came to fruition exactly as they had imagined. But one lesson remained that would prove necessary again a few years later: the ability to adapt could be just as important as the ability to plan.
2018–2019
START OVER.
After the hurricanes, a period of reconstruction began—for the country and for businesses. Alterno continued to evolve, drawing on a way of working that was already part of its culture: collaborating with talented people without being limited to a single office or location.
By 2019, this way of working had gained even more momentum. The agency refined a flexible structure that combined the core team with specialized professionals tailored to each project. It wasn’t a new idea: for years, the agency had already been working remotely both within and outside of Puerto Rico. What changed was the extent to which that model became integrated into day-to-day operations.
Without realizing it, Alterno was beginning to prepare for the most dramatic change the modern industry would ever experience.
2020
EVERYTHING CHANGED.
The pandemic brought the physical world to a standstill, but it accelerated the digital transformation. Companies that had put off e-commerce needed to start selling online; educational institutions, restaurants, and retailers had to reinvent how they reached their audiences. Social media, websites, video, and online advertising became even more important.
For Alterno, 2020 was about much more than just working from home: it changed the way the company operated, its relationship with customers, the pace of production, the tools it used, and the entire industry. And since then, the changes have hardly stopped.
2022+
AN INDUSTRY THAT CAN NO LONGER WAIT.
The years following the pandemic brought a pace that was hard to match: privacy rules, algorithms, platforms, e-commerce, and customer expectations all changed. Tools like Canva democratized capabilities that previously required other resources, while an ever-expanding competitive landscape redefined what was expected of an agency.
At the same time, global and local economic changes impacted budgets and business decisions in Puerto Rico. Those were years that required reviewing processes and rethinking which services added value. The agency changed. Much of the team changed. And the structure became more streamlined.
But then came an even greater transformation: Artificial Intelligence. What began as a technological curiosity quickly went on to impact creativity, copywriting, audiovisual production, programming, search, analytics, automation, and advertising. For an agency that has adapted to every stage of the digital world since 2009, AI was not something to be observed from afar.
Alterno has begun to integrate AI more and more actively into its processes, services, and experimentation. The goal is not to use it simply because it’s trendy, but to understand where it can help us work more effectively, speed up processes, and offer better solutions to customers.
AI is a tool. Not a strategy.
Technology changes the tools, but it doesn't eliminate the need to think. The approach remains the same: first understand the problem, then adopt what truly adds value. Learning and evolving alongside the world of digital advertising has been part of the agency's DNA from the very beginning.
15+
MORE THAN 15 YEARS IS NOT A STRAIGHT LINE.
No company that has survived for more than 15 years has had a perfectly smooth upward trajectory. Neither has mine. There were extraordinary years and challenging ones; clients who came and clients who left; huge projects and smaller ones that taught us valuable lessons.
The agency today isn't as big as it once was: there are fewer people on the core team now, and acknowledging that is also part of telling the story honestly. The goal is no longer to build the biggest agency, but rather an agency capable of adapting, staying relevant, and providing better service to its clients.
CAREER HISTORY
MORE THAN 100 BRANDS. MORE THAN 1,000 PROJECTS AND CAMPAIGNS.
Amid all these changes, one thing has remained constant: our clients' trust. Alterno has worked with more than 100 brands and has been involved in more than 1,000 campaigns and projects, ranging from education and food to beauty, automobiles, associations, and services.
The relationship with clients also evolved in stages. Between 2009 and 2015, work came primarily through more than 20 agencies that partnered with Alterno as a digital ally. Between 2013 and 2020, the direct client portfolio grew, and some of those brands continue to work with the agency.
Since 2020, Alterno has chosen to work with fewer clients in order to offer them a comprehensive end-to-end digital service. Today, the company maintains relationships that have lasted more than a decade, including one with the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. Its partnership with Aba Laser Hair Removal has lasted nearly 12 years, dating back to 2014.
Along the way, we've worked with brands such as Tic Tac, Nutella, Ferrero, Hecho en Puerto Rico, and many others. Some partnerships lasted just one project; others lasted for years.
The list of clients continues to grow. In 2025, a new phase of collaboration began with Goya de Puerto Rico centered on the “Goya Respalda lo Bueno” campaign, and more recently, GenCoat joined as one of the agency’s newest clients.
Every client plays a different role in our story. Behind every logo are people who chose to place their trust in us. That may be one of the greatest privileges of having been in business for more than 15 years.
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FROM HATO REY TO LOÍZA STREET. FROM LOÍZA STREET TO ANYWHERE.
Alterno's physical history also tells the story of how the company has changed. From 2009 to 2014, it was located in its first office in Hato Rey. In 2014, the company moved to Calle Loíza, which became the agency's home for more than ten years.
Over time, the area changed, and so did the way we worked. After more than a decade, maintaining an office as the hub of our operations no longer reflected how Alterno functioned. In 2025, that chapter came to a close, and the agency began operating under a 100% remote, flexible, and online model—not as a temporary solution, but as a decision for the future.
The office is no longer just a place. The agency is.
2024–2025
FIFTEEN YEARS AND ANOTHER TRANSFORMATION.
Turning 15 was an opportunity to look back, but it also forced us to look ahead. The celebration coincided with another internal transformation and with the need to clearly articulate what Alterno could offer after so many years of experience.
From that process emerged a new tagline for the agency: “Transform your brand with Alterno.” More than just an anniversary campaign, the phrase summed up what the agency had been doing since 2009: transforming strategies, campaigns, websites, and digital experiences, all while learning to transform itself.
TRANSFORM YOUR BRAND WITH ALTERNO.
PERSPECTIVE
ONE OF THE BEST DIGITAL AGENCIES IN PUERTO RICO?
After more than 15 years, it’s natural to wonder what role Alterno plays in Puerto Rico’s digital advertising industry. The agency has grown in a market brimming with talent and has built long-term relationships with clients who have placed their trust in its work time and time again.
Rather than claiming titles for itself, Alterno prefers to let its track record, projects, relationships, and results speak for themselves. The goal is clear: to remain among the agencies that brands consider when they’re looking for expertise, strategy, creativity, technology, and execution capabilities.
That reputation is built project by project, by learning from mistakes and evolving alongside the industry. Today, anyone looking for a digital advertising agency in Puerto Rico finds a market that is radically different from what it was in 2009, and that requires more than just execution—it requires thinking strategically and integrating disciplines.
Technology can complete tasks in minutes that used to take days, but it cannot replace the judgment needed to determine where it can truly add value for each brand. That judgment, developed over 15 years, is what Alterno brings to the table.
PRESENT
SEPTEMBER 2026. A NEW WEBSITE. AGAIN.
In September 2026, this evolution takes on a new, visible form: Alterno launches a completely revamped and optimized website. It’s not just another redesign—it’s a reflection of an agency that is reevaluating how it presents itself and where it wants to go.
The agency is more streamlined today than it has been in the past. The traditional structure has given way to a flexible model that combines a core group of professionals with specialized collaborators, building teams based on the actual needs of each project.
In this new phase, Alterno integrates strategy, creativity, content, social media, digital advertising, media, web development, e-commerce, retargeting, email marketing, automation, artificial intelligence, audiovisual production, data, analytics, and consulting. AI is playing an increasingly important role, both as a service and within the agency’s own processes.
After all these years, the goal isn't to go back to being the agency we were in 2016 or 2019. Those versions worked for those times. The 2026 version has to work for what's ahead.
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WHAT DOESN'T EXIST YET.
Back in 2009, it would have been hard to imagine the tools we use in a typical workday today. That makes it difficult to predict what advertising will look like 15 years from now. Artificial Intelligence will continue to transform creativity, production, search, and media; some tasks will disappear, and new capabilities—ones that don’t even have names yet—will emerge.
Alterno's approach is not to resist change: it is to study it, test it, and integrate it when it adds value, while recognizing where judgment, experience, creativity, and human understanding remain indispensable.
That has been the pattern since 2009. Google has changed, social media has changed, mobile has changed, and the pandemic has changed things. Now AI is shaking things up again. Alterno will continue to change, because staying at the forefront isn’t about chasing every trend, but about recognizing which ones can truly help our clients.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU FOR MORE THAN 15 YEARS.
None of these milestones would have been possible without the people involved: the clients who placed their trust in us when Alterno was a new agency; the agencies that found a digital partner in our team; the employees who began their careers here; and every designer, programmer, copywriter, producer, photographer, and collaborator who has contributed—and continues to contribute—their talent.
It also includes those who were part of it for a time and then went their separate ways. Everyone left something behind. The agency may change offices, structure, website, and business model; its history encompasses all of these versions.
15+ YEARS. AND WE'RE STILL GROWING.
From an office in Hato Rey to more than a decade on Loíza Street. From Alterno Media to Alterno Agency. From Google AdWords and the early days of Facebook to AI, automation, and new digital experiences. From plans that hurricanes forced us to abandon to a pandemic that changed everything all over again.
Alterno has changed. A lot. That’s probably why WE’RE STILL HERE: after more than 15 years, the transformation stopped being a periodic occurrence and became an integral part of the agency.
2026 marks another new beginning: a new brand image, a new website launched in September, new technologies, more active integration of artificial intelligence, and a focus on what lies ahead. You don’t need to have all the answers; you just need to be willing to learn and change.
The next chapter is already beginning. 2027 is just around the corner.
2027
NEW YEAR.
NEW AGENCY.+
Alterno Agency
San Juan, Puerto Rico
September 2026
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