HeadQuarters Advertising Helps Create DIVERSAlliance.

DIVERSAlliance, a new alliance in multicultural communications has been formed by independent and minority-owned agencies, HeadQuarters Advertising of San Francisco, SAESHE Advertising of Los Angeles and The Walker Marchant Group of Washington, DC, with full-service communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton through its Los Angeles-based Diversity Communications group. The alliance allows the four agencies to expand their resources into new markets and improve their services to clients.

This marks the first time Hill & Knowlton has joined in a business alliance with communications firms outside of specific client accounts. DIVERSAlliance also represents a step forward for agencies HeadQuarters, SAESHE and The Walker Marchant Group, which are independent and minority-owned companies.

“We are excited to expand our excellent working relationships with Hill & Knowlton and SAESHE,” said Horacio Gomes, president of HeadQuarters Advertising. “Through DIVERSAlliance, we can offer clients anywhere in the U.S. the full range of public relations, public affairs and advertising services in a new and different way.”

“DIVERSAlliance allows Hill & Knowlton to expand its already considerable expertise to better serve our clients and the growing diversity market,” said MaryLee Sachs, president and CEO of Hill & Knowlton USA. “Virtually overnight, we have deepened our client services with a combined team of 50 talented professionals in multicultural marketing and corporate communications. We are delighted to be aligned with such highly respected and successful firms.”

The arrangement is focused on business development, based on years of success with shared accounts by Alliance members. HeadQuarters and Hill & Knowlton are partners on the award-winning Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) CARE campaign. The CARE account targets ethnically diverse, low-income consumers and has been recognized with several prestigious awards in the communications industry, including the 2002 Silver Anvil in Multicultural Public Relations by the Public Relations Society of America.

Three of the four agencies have collaborated on the BabyCal, Healthy Families and Teen Pregnancy Prevention campaigns for the California Department of Health Services. Hill & Knowlton and The Walker Marchant Group have collaborated previously in Washington, DC.

“The members of DIVERSAlliance e are now better able to service each of our clients, individual or shared, from a single source for all communications needs in the growing multicultural markets,” said Lawrence Kwon, president of SAESHE Advertising. “We also can now offer each other the support of staff in four of the top multicultural markets of the U.S. – Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, DC.”

“Working together as a unique alliance, we are not focusing only on one ethnic market or in one area of communications,” said Ann Walker Marchant, president of The Walker Marchant Group. “Together, we offer services in the full range of multicultural markets. We believe that together we will be an even more powerful force in the marketplace.”

Multicultural consumers today comprise one in every four U.S. residents. According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, the combined purchasing power of the African-American, Asian American, Hispanic and Native American consumer markets is $1.6 trillion in 2002.

HeadQuarters, SAESHE and The Walker Marchant Group are not affiliated with WPP, Hill & Knowlton’s global parent company.