Taking a bold position on future of Hispanic Marketing.

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) announced the transition of leadership to new Chairman Carl Kravetz, chairman/chief strategic officer of cruz/kravetz:IDEAS and the election of Chair-Elect Jackie Bird, president/CEO of winglatino. The AHAA Board of Directors created and approved a new board seat, Vice Chair, to ensure continuity in the association leadership and Jose López-Varela, vice president/managing director of abecé was elected to the position.

The association was served by Alex López Negrete, president and CEO of López Negrete Communications for the past 12 months during which he led the completion of the framework for a strategic plan that will guide the association into the future, help ensure AHAA’s role in professional development within the industry and more importantly make certain that AHAA agencies continue to gain their proper seats at the corporate marketing and strategic tables according to López Negrete.

“It has been an extremely gratifying and fulfilling year leading our industry in the role of chairman of our association,” says López Negrete. “I appreciate the support of my board members, each of our agency principals and our partners in helping AHAA take great strides over the past 12 months. As a board and as an organization, we have tackled some tough issues, taken positions and reinvented our structure to better serve our member agencies and get closer to the C-suite.”

Kravetz and the newly elected officers, Bird, López-Varela, Laura Marella, AHAA treasurer and senior vice president/chief growth officer of Casanova Pendrill Publicidad, Inc., and Gisela Girard, AHAA secretary and president and COO of Creative Civilization – An Aguilar/Girard Agency, will begin implementing the platform launched by immediate past chairman López Negrete. Under the new leadership, the association will continue to shift the focus of the industry’s message from the value of Hispanic marketing to the value of using specialized Hispanic agencies in marketing to Hispanic consumers moving to what Kravetz says is the language of building business for advertisers and AHAA agencies.

“The first step we must take is to move beyond defining our market in terms of English or Spanish,” says Kravetz, chairman of AHAA in his transition speech. “I publicly challenge our media partners to put an end to the English versus Spanish debate. It is inaccurate and divisive. Language is important for our industry, but our consumers are as amazing, complex and dynamic as any other consumer group. The tactical language-driven argument has not allowed us to position Hispanic agencies as the possessors of skills as sophisticated and multifaceted as our target consumers. If we agree that language is the leading, most compelling reason to have a Hispanic marketing effort, then we define our profession as tactical and not strategic, minimizing the value that we bring to corporate America.”

With the addition of the new board position, Kravetz notes that AHAA can begin to implement a continuity of this vision moving toward a single long-term focus for the organization and allowing the executive leadership to battle the challenges and issues facing the industry and the association with stability. The board adopted the new structure unanimously. Continuing to serve on the board are: Manuel E. Machado, CEO/co-chairman of MGS Communications; Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, co-chair/president of Enlace Communications, Inc.; Jessica Pantanini, COO of Bromley Communications; Cynthia McFarlane, executive vice president/managing director of Conill; Daisy Expósito-Ulla, president of D. Expósito Communications; Patricia Gaitán, COO of Chamers Lopez & Gaitán, LLC; and, Hector Orci, co-chairman of La Agencia de Orci & Asociados.

Additionally, the board announced that the immediate past chairman will assume the chairmanship of the Hispanic Advertising Agencies Foundation (HAAF) the research entity for the industry. López Negrete will take leadership of the research efforts exploring complex issues related to Latino identity and benchmarking the value that Hispanic advertising agencies provide in generating return on investment and shareholder value for clients, Kravetz says. HAAF plans to reveal groundbreaking new research in September at the 21st semi-annual AHAA conference in Miami.

¿HABLAS AGENCIA?

Carl Kravetz Leadership Transition Remarks
April 7, 2006

Alex, you have left large huaraches to fill and I pledge to you and to all our members that I assume this chairmanship with every ounce of energy and commitment I have.

I’d like to spend just a few minutes talking to you about a subject that has taken over our industry and about the steps the Hispanic advertising agency industry must take to wrestle it to the ground.

The subject is language.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Language” as:

– A system of terms used by a people sharing a history and culture

and as:

– Specialized expressions indigenous to a particular field, subject, trade or subculture

Webster’s defines “Language” as:

– A systematic means of communicating ideas

I’m going to come back to these definitions in just a bit, but first let me say that…

As Hispanic agencies we’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time… dare I say, too much time… on the subject of language. The discussion, however, has not been of our design or choosing. We’ve been dragged into this discussion by our media colleagues, whose livelihood depends on whether we, and our clients, will buy into the notion that Latinos can best be reached in either English or Spanish.

It’s important to point out that media and agencies are in related, but quite different, businesses. Media will always emphasize their format, led by language, because they are in the business of selling time and space. In fact, I can’t think of a single media partner who espouses AHAA’s position on “language,” which is that it’s not English OR Spanish — it’s English AND Spanish.

The fact is that language is being used to divide us and to minimize the complexity of what we do. Quite frankly, it’s time for us to put our collective foot down and say, “Enough is enough!”

Now, this is not to say that language is unimportant for our industry, but if we agree that it is the leading, most compelling reason to have a Hispanic marketing effort, then we are effectively allowing what we do to be defined as tactical…and not strategic. I am not willing to accept that what my agency does is merely tactical and I hope that you are unwilling to accept it for yours!

So how do we get ourselves out of this corner into which we’ve allowed ourselves to be painted? I believe there are three steps we must take:

The first step we must take is to move beyond defining our market in terms of English or Spanish.

The second step is to insist on permission to be complex.

And the third step is to adopt a new language… the language of agency… the language of marketing… the language of business building.

Step One is easily understood so I won’t get into it any more other than to say that moving beyond defining our market in terms of English or Spanish opens the possibility of getting to Step Two… and that is the permission to be complex.

Who among us here today believes that understanding and connecting with Latino consumers is easy… is something that any marketer and any agency can do? Our consumers are as amazing, complex and dynamic as any other consumer group. But the tactical language-driven argument has not allowed us to position Hispanic agencies as the possessors of skills as sophisticated and multifaceted as our target consumers.

It is only by taking into account the myriad and fascinating dimensions that make Latino consumers Latino that we can truly achieve Step Three… changing our language to the language of business building.

Changing the language in which we speak about Hispanic consumers changes everything… the way in which the market is regarded and the unique role Hispanic agencies and Hispanic media have in reaching the market. Changing our language is a sure-fire way of elevating what we do to a new and strategic level.

And isn’t strategic what we all seek to be considered? True marketing partners to our clients?

So let’s think about the language we must speak… the language of business building.

To go back to our dictionary definitions: What is the system of terms we can use to define the history and culture shared by our people? What would be our systematic means of communicating ideas to our clients? What would be the specialized expressions indigenous to our field? What would be the vocabulary we would use when speaking the language of business building?

Let me offer the following thought starters. We could talk about:

– Identity
– Dimensions or Layers
– Perceptions and Values
– Motivation and Persuasion

And we could talk about:

– Return on Investment
– Shareholder Value
– Effectiveness and
– Engagement.

By turning our attention to these and other components of marketing, we take a collective stand against simplifying our consumers and what we as marketers do to reach and connect with them.

This is just the beginning of a meaningful discussion AHAA will have with our members, clients and influencers over the course of the next year on how and why our member agencies are uniquely qualified to market to Latinos. We are committed to changing the language in which we speak about our market, elevating it to a long overdue strategic level.

Through our foundation, the Hispanic Advertising Agencies Foundation, we will take leadership in exploring complex issues related to Latino identity and in benchmarking the value that Hispanic advertising agencies provide in generating return on investment and shareholder value for our clients.

And, most importantly, at AHAA we are committed to taking back the discussion and providing leadership on the issues which affect our clients and our livelihoods.

I publicly challenge our media partners to put an end to the English versus Spanish debate. It is inaccurate, it is divisive and it makes all of us look foolish.

And I ask you, our members, to join me in this effort because it will take all of us working toward the same goal to make it possible for Hispanic marketing, once and for all, to be given the respect it deserves.

I look forward working with you and to serving as the next chairman of AHAA along with our new board of directors:

Jackie Bird, Chairperson Elect
Jose Lopez Varela, Vice Chair
Laura Marella, Treasurer
Gisela Girard, Secretary
Manny Machado
Daisy Expósito
Rochelle Newman Carrasco
Patricia Gaitan
Cynthia McFarlane
Jessica Pantanini
Hector Orci

And of course, Alex Lopez Negrete, immediate past chair and now Chairman of the Hispanic Advertising Agencies Foundation

Thank you and have a great rest of the conference!