PepsiCo taps Huemanitas to lead Its Multicultural Retail & Shopper Marketing.

PepsiCo taps Denver-based agency Huemanitas to lead its multicultural retail and shopper marketing efforts. Huemanitas, an independent cultural marketing group, will partner with TracyLocke, PepsiCo’s longtime general market retail and shopper marketing agency of record, to deliver culturally relevant programming across PepsiCo’s beverage portfolio. The partnership enables the beverage giant the capability to create culturally relevant platforms targeting multicultural shoppers at retail.

The alliance between Huemanitas and TracyLocke presents a unique collaboration with Huemanitas providing cultural intelligence, strategy and creative platforms development. “With Huemanitas and TracyLocke together in lock step, we can now close the distance with multicultural shoppers along their path-to-purchase, to fully engage multicultural audiences at retail,” said Javier Farfan, Senior Director of Cultural Branding at PepsiCo.

The move comes on the heels of PepsiCo’s recent announcement that it is shifting Hispanic above-the-line duties from Dieste to Alma DDB and LatinWorks, all Omnicom agencies.

“We’re excited to be selected and partnering alongside TracyLocke to deliver fully integrated, culturally relevant programming for the portfolio” said Marcus Jiménez, Partner & Creative Principal at Huemanitas. “Our role is clear — drive brand adoption and conversion while growing brand equity amongst multicultural
shoppers through the creation of platforms that are rooted in culture and authenticity.”

According to Gail Brooks, Partner and Principal of Insights and Strategy at Huemanitas, the effort will require a disciplined, integrated, and holistic approach to shopper engagement. “Transcreation of general market programming is not enough. Engaging the multicultural consumer at retail requires a hyper-local strategy involving in-depth understanding of culture’s impact on shopper, retailer, and channel dynamics.

It’s not just about taking down national programs, but rather leveraging local market cultural intelligence to build platforms that can be scaled up and across markets as well.”

Prior to forming Huemanitas, Mr. Jiménez & Ms. Brooks were both key contributors in the multicultural below-the-line marketing efforts that made Coors Light a leading brand with Hispanic and African American audiences here in the U.S. Mr. Jiménez served as the Creative Director at Velocidad, the Hispanic division of The Integer Group, an Omnicom company, while Ms. Brooks served as the Strategic Planning Director at Street Source Marketing & Communications.