The Hispanic Agency and their thinking by Jessica Pantanini

Jessica Pantaninin – CEO of Bromley Communications

Jessica is the Chief Operations Officer of Bromley Communications and oversee integration and quality standards at the agency’s San Antonio headquarters and satellite offices in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Bromley Communications is another example of full service multinationally owned Hispanic Agency. How does she look at the agency world?

Q & A ……..

1. What, in your eyes, defines a “Multinationally owned Hispanic Agency” these days?

A Multinationally owned agency is an agency who is completely or partially owned by a multinational holding company/agency.

2. What value do you believe a Multinationally owned Hispanic Agency brings to its clients?

The value is determined by the client needs. Some clients believe that alignment with a multinational agency allows the Hispanic agency access to proprietary tools and software, others are looking for their Hispanic agencies to have a greater role in their business off shore. At the end of the day, the agency, no matter what its structure, must still deliver great work.

3. Why do you believe it is good to be a Multinationally owned Hispanic Agency? What advantages do you think we have as indies?

The greatest value we have benefited from has been access to talent. Leaders in the industry that we would otherwise not have had access to; they give us an amazing sounding board, and when you surround your self with intelligent individuals you begin to challenge the way you yourself think, the things you do; in a way you would likely not do in a smaller circle.
The wonderful thing about our structure, given that Ernest Bromley has retained the majority of the ownership, is that we have the best of both worlds. In the land of independents you have no one to answer to, complete control over how you run your business. The multinational agencies have to contend with adhering to guidelines and operating norms established by much larger agencies, which is quite different from the reality of a small ad agency. As a result, however, this experience has taught us the integral financial aspects of managing a growing advertising business, a lesson that one is never formally taught.

4. What is it like to be a Multinationally owned Hispanic Agency in these days of holding company consolidation and continued acquisition?

It’s definitely a challenge, in the past ten years, we’ve gone through four different holding company partners. Clearly, each partner has its own vision of multicultural, its structure, and its importance. It’s a matter of building relationships, and earning trust, but the bottom line is the bottom line, and as long as we continue to grow, they’re happy and so are we.

5. What do you think is the future of the Multinationally owned Hispanic Agencies in relationship to the general market, or the market overall?

The future will depend on clients, and their definition of what’s important. Many agencies took on relationships with multinationals because they were encouraged to do so, either because clients didn’t feel like their Hispanic agencies were up to par or because general agencies wanted more control. The question is; ‘What is it that clients REALLY want’? How will the advertising industry define or redefine the market? Clearly specialist agencies are needed, after all we still have B2B, promotions, and public relations agencies; but how will the structure change in order to meet clients never ending demand for holistic, one stop communications? The client/agency/holding company that figures it out first will definitely win.

6. What do you think the next generation of Multinationally owned Hispanic Agencies look like?

I believe that general agencies are going to try to create Hispanic expertise within their own groups or structures. I don’t see the next generation being stand alone agencies within a holding group. We’ve already seen the holding companies create their own agencies by leveraging in house Latino talent, and purchasing stand alone agencies as well. However, clients are still looking for something different, and the attitude is going to be ‘Well, I’ve tried everything else, so I’m just going to have to do it myself’. This will lead them to attempt to create a whole new model.

7. What unique challenges do you feel Multinationally owned Hispanic Agencies face in today’s marketplace?

The greatest challenge for wholly owned multinationals are clients that are looking for agencies that are minority certified. Like most things in our industry the pendulum swings back and forth on this issue. However, in the past few years, the demand for certification from clients seems to be more widespread.

An additional challenge is multinational holding companies leveraging needs/resources of Latin America against those of US Hispanic. There seems to be a pattern evolving where the resources of each group are streamlined; particularly in the area of production where immediate efficiencies can be incurred. Eventually we believe that this concept will work its way into the mainstream agency in order to be able to deliver on those client demands we touched on earlier.

8. Do you believe there are entities or forces who are or are not supporting Independent and Holding Company-Owned agencies equally and fairly?

Absolutely. Listen, there will always be those that are opposed to one or the other. We fight those demons every day. We wouldn’t be in this business if we didn’t believe in it, whether we’re independents, wholly owned, or partially owned. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is our belief in that this segment of the population is of value in more ways than one. The argument is only won when we quantify the marketing ROI for our clients. We can focus on the impartiality or we can focus on the work, I prefer to focus on the work.

9. Do you believe there is a unique sense of responsibility Multinationally owned Hispanic Agencies bear (or should bear) insofar as the further development and growth of the Hispanic marketing and advertising industry? If so, please give your views.

I don’t think that the responsibility is greater or less than any other agency. We all know that while we have grown tremendously over the years, we still have a long way to go. It’s everyone’s responsibility from agencies to vendors to clients to associations.

I do believe however, that we are stronger together than we are apart; and whenever possible we should join together to have a greater impact on the industry.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the responsibility that we all have to provide job opportunities to young Latinos in order to help shape and design highly skilled professionals that will be able to contribute to this industry for the years to come. In the case of multinational agencies we are uniquely positioned to be able to offer employees a venue to real global corporations. While this may not be important to all employees, it is to some, and that is one of the advantages to being a multinational, we can offer the flexibility of transferring to almost anywhere in the world. Without the focus on providing job opportunities, and developing talent for the future; long-term growth will not be possible.

10. What advice would you give a future Independent Hispanic Agency professional interested in working for a Multinationally owned Hispanic agency?

Call me!