HispanicAd.com … HAPE Awards 2006.

Hola planning community,

Our moment has arrived! Together with HispanicAd.com and the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA), I am excited to announce the creation of the first-ever awards to recognize our discipline — The HispanicAd.com Account Planning Excelencia Awards.

As we all know, the account planning discipline was originally born in UK, and then “imported” to the US a little more than two decades ago by Jay Chiat. Soon after the implementation of the discipline in the general market, Hispanic agencies took note and began to implement and practice it as a way to stay competitive and produce even better work. During the past several years the account planning discipline in our market has evolved tremendously due in part to the growing sophistication of some of the most relevant advertisers; the increasingly demanding needs of the Hispanic consumer; and the arrival of new talent with planning background that is joining the industry, attracted by its intriguing and interesting complexity.

These awards have been in the making ever since we started sharing some of the best examples of strategic thinking in our market three years ago during the AHAA annual creative conferences. Our collection of “Hispanic Account Planning Short Stories” now tops more than ten examples of what we have considered to be great examples of account planning in the Hispanic market.

Today we can confidently affirm that the account planning discipline is truly implemented in our market as one of the most important and influential departments in most of our agencies. And based on its relevance during recent years, it seems clear that it is here to stay and to keep growing.

ow it is time to identify and select the best account planning in our industry. The work that is not only brilliant, but excellent. Let’s uncover all those cases that achieve that level of Excelencia with their strategic thinking and their impact on great creative solutions. In order to leverage the learning from previous years we will be applying the same categories that we have been using for the Account Planning Short Stories during the AHAA conferences: Cultural Interpretation, Cultural Transformation, Culture Specific and Pro Bono (you will find further detail below in this call for entries document).

When developing this awards program and designing the judging process we wanted to make sure that we had the best resources in order to ensure a great first year of recognition. This is why we have
selected a very senior, inspirational and experienced group of people to serve as judges. These professionals come from different disciplines within the Hispanic agencies (planning, creative, account
management). We have also invited a great planner from the general market, Domenico Vitale from kirshenbaum bond & partners. Domenico is not only a brilliant strategic thinker with demonstrated success, but he also has been part of the team that launched the Jay Chiat Account Planning Awards.

Finally, we have been guided and supported by Cathay Brackman from AAAA who is in charge of the Jay Chiat Account Planning Awards.

Having said all that, I would like to invite you to be part of this industry first! I invite you to share with us your stories, inspire the industry and be open to be inspired by it. Your participation will demonstrate the power and the passion of account planning in our market and help make our discipline even stronger and more relevant.

Enjoy writing your cases and remember to be inspiring and make us all wish we had thought “that!”

Good Luck!

Alex G-Pallete
President of the Jury
Managing Partner – Director of Account Planning / The Vidal Partnership

To download entry form CLICK below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):

https://hispanicad.comHAPE/HAPE2006entry.pdf