Horacio Gomes Inaugural Speech As President Of AHAA @ Phoenix, AZ.

Horacio Gomes assumed the Presidency of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies from Daisy Exposito, who after her presidency will become the Parliamentarian of the organization. In a standing room only ballroom, Mr. Gomes delivered a passionate and empowering speech on the new direction of AHAA.

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Good afternoon. Thank you all for your kind welcome and for entrusting me with the presidency of AHAA. Daisy, I especially want to thank you for your insightful leadership, for moving AHAA forward and for continuing to set the bar higher and higher. All of your efforts have helped to further develop our industry and we want to thank you for your dedicated leadership.

It is truly an honor for me to be serving as the president of this association. For those of us who have been involved with AHAA since the very first days, it is hard to believe that we are now here surrounded by so many colleagues who share our mission and our goals. I am looking forward to helping lead this organization with our new president-elect, Ingrid Otero-Smart, our Board of Directors, and of course I look forward to working with all of you.

In many ways, I feel like I am the first president of AHAA’s next generation. The pioneers that have led our organization– Hector, Ana María, Al and Daisy– are not only the pioneers of AHAA but they helped to blaze the trails of our industry. As someone who has benefited from their efforts and learned from them, my turn has come to take up the torch and carry it forward. Part of helping to carry the torch forward will be to find people who can step in as our industry’s next generation of leaders, or as I rather like to call it: “Our Next Generation of AHAA Pioneers”.

In my remarks today, I want to focus on creating a road map for delivering on the challenge that I see before us – the challenge of delivering on the AHAA Brand Promise. The AHAA Brand is more than just a name and a collection of people. It is a mission statement; it is a set of values; and it is a common language. Brands alone cannot create customer value; the only thing that can create customer value is to deliver on the promise of the brand. And for the AHAA Brand, the promise is Effectiveness and for delivering the Hispanic market to corporate America.

Building the AHAA Brand will require the commitment of every one of its members. I want to encourage all of you to start thinking of yourselves not as members of AHAA but “as stakeholders of AHAA”; stakeholders that want to create value for our organization. Because we can accomplish a lot more TOGETHER as AHAA- for our businesses, for the industry, and for our Hispanic communities – than we can on our own.

My agenda for this year is largely a business-focussed agenda that helps build the AHAA Brand through a series of initiatives. To unfold this agenda, there will be two major components. The first, to provide more staff training, tools, structures and models that member agencies can use to increase the caliber of their businesses; to make our businesses more competitive in today’s market. AHAA member agencies must stand for effectiveness in all facets of their businesses in order for the AHAA Brand to have the impact we want.

The second major component deals with the promotion of the AHAA Brand among corporate decision-makers and the media. We are going to capitalize on the Census figures that were just released; on the tremendous growth and spending power of our market; on the fact that in any economic climate, the Hispanic population can bring a fresh new group of consumers to corporations who go after them. Believe it or not, sometimes-difficult economic times present the best opportunities for Hispanic agencies and media to increase market share. Corporations need to go where the growth is. And AHAA is the window of opportunity for them to grow.

“If not us, who? If not now, when?

Let me outline just a few of the new initiatives today as we begin our journey to delivering on the AHAA Brand Promise.

First, to invest in the next generation of AHAA pioneers, we will be creating an Account Management Training Program. Taught by industry specialists, the first series of training seminars will be held in the top six of our major agency markets. They will focus on further developing the skills of our account managers. If we are to compete effectively we must invest in development of our people. This is AHAA’s next generation, to leave our mark on the industry as we face a new business world.

As we have learned over the past three days, our media helps create for us a common voice and helps to keep us connected. Never before in our history have our people been so connected while at the same time so dispersed geographically. As Daisy just called it “Our Age of Possibility”, our people have never been freer to claim their own futures, and to shape those futures, and neither has our industry.

In order for us to lay claim to these futures, we must exercise our collective voice and continue to demonstrate the power of our reach. We have done this with the VOTO campaign, but even more importantly, we all do it every day. Each day, as AHAA branded agencies, we all work to demonstrate to corporate America the POWER and VALUE of the AHAA Brand.

To make sure AHAA branded agencies are valued properly in the marketplace, we will also introduce a seminar for members that reviews the latest agency compensation models and structures, and learn from industry experts the techniques to negotiate the best compensation terms. Getting properly compensated for our work is critical to our agencies’ continued growth and prosperity.

In an effort to celebrate and honor the effectiveness of our industry’s creative advertising, I will appoint a task force to explore the creation of a Hispanic advertising effectiveness award. This award will recognize how effectively we deliver on our promise. This would be added to our creative advertising awards and our media awards to further extend our demonstration of the power of the AHAA Brand.

We will also be exploring the creation of “El Museo Creativo” a virtual gallery of Hispanic creative work on the Web. All AHAA member agencies and associates who have been recognized for creative excellence or effectiveness – nationally or internationally – would be exhibited on this virtual gallery – to extend the impact of our industry’s creative work.

We will continue to deliver two conferences each year – next one in New Orleans – and we will explore new ways to involve more members in committees. We will explore new programs and benefits such as group insurance, travel and car rental discounts and other types of services that can be of value to our members. The AHAA Brand should mean something to us and to others every time you say, “Here’s my AHAA membership card”.

The Media committee has done a terrific job of delivering the first AHAA Media University, and I know that many of you have taken advantage of these offerings. We will continue to offer these courses and will refine the programs based on your feedback.

I know it is really great to see all of you at the conferences, and it is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to celebrate our industry. But please know that much continues to get done between conferences. In order for us to keep the train moving down the tracks, we must make sure that you are all on board. I will keep an open dialogue with all of you, and want to get you involved whenever and wherever possible. Remember: we are the stakeholders of AHAA. Please keep bringing ideas and challenging us to deliver on the AHAA Brand Promise we have made with you. We also need to thank Horacio Gavilán and Bárbara Zamora for all of their tireless efforts on our behalf.

Beyond our reach to all of you and our outreach to corporate America and to helping our industry grow, we must also continue to help lead our community.

We will continue to move the FuturaMente program forward and will look to all of you to help us invest in our most important commodity – our Hispanic children. We can make sure to deliver change that is not only good for our people, but is also good for our country.

This is the year for AHAA. To deliver brand recognition and increased clout for its members. To continue making a difference at the community level. The Census figures give us a bold new challenge and we must seize this opportunity fully and rise to the occasion and lead corporate America. You will have my complete dedication to that effort. I know with your help and support, we will be able to accomplish all of these things and, most of all, AHAA will have a very successful year…and you, as a proud stakeholder of AHAA, will too.

I want to thank you again for trusting me with the presidency and I look forward to working with all of you to blaze a new trail for AHAA.

Horacio Gomes
President of AHAA
March 31, 2001 – March 2002