AHAA Addresses National Education Crises.

Hispanic children under age 5 are less likely than non-Hispanic children to be enrolled in early childhood education and currently, Hispanic students comprise about 15% of public school students and only about 4% of the public school teachers are Hispanic. These two statistics help to underline the educational crisis that U.S. Hispanics are facing today.

In response to this crisis, the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies launched “FuturaMente” — the first-ever major advertising campaign designed to help advance education in America and help “close the achievement gap” between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. FuturaMente marks the largest ever Hispanic business initiative for education.

“We must take care of our youth,” said Daisy Expósito-Ulla, immediate past president and FuturaMente chair. “As marketers we know how to change and influence purchasing behavior, as Hispanic marketers we must help change the critical state of Hispanic education and decrease the educational divide between Hispanics and non-Hispanics.”

The campaign will target:

* Parents of 3-4 year olds about the importance of early education and will teach them how to create a learning environment within the home. This effort will equip parents with “culturally actionable” tips on how they can help/motivate their child and get them off to the right start.

* Senior High School students about the need for teachers that not only understand the Spanish language but who also can culturally reach Hispanic youth. This effort will encourage Hispanic senior high school students to pursue a career in teaching.

The pro-bono advertising and media campaign is already backed by more than $50 million in media commitments from Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, People en Español, Radio Unica, Telemundo, Univision, Yahoo! en Español, and many others. All of these media organizations will air the spots nationally. The FuturaMente campaign includes 7 television spots plus radio, print, online and outdoor messages which will be advertised nationally in Spanish and English.

The FuturaMente campaign concepts were developed by The Bravo Group, New York, BVK/Meka, Miami, and Dieste & Partners Publicidad, Dallas, and were chosen by a group of creative directors from AHAA’s member agencies. Pro-bono production, editing and music services for the television spots were provided by La Casa Films, Republica Films, Mamey Productions BVI, Musicwave, Wild Child and Face the Music through the AHAA member network. Focus group testing of the spots was conducted by Menéndez International, Miami.

AHAA has partnered with Yahoo! en Español to create the online portion of the FuturaMente campaign. The FuturaMente site (http://www.futuramente.yahoo.com) features links to education sites, quarterly chats with education experts and role models, a clubs’ section for mothers to get support and information on pre-schools from other parents, and links to relevant sites for high school students interested in pursuing higher education.

“As the Hispanic market continues to grow, now is the time for us to make sure that all the doors of opportunity are open to our Hispanic youth,” said Horacio Gomes, president of AHAA. “We believe that by reaching specific Hispanic target audiences with this multifaceted campaign, we can help build a bridge to develop the ‘Future Minds’ of Hispanics in the 21st century and in turn help build a better America.”

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (www.ahaa.org) is the national organization of firms that specialize in marketing to the nation’s 36 million Hispanic consumers, the most rapidly growing segment of the American population. AHAA promotes the strength of the Hispanic marketing and advertising industry to the private and public sectors.