Ad Agency

After 9/11, America has looked to win the hearts and minds of the world.

Miami-based International Kids Fund (IKF), a program of Jackson Memorial Foundation, will launch its first public service announcement campaign, designed to mobilize local, nationwide and international awareness and fund raising for critically ill children from around the world.

The PSAs, which were produced pro-bono in English and Spanish by advertising agency Conill Advertising Inc., powerfully illustrate a mother’s joy when learning that her child will be saved by IKF and urge the public to support the organization so more kids will have the same chance.

Without announcement, Julio Arrieta, a Venezuelan marketer who worked in Mexico, took over the reins of the San Francisco office of The Bravo Group last Monday.

The Public Relations Coalition, an alliance of 23 industry related organizations, announced the findings of its first diversity benchmark survey today. The survey is part of the commitment made at the Coalition’s “Diversity Summit” — held last year — to increase efforts in improving diversity in the public relations and communications fields.

Beck’s and Beck’s Premier Light are set to launch an extensive multicultural advertising campaign focused on the Hispanic consumer. This is the brand’s first fully integrated advertising campaign created specifically for the Hispanic market. The campaign kicks off on March 20 with television, out of home, and radio advertising. All media will launch simultaneously and run into the fall of 2006.

Lápiz Integrated Hispanic Marketing launches a national advertising campaign for Wrigley’s Doublemint TWINS, a new mint introduced to the confectionery market in January 2006 – and not to be confused with the human forms we know as the Doublemint Twins.

As a tribute to an athlete’s passion to compete and will to win, Gatorade’s latest ad spotlights Rolando Cantu, a pioneer for all Hispanic athletes to follow as he became the first player from a Mexican University to play in the NFL. The new spot, called “Chosen”, tells the story of Cantu’s entry into the league and the challenges he faced along the way to the roster of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

Verizon Wireless in the South have been assigned to Dallas-based Moroch Latino, a subsidiary of Moroch Partners, LP the brand planning, creative development, media planning and buying and promotional marketing services in over 15 markets.

Changes at The Bravo Group continued last week with the resignation of Carlos Torres, Creative Director who headed Bravo’s direct response unit, and Christine Hahn, who was in charge of Bravo/San Francisco.

An official press release from the agency took care of announcing four internal promotions while carefully shunning from saying a word about the high level departure.

After the chain resignations of its key leadership, a quieter, more gradual exodus has become persistent at The Bravo Group. A new departure this past week, Mosaica’s creative head Jaime Jara, came to expose this new, seemingly unstoppable trend made even more puzzling because no replacements or solutions are sought.

Santa Ana based Hispanic agency Bumpercar, Inc. announced that Enrique Turegano, COO of Bumpercar, Inc. has left the agency he helped found to position himself as an independent marketing consultant.

The San Antonio Advertising Federation honored the best in advertising created by local advertising talents at the 38th Annual ADDY Awards on February 11, 2006 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

Hill, Holliday’s Hispanic marketing practice based in Miami announced that, it has changed its name to abecé. Abecé is the Spanish pronunciation of the first three letters of the alphabet (a, b, c). The name represents the way in which the practice approaches Hispanic marketing by starting with the fundamentals, the building blocks of a strategic communications program that touches the hearts and minds of its target audience within the diverse Hispanic market.