Ad Agency

The Ad Council, the prestigious organization that acts as the social conscience of the corporate world through the advertising industry, held its 52nd Annual Public Service Awards Dinner on November 16, at the New York’s Waldorf Astoria, naming Kenneth Chenault, Chairman/CEO of American Express Co., its Public SAervice Award Honoree of the Year. Comedian Ellen Degeneres served as MC. The night was CALIENTE.

Dallas based Cultura and its buying agency Spot Plus have been assigned the Hispanic media responsibilities for the Texas Lottery.

Fortune 1000 business leaders place more trust in and assign more value to public relations than the American public in general and those who advise members of Congress, but all three groups acknowledge the important role public relations professionals play in facilitating the flow of information in society, according to a new survey developed jointly by Harris Interactive® and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Foundation.

Paco Olavarrieta and Javier Escobedo, partners at OLE, announced the company reached record revenue of over $3 million dollars for its second year of operation. This follows a ground-breaking first year with well over $2 million in revenue.

Hennessy cognac, unveils a new Hispanic print advertising campaign featuring celebrated Latino actor and comedian, John Leguizamo. Based on the popular “Never Blend In” campaign that has presented such performers as Reggaeton artist Tego Calderon and most recently, R&B icon Marvin Gaye, this newest advertisement brings the culturally relevant independence message to Hispanics in their own language for the first time with the tagline “Puro Carácter.”

Houston based MountainKing Potatoes has selected K. Fernandez & Associates as its advertising agency for its statewide product brand assignment in Texas. K. Fernandez will handle advertising that includes creative, media, FSIs and in-store POS to reach the general market and Hispanic consumer by focusing on the MountainKing Butter Reds® and Fingerling Potato line products.

Dominos Pizza has awarded the creative assignment for the US Hispanic market to Austin Based latinWorks and the media planning and buying assignment to Houston based Lopez Negrete Communications.

Lopez Negrete Communications celebrated its 20-year anniversary on November 4, 2005. The company’s success in media, advertising, direct mail, interactive marketing and public relations exemplifies its unmatched ability to recognize and respond to the growing needs of the Hispanic community and to assist major marketers in reaching out to this increasingly powerful constituency.

Diageo’s Johnnie Walker has named New York based Wing Latino its Hispanic AOR for all brands. According to Gary Galanis Vice President Communications Diageo North America, the account was transferred to Wing Latino from The Vidal Partnership after an assessment by the client of consolidated all brands at one agency was contemplated.

Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) is reinforcing why the 2006 Altima is out of the ordinary through its new Hispanic advertising campaign, “Icons,” featuring iconographic images to demonstrate that the mid-size sedan goes beyond the expected. The television spots debuted on Thursday, Nov. 3 during the live airing of the Latin Grammy’s on Univision.

Juanita’s Foods introduced its new Hispanic advertising campaign with an unprecedented “sell” approach. The new campaign developed by Juanita’s longstanding agency of record, Los Angeles-based integrated marketing communications agency Acento, steps away from the typical happy-families-eating-in-the-kitchen approach traditionally used to sell Mexican products.

Miami based La Comunidad, has hired Alain Groenendaal to become the President of the agency.

The San Jose Group announced that it has received a Platinum PR Award from PR News for The National Pork Board’s Hispanic public relations campaign “El cerdo es bueno” (Pork is Good).

The ABSOLUT Spirits Co., Inc. has named The Axis Agency as its agency of record for multicultural marketing. Axis will handle advertising, public relations and event marketing to the U.S. Hispanic and African-American market for ABSOLUT. The agency, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies, will lead the account from their offices in Los Angeles, California, in partnership with Grupo Gallegos and LAGRANT Communications.