Ad Agency

Industry insiders have stated that Manuel E. Machado, CEO and co-founder of MGSCOMM is no longer involved in the day-to-day of Common Ground / MGS.

Grupo Gallegos has named agency veteran Brenda Aguilar Schneider as Management Supervisor for JCPenney and other clients.

Michael Farmer, who has been consulting for advertising agencies for 25 years, sees the industry trapped between “fee-cutting clients and profit-hungry owners.” Its woeful state, he believes, can only be reversed by intrepid agency CEOs overturning the current agency culture by tracking workloads to better negotiate fees, repositioning their raison d’être from “big ideas” to “results,” and instilling a strong sense of accountability throughout their organizations.

Independent boutique agency, LatinSphere, headquartered in Long Beach, CA, will officially close at the end of August 2015 after 14 years of providing advertising and experiential marketing services, focused on, but not limited to, the Hispanic market.

Horizon Media announced the launch of a second stand-alone media agency network, Canvas Worldwide. The new media agency network, a joint venture between Horizon Media and global creative powerhouse INNOCEAN Worldwide, will officially launch in September 2015.

Walton Isaacson (WI) has appointed Alice Rivera as Vice president, Hispanic Marketing.

Walton Isaacson has named Juan Bonilla to the new position of Senior VP of Business Development, effective i

Inc. magazine has unveiled its 34th annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. República, an independent cross-cultural advertising, digital and communications agency, has earned its place on the important list for the fifth consecutive year.

Moneyball: the agency industry isn’t as profitable as it used to be.

Last Friday afternoon, as Alma’s staff took their talents to South Beach to celebrate a string of top creative awards and new business, Luis Miguel Messianu, Founder and President of Alma, broke the news about updates in the agency’s leadership structure.

Carl Buddig & Company has expanded its agency partners with the appointment of The San Jose Group as its multicultural shop.

Moroch Holdings Inc. (MHI) has announced that it will be taking a minority interest in Chicago-based LimeGreen LLC, a cross-cultural marketing communications agency focused on helping its clients reach culturally diverse groups through compelling consumer insights.

When relationships end, it can be because one of the parties is just not trying. But that isn’t the case here. I believe agencies are truly trying to patch things up.

Both parties feel completely mismatched and misunderstood. Clients want things like a better understanding of the clients’ actual business (“sell my stuff, grow my business, drive my share – how can you help?”). Agencies say they don’t have access to the very client people that actually are in charge of this stuff.

According to research from a CMO Council survey of 276 marketers in the first half of the year, there’s a new focus on finding high-performance marketing partners with specialized knowledge and business acumen. An overwhelming 83 percent of clients surveyed are looking for unique skill sets and specialized capabilities not found in most ad agencies or media buying firms.

Rosa Alonso, a recognized Digital Expert and a well-known persuasive voice of mobile and new communications technologies, has joined d expósito & Partners, LLC, in the newly announced position of Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation.

Frontier Communications Corporation announced the appointment of Gabriela “Gaby” Zabalúa as vice president of multicultural marketing.

Amica Mutual Insurance Co. recently completed its inaugural campaign for the Hispanic market, partnering with d expósito & Partners as its agency.

MEC announced the rebranding of MEC Bravo to MEC Multicultural to reflect the agency’s expansion into broader consumer segments.

Now, one of the “godfathers” of Hispanic marketing is taking a new turn. Set on earning his PhD in consumer behavior, he’s closing the doors to the San Antonio based agency.