BRAVO: the end of a chapter.

Last Thursday, when the announcement was made that Gary Bassell would no longer lead The Bravo Group, a strange chapter finally came to an end. The news, delivered at an impromptu meeting in Manhattan, was not exactly unexpected, though.

After less than two years at the helm of what once was the premier Hispanic agency in America, personnel desertion, client migration and dwindling business were part of what many saw as an unconvincing record.

Bassell had started his job after the unexpected resignation of Daisy Expósito-Ulla (back in November 2004). He deliberately chose a confrontational style and publicly attacked Hispanic agencies for what he then called “their circle-the-wagon mentality”.

Why the showiness? What reason could be hidden behind such scorn? Why such animosity toward our market? To some observers, this language tone was perhaps linked to the ongoing misfortunes of Ann Fudge whose parallel story at the head of Y&R ended up as an unfortunate stint that didn’t wait around to pass the test of time.

But at the center of it all, one fact seemed to reign supreme, precisely because of its absence: a true understanding of our market.

Bassell was succeeding a quiet genius of Hispanic marketing whose vision and common sense had helped build Bravo and achieve its undisputed supremacy. Expósito-Ulla had assembled a team of very smart leaders who pioneered and know their market and their consumers, who clearly understood the ways to engage and correlate a general market brand with the different cultural segments of our market.

The agency at the center of last week’s news had been the creator of many firsts: first to be modeled after a general market agency, first to have its own proprietary research, first to produce state of the art commercials, etc. Bravo had indeed established many of the disciplines that aligned and independent agencies alike adhere to today. These were major accomplishments, the kind of substantive gains that gradually build up a reputation and a heritage. It had also gained Expósito-Ulla the loyalty of her team and the trust and confidence of an impressive roster of clients.

The more tempered language of Y&R veteran Eddie Gonzalez, who succeeded Bassell at The Bravo Group last week, are a welcome sign of relief for the industry.

The agency that Daisy built deserves no less.