Burson-Marstellar Hispanic Launches.

Burson-Marsteller announced the creation of a dedicated U.S. Hispanic Practice, committing key staff and resources to help current and prospective clients connect with this fast-growing market.

Burson-Marsteller’s worldwide President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Komisarjevsky named 14-year company veteran Jorge Ortega to lead the practice out of the firm’s Miami office. Ortega was recently named one of the most influential Hispanics in the U.S. by Hispanic Business magazine. He will coordinate executives from various specialties and Burson-Marsteller offices in the U.S. in the development of customized campaigns that speak to the nation’s more than 35 million Hispanic Americans in their own language and culture. B-M’s Hispanic Practice staff is located in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Austin, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., San Juan, major U.S. Hispanic markets.

“Our clients are dedicating programs and budgets to reach this increasingly important segment of the U.S. population and therefore we must have best-in-class resources to help them develop communications strategies, ” said Mr. Komisarjevsky.

More than 25 percent of companies surveyed by the Association of National Advertisers at a recent meeting indicated having a dedicated multicultural marketing initiative. “Today’s acculturation and assimilation of Latinos in this country demands for companies to communicate specially to them,” said Mr. Komisarjevsky.

The new Burson-Marsteller Hispanic practice includes experts in brand marketing, healthcare, public affairs, media and corporate communications. Each of these individuals represents a cross section of the Latino community.

“We have assembled a team of professionals whose communications experience and knowledge of the Latino culture will clearly benefit our clients,” said Mr. Ortega. “We are proud to be leveraging our firm’s worldwide communications expertise, local market insights and global relationships to work with clients specifically in the U.S. Hispanic market,” Ortega added.

The Burson-Marsteller Hispanic practice already has built a database of primary and secondary research, media profiles, market intelligence, industry insights and even publishes a daily e-mail newsletter, “Lat-in-Buzz” that contains news and information from Hispanic markets across the country.

In recent years, Burson-Marsteller has developed and implemented campaigns for clients such as the 2nd Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards, Similac, Colgate, UNICEF, Sears, Lincoln-Mercury and Barnes & Noble. Last month the firm helped launch Xtremo, Gatorade’s new product targeting U.S. Hispanics. The Miami office also handles public relations for Terra-Lycos, one of the most popular Internet brands (portals) among Latinos, as well as the Miller Brewing Company.

“This practice unites our firm’s brightest bilingual and multi-cultural professionals to exchange ideas, resources and expertise in order to provide clients with superior value and strategic, integrated communications counsel,” said Komisarjevsky.