GolinHarris to handle Hispanic pr duties for BBC Mundo.

GolinHarris has been selected to lead public relations support for an editorial initiative of the BBC’s Spanish American online and radio service, BBC Mundo, in the U.S. The agency’s Hispanic marketing practice, Confianza, will use traditional and web-based communications to leverage exposure for BBC Mundo’s ¿Hablas Español? project among the U.S. Hispanic audiences. The account will be led out of the agency’s Miami office.

The aim of ¿Hablas Español? is to raise awareness of the diversity and growing political and economic muscle of U.S. Hispanic community in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. The project, which is part of BBC Mundo‚s coverage of the U.S. election campaign, also aims to draw Hispanic audiences to the site to debate key electoral issues with Spanish-speakers around the world.

During their three-week road-trip across the United States, two senior editorial members of the BBC Mundo team will drive from Seattle to Washington DC – speaking only Spanish. Along the way they interview key Hispanic personalities, raise major questions and highlight issues affecting Hispanic communities, especially pertinent during the U.S. presidential election year. The entire journey will be reported on the new U.S. Hispanic index, Mundo USA and bbcmundo.com.

Karen Yates, marketing manager, BBC World Service MC&A, said: “¿Hablas Español? will further position bbcmundo.com as a key and relevant resource for US Hispanic audiences. It will delight BBC’s current audience in the U.S. and drive new visitors to bbcmundo.com.”

“The GolinHarris team showed a deep understanding of the BBC brand, its audience and its message. But perhaps more importantly, they demonstrated a tremendous understanding of how to use social media to bring more Spanish-speakers in the US to our website and grow the success of this program.”

Zandra Zuno, vice president and practice lead for Confianza, added: „We‚re thrilled to be working with a prestigious brand like BBC Mundo in its effort to broaden its reach to Spanish-speaking news seekers. The ¿Hablas Español? initiative is truly a one-of-a-kind introspective look at Spanish-speaking America, and we‚re excited to help promote and leverage such a unique initiative. ‰