Grupo Gallegos Takes ‘Best of Show’ @ AHAA Hispanic Creative Awards.

Eleven different Hispanic ad agencies won Gold awards at fifth annual Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards on September 13, held in cooperation with the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.

The Best of Show award went to Grupo Gallegos, a two-year-old Los Angeles agency, for a TV campaign for MetroPCS, a cell phone service
provider that offers unlimited calls for $35 a month. Playing on Hispanics’ love of talking, and the richness of the Spanish language, the spots “Family” and “Locker” feature a young man, who uses multiple synonyms for everything he says, chatting on his cell phone.

The Vidal Partnership, New York, won two Golds for Heineken TV and radio commercials, and two Silver awards, for TV spots for Wendy’s and
Cingular Wireless. In one of the judges’ favorite commercials, “La Macarena,” a party goer searches for a bottle opener to open a Heineken, and the other guests imitate his movements, creating the dance La Macarena.

Creative on Demand (COD), Miami, also won two Gold awards. As Volkswagen of America’s first U.S. Hispanic ad agency, COD won a TV Gold and three radio awards — a Gold, a Silver and a Bronze — for the agency’s first Volkswagen ads.

One of the biggest winners was Badillo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, San Juan. Entering the awards for the first time, Badillo won a Gold, two
Silvers and a Bronze award for Toyota TV and newspaper entries, as well as two other newspaper awards. Sibling agency Conill, Saatchi & Saatchi’s U.S. Hispanic agency, won the only Gold Out-Of-Home award, for a Toyota campaign ighlighting how adventurous drivers of the Toyota 4Runner SUV are in their everyday lives.

This year’s 467 entries were the most ever received. A total of 24 agencies won gold, Silver or Bronze at the Sept. 13 awards show organized by AHAA at Universal Studios’ Globe Theatre in Los Angeles.

In a new category created by the judges to recognize non-traditional media, two Golds were awarded. La Comunidad, Miami, helped make Nordstrom more familiar to Hispanics with clever bilingual promotions on beaches, streets and gyms. And Grupo Gallegos was recognized for an
American Red Cross effort in which blood donors were turned into walking billboards wearing “Give Blood” T-shirts with one sleeve
slashed off.

This year’s judges included top Hispanic agency creative directors and senior Hispanic marketing executives from Walt Disney Co., Heineken and Bank of America. Three judges were Hispanic agency creative directors: Sergio Alcocer, VP-creative services, LatinWorks, Austin, Texas; Pablo Buffagni, creative director, Conill Advertising, Los Angeles; and Jose Luis Villa, VP-creative director, del Rivero Messianu
DDB, Coral Gables, Fla. For the first time, a commercials director was invited to be a judge, Xavier de la Cueva, a director at Conexion Films.

Three senior Hispanic marketers were judges: Gilbert Davila, VP- multicultural marketing, Walt Disney Co.; Cristina Morales-Haltiwanger,
VP, director of multicultural brand and communications, Bank of America; and Marime Riancho, brand manager, Heineken USA. From Ad
Age: Financial Editor Mercedes M. Cardona and International Editor Laurel Wentz.