Public Relations

The Hispanic Public Relations Association’s New York Chapter has announced the filing period for the 2nd Annual HPRA-NY Scholarship Program. Beginning March 31 through June 6, greater New York area college students of Hispanic descent will have the opportunity to file applications to be recognized for their outstanding undergraduate academic achievement and community service.

Over the years, I’ve been asked by numerous entertainment clients to provide “advertising value equivalencies” (AVEs) for my agency’s PR results. AVEs are what your editorial coverage would have cost if it were advertising space or time—basically, they’re a way to put a rough (very rough) dollar figure on the value of PR, which can sometimes seem intangible to clients used to looking exclusively at the bottom line.

As pharmaceutical and biotech companies compete for the hearts and minds of prospective patients, they are re-discovering public relations as a powerful way of doing so. PR, with its unique ability to educate and inform, is a highly effective tool to communicate complex and often challenging information.

Our Kids of Miami Dade and Monroe has selected Balsera Communications to lead its public relations and digital communications efforts.

This Miami-based PR agency will focus on raising Pulpo Media’s overall corporate brand presence in the United States as well as increase awareness of its leading technology and marketing solutions leveraged by its expansive blue-chip customer base.

Tapping into quality customer data will become the biggest challenge for online marketers in 2014, according to a StrongView study.

The Council of Public Relations Firms (Council announced the election of John Echeveste, partner of VPE Public Relations <http://www.vpepr.com>  in Los Angeles, to the organization’s board of directors.

By Enrique Turegano / Al Punto I saw an ad on Univision for an SUV…nice ad. But the VO caught me off guard. It was the poem by Antonio Machado and famous song by Juan Manuel Serrat, “Caminante No Hay Camino”. Great song, great poem…but I wonder how much it connects with US Hispanics….mostly US Mexicans. Do they even know it? Is it important to them? Does it connect emotionally like it does for Spaniards and some South Americans? Probably NOT. Here’s my guess:

1) The creative in charge is from Spain.
2) The creative in charge is a JM Serrat fan.

Thoughts?

I just attended a panel discussion between Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, SVP of Multicultural Markets at AARP, and Nancy Tellet, SVP at Viacom, Scott Willoth —S VP Methods & Analytics, Scarborough Research and moderated by Leo Olper, who sits on the AHAA board member and is a partner at d exposito & Partners, LLC.  The panel discussed key findings of a study recently conducted by AHAA, which bucks much of the conventional wisdom that is commonplace in Hispanic marketing.  For that reason, I was compelled to cover key highlights in this post.

This past week, we spent considerable time at the Hispanicize event in Miami Beach. The Hispanicize team needs to be commended for their ability to bring together Hispanic female bloggers from their owned and operated blogger network Latina Mom Bloggers.  The ladies were flown in and put up for a couple of days in fabulous Miami Beach for an all expenses paid soiree to create and demonstrate critical mass to entice advertisers.

by Jose Villa / Sensis Whenever someone first gets involved in Hispanic marketing, they inevitably come across a series of universally accepted “truths” about Hispanic consumers and how to market to them. While some of these truths have faded as the market has evolved over the last 50 years, some continue unchallenged. But as anyone who is deeply involved in marketing to Hispanics today will tell you the market has evolved as quickly as it’s grown. Today’s modern Hispanic marketer understands everything we think we know about Hispanics has to be questioned

Sofia Vergara is probably the most recognizable Hispanic actress working in English-language television. She is one of the stars of “Modern Family,” among the highest-rated scripted shows on network television, and she has parlayed her celebrity into commercials for brands like Pepsi and Cover Girl.

The question is not whether Ethnic Consumers that are lumped for diversity purposes into the MULTICULTURAL BUCKET offer opportunities for marketers.  We all know the answer to that question. The question is whether there is a need or a purpose for having one agency that implements all aspects of a campaign that can then be called a MULTICULTURAL approach.

By Gonzalo López Martí / Atkins López Martí, LLC You started your own business. Welcome to the party. Face the music. And dance. You are on your own now. No more whining. No more excuses. No more finger pointing. You only have yourself to blame. Some assorted pieces of advice.