06-AN1-011 CVRSTORY lo01 A.indd

WINNERS
Winner, Hispanic Category:
Procter & Gamble, Tide
Agency:
Conill Saatchi & Saatchi
P&G’s print ad “Hamburguesa.”
GRACIELA ELETA
2006
P&G’s multicultural marketing
star is helping the company
whiff the fresh scent of success
in the Hispanic marketplace
By Todd Wilkinson
ANA MULTICULTURAL
EXCELLENCE AWARDS
28 | December 2006 The Advertiser
PHOTO: CLAY HUMPHREY
O
n November 13, during a special ceremony at the Masters of Multicultural
Marketing Conference in Santa Monica, Calif., the ANA announced the winners
of the sixth annual Multicultural Excellence Awards. The awards, established
in 1998 by the association’s Multicultural Marketing Committee, recognize
the outstanding multicultural advertising campaigns of leading marketers and their
agencies. More than 125 entries were submitted this year in a total of six categories:
Asian; African American; Hispanic; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT);
General Market; and Multicultural Campaign with Significant Results. The entries were
judged on creative excellence, as well on relevancy to the multicultural category for
which they were submitted. In this special section, we pay tribute to five of the winners.
Hispanic consumers than Graciela Eleta.
The Panama-born 44-year-old, who earned
her undergraduate degree from Wellesley
College, and an MBA from Boston College,
is widely considered a rising star and tour
ON THE SURFACE, the Tide with Febreze
campaign — a creative collaboration
between Procter & Gamble and its New
York–based agency, Conill Saatchi &
Saatchi — appears to be just another
example of media touting the launch of a
marketplace innovation — in this case, the
sweetening of the U.S.’s leading brand of
laundry detergent with scented fresheners.
But in reality, “Vecina” (a Spanish
language TV ad) and “Hamburguesa” (a
complementary print piece) reveal P&G’s
winning strategy for engaging the mindset
of millions of working Hispanic women,
and they reflect the sophisticated ways
in which the company is courting the
lucrative Hispanic segment as an investment in the future.
To P&G, Latinas represent one of the
most influential consumer segments in the
Western Hemisphere. The annual buying
power of the Hispanic population, which is
now the largest ethnic group in the U.S.,
is expected to approach $1 trillion by the
end of this decade, according to the Selig
Center for Economic Growth at the
University of Georgia. By 2050, demographers predict, one in four Americans will
be of Hispanic descent.
Arguably, few corporate executives in the
world have a finger closer to the pulse of
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more. She is a great leader and we
respect her tremendously.”
Being attentive to the desires of Latinas
is more than good business — it’s the best
way to build brand loyalty with a consumer
base that, for years, was largely ignored
and underserved by the companies through
media outreach, Eleta says. To receive
attention from within the advertising
industry is a validation that corporate
America recognizes that the next great
frontier for market share resides in multicultural opportunities. “It’s an honor to be
recognized by the ANA, but our success
is not about me,” Eleta says. “It’s about the
fusion of our great brands that have been
made better through continuous innovation,
mixed with an undying desire to understand and meet the needs, every day, of
44 million consumers of ethnic heritage
residing in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.”
Following the Scent
de force in multicultural marketing. The first
Latin American woman to rise to the rank of
vice president in P&G North America, Eleta
today serves as general manager of the company’s innovative Multicultural Business
Development Organization (MBDO) in San
Juan, Puerto Rico. “Graciela’s energy and
passion are infectious,” says Joe Baide,
management supervisor at Conill Saatchi
& Saatchi. “When Graciela speaks about
the Latina consumer and about her
potential as a woman, it inspires us to do
The motto for P&G’s MBDO is “The voice of
the changing faces of North America.” The
office oversees development of marketing
strategies to Hispanic consumers for 12 of
P&G’s largest brands, including Downy
fabric softener, Tide and Gain detergents,
Pantene and Head & Shoulders shampoos,
Charmin toilet paper, Bounty paper towels,
Crest toothpaste, and baby products like
Pampers. Eleta says the company endeavors to work only with creative agencies that
can translate its motto into action.
Hispanic women place a high value
on imbuing a sense of cleanliness in their
homes through products that have a
pleasing aromatic freshness, Eleta points
out. P&G’s in-house studies reveal that 57
The Advertiser December 2006 | 29
WINNERS
2006
ANA MULTICULTURAL
EXCELLENCE AWARDS
percent of its Hispanic customers are “avid
scent seekers,” compared with 31 percent
of those surveyed in the general marketplace. The Tide with Febreze Freshness
campaign plays on that cultural nuance.
The “Vecina” (that’s “neighbor” in
English) TV execution for Tide with Febreze
takes a humorous approach to showing
how foul odors can stick to one’s clothes
and be noticed by others, Baide says. The
antidote is a laundry detergent that
removes both smells and stains.
On the print side, “Hamburguesa” tells
a similar story and uses a clever “before
and after” device of origami garments
made to resemble foods with strong odors,
such as fish, hamburgers, and chicken.
The vivid visuals and light-hearted delivery
proved to be a winning combo.
“Everything we do is based on the
need to truly understand our customer,”
Eleta says. “We constantly talk to our
Latina consumer about who she is, what
motivates her, [and about] her laundry
habits and preferences. We learned that
while she buys a slew of scent products
for her home and the scent experience
is intrinsically important in how she rates
the detergent she uses, she is really
motivated by freshness and goes out of
her way to provide it. A fresh, new scent
is something even the family will notice
and appreciate.”
A Rising Tide
P&G is the recognized industry leader in the
dollars it invests in multicultural outreach,
and its marketing efforts springing forth
from MBDO have inspired corporate board
members back in Cincinnati, Ohio. P&G
already enjoys overdeveloped market
shares among Hispanics and it hopes to
convert more Hispanic consumers to its
higher-end Tide by introducing Febreze as
a desired additive.
Not long ago, P&G launched Avanzando
con tu Familia, a multibrand program that
has, as a cornerstone, the publication of
Avanzando magazine. The magazine
reaches 1 million readers and is used as
a vehicle for subtly introducing Hispanic
consumers, in their language, to products
being crossed over from traditional U.S.
target consumers. Of the 12 P&G brands
that have received emphasis through Eleta’s
multicultural office, six are leaders in the
Hispanic category.
In addition to Tide with Febreze, Conill
Saatchi & Saatchi developed P&G’s Tide
to Go campaign. An offshoot of that is
the “Cumpleanos,” a 15-second TV spot,
which was adapted for use in the U.S.
general market, Italy, and Portugal. “As
we move forward, Procter & Gamble
remains committed to ethnic consumers
as a long-term strategic choice for our
region, and we seek to partner with top
retailers on our journey,” Eleta says. “As
[our CEO] A. G. Lafley reminds us, the
consumer is boss, and this will continue
to hold true as the demographics in this
nation change.
“Demography is our destiny, and never
before has this realization been so critical
to our success.” ■
ANA MEMBER Q&A
Winner, Significant
Results Category:
Verizon Communications
Agency:
Burrell Communications
JERRI DEVARD
Verizon’s senior VP of marketing
and brand management brings
broadband to life
By Ken Beaulieu
BEING NAMED ONE of the “50 Most Powerful
Women in Business” by Black Enterprise
magazine earlier this year is a distinction
that Jerri DeVard takes very seriously. But
it has not raised her own expectations or
changed the way she goes about business
as the senior vice president of marketing
and brand management for New York–
based Verizon. DeVard has always felt
a deep sense of obligation to lead by
example, to “bring all of me to any job.”
30 | December 2006 The Advertiser
This focused ambition is reflected not only
in the passion, energy, and wisdom of her
ways but also in the success of Verizon’s
integrated campaigns marketing to diverse
audiences. If winning an ANA Multicultural
Excellence Award isn’t proof enough,
Verizon also won, in September, two
awards from the American Advertising
Federation (AAF) in recognition of its
multicultural ad campaigns targeted at
African Americans and Hispanics. Even
more significant, Verizon and its African
American agency, Burrell Communications,
were named Advertiser and Agency of the
Year by the AAF. DeVard, never one to
gloat, looks at these accolades in a much
larger context. “I did not bring multiculturalism and multicultural marketing to
Verizon,” she emphasizes. “We were
always recognized as doing that and doing
that well. I came into an organization that
had a healthy respect for it. It’s in our
DNA.” An ANA board member, DeVard
recently shared her thoughts with The
Advertiser on marketing to different ethnic
groups and the importance of making
diversity a priority.
Q. What does the Verizon brand stand for
to different cultural audiences? How does
it vary from one ethnic group to the next?
A. I think the overarching elements of what
the brand stands for — quality, reliability,
the network, customer service — are the
same [across all segments]. But when we
talk about specific messaging, that’s based
on insight. The consumer insight for the
mass market is very different from the
consumer insight for the African American
market or the Hispanic market or the Asian
market. And we drill down into that consumer insight to develop the appropriate
messages for each market.
Q. Why does Verizon have such a deep
understanding of different ethnic groups?
Do you conduct ongoing multicultural
research?
A. We have a multicultural marketing team
that is responsible for marketing to Asians,
African Americans, Hispanics, people with
disabilities, and people in the gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) group.
So, we have an understanding of the
needs of each segment and we work with
ana.net
Winner, African
American Category:
Tyson Foods
Agency:
E. Morris Communications
SOUL FOOD
Tyson Foods serves up warmth
with a campaign geared toward
African Americans
TYSON ASPIRES TO be viewed as more than
a giant purveyor of quality meat products
served to millions across America. Sue
Quillin, vice president of marketing services
for Springdale, Ark.–based Tyson, says her
company is interested in also nourishing
society with a different kind of sustenance.
Tyson wants to whet the appetites of its
consumers in the African American
community for becoming better citizens by
getting involved in their neighborhoods.
Civic responsibility and family togetherness, Quillin asserts, are part of Tyson’s core
values. It was that ethic that became the
inspiration behind Powered by Tyson, a
campaign engineered by E. Morris Communications (EMC) that shows ordinary
people doing extraordinary things to make
a difference in the lives of others.
Although Tyson has long enjoyed good
market visibility in the African American
community with its chicken products, the
company enlisted EMC to help raise the
profile of its pork and beef line while at
the same time dispensing a message of
social responsibility. “The Powered by
Tyson campaign leverages cultural cues,
humor, and love of family to demonstrate
that Tyson’s [protein-rich] products provide
the energy to power busy families through
busy days,” says Deborah Easton, EMC’s
associate creative director.
Nationwide, Afro-ethnic marketing
efforts are attempting to capture more
than $800 billion in annual buying power.
“On the face of it, African Americans may
The Powered by Tyson television campaign.
appear to be a monolithic group,” Easton
says. “However, this market segment is
diverse across many variables, including
home or origin and length of time living in
the U.S.”
As Eugene Morris, who founded the
company 19 years ago, says, “Multicultural marketing is not merely a nice thing
to do — it is a strategic business tool.”
With the Powered by Tyson piece
“Double Dutch,” a dad is playing with
his daughter around dinnertime when a
ANA MEMBER Q&A
[the appropriate] agencies. We are not one
of these companies that believe in working
with one mega-agency. We go to the best
in class, much like we do for interactive,
and we give each of them a challenge. For
example, within the African American
segment, we work with Burrell
Communications. They
developed the whole
“realize” marketing
and advertising
campaign [that
featured budding
entrepreneurs who
rely on Verizon’s
broadband services to help them
with their lives and
get business done].
This was based
on the insight
of many
African Americans who work during the
day and pursue their passions at night.
We showed people that by using Verizon
broadband you could realize your dreams.
Within the Hispanic community, we invite
them to live their passions a todo lo que da
— to the max — with Verizon broadband.
We didn’t just take our tag line “We never
stop working for you” and translate it.
We realized that it required a change
because we understood what’s
important to Hispanics. Many marketers believe that they have to, and
can, take one message and use it
everywhere. I don’t believe that. You
have to understand the fundamentals
of your brand’s promise. Then you take
that insight and marry it with the message to deliver the brand.
Q. What do you feel is the most difficult
ethnic audience to reach?
A. They’re all difficult. We have to understand what the broadband usage is for
each segment, what [each segment’s]
needs are, what its concerns are,
which agencies can help us, and what the
support is, be it people, resources, or
budget. To some degree, the GLBT segment might be more difficult because of
the whole issue of self-identification and
how sensitive some people are about that.
If we market to you, we want to give you a
relevant message. So if you’re in the GLBT
segment, for example, you need to tell us.
But that makes some people uncomfortable; so it can be a challenge.
Q. How important is having a diverse team?
A. It’s very important. The more diverse
the team, the more insight you [will glean]
and the better understanding you will have
for each market segment. I work in a
general market business, but as an African American, I think like a multicultural
marketer. Last year multicultural marketing was headed by a white male and
he did an outstanding job. We have the
resources to uncover key needs and
develop robust plans to address and
satisfy those needs. I don’t necessarily
believe that you have to be within a tar-
WINNERS
2006
ANA MULTICULTURAL
EXCELLENCE AWARDS
vivacious grandmother leaps into view and
begins a jump rope exhibition much to the
delight of nearby kids. In “Girl Power,” a
petite young girl, obviously nourished on
Tyson foods, wins a tug of war contest
against several bigger friends. “This
campaign connects on an emotional level,”
Easton says. “It generated some of the
strongest business results in Tyson’s
history, with significant increases in
awareness, purchase intent, brand image
ratings, and ad effectiveness scores.”
The campaign continues to evolve, with
the company inking agreements to be the
official provider of meat products to U.S.
Olympic training centers, and it has joined
grassroots community groups across the
country in the fight to end hunger in the
U.S. “We believe managing inclusion and
valuing diversity are extremely important
to our business,” Tyson’s Quillin says.
“This includes how we support the Tyson
brand through advertising, as well as the
outside businesses we choose to partner
—T.W.
with us. ■
Winner, GLBT Category:
Stolichnaya Vodka
Agency:
Double Platinum
REAL RESULTS
Stoli Vodka doesn’t just speak
to the GLBT community; it
helps tell their story
FORGET ALL THE marketing research and
methodology. It took only two words — Be
Real — for Pernod Ricard USA to achieve
rising sales of its legendary premium Russian
vodka, Stolichnaya. Now the company has
invoked the mantra to stake out bold new
territory in multicultural marketing.
In a campaign that turned heads and,
as Pernod Ricard’s senior brand manager
Adam Rosen says, made the slogan into
something more than Stoli itself, Be Real
Stolichnaya Vodka’s Be Real campaign.
represents one of the most ambitious
attempts yet in advertising to reach out
to the U.S. gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender community. Initially launched
in 2005 as the brainchild of the New York
agency Double Platinum, Be Real does not
employ traditional TV or print buys to
promote its message of personal dignity
and honesty. The medium is film, and it
has earned praise for the brand and for
the integrity with which the story of the
GLBT experience is told.
For years, companies have looked
for ways to tap into the lucrative GLBT
geted multicultural group to lead it, but it’s
important that across all groups — multicultural marketing, general marketing —
you have a diverse team.
Verizon’s advertisements target African
American and Chinese communities.
34 | December 2006 The Advertiser
Q. When you look at the industry as a
whole, are you disappointed with the lack
of diversity?
A. I am disappointed. We talked about this
at [a recent] ANA board meeting. We as
clients need to drive home the issue of
diversity with our agencies in terms of
requirements. I shared with the ANA board
my experience of visiting each of my agencies and drilling down into their HR representation of minorities. I sat down with
each agency and said, “Tell me who’s
on the Verizon team, how the agency is
broken down by Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians, and what the plans
were to improve diversity. A part of their
incentive will be attached to their diversity
goals. I’m going to work with them to come
up with a fair process of judging that,
because it’s not about quotas, it’s not
about numbers. That which gets measured
gets done. Each of our agencies does a
great job of spending money with diverse
suppliers, but we are now drilling into the
teams facing our business and asking for
— quite frankly demanding — that diversity. Why do agencies like Burrell and La
Agencia de Orci & Asociados fill their
organizations with people that look like
them? It’s because it’s a priority. We [the
industry] spend a lot of time talking about
it, but it’s not a priority. We’ve got to create
a burning platform around this issue. I
guarantee you, just as in any business
challenge that any agency faces — declining share, declining penetration, diminishing brand — you hire people to fix the
problem. As clients and as agencies, we’ve
got to [consider] internship programs and
campus recruiting at historically black
colleges. You have to work your way into
affinity groups — talk to black students at
Harvard or Hispanic students at Columbia.
You will create a relationship and a reason
to come to your agency. Everyone thinks
about diversity, but it’s not one of the top
five things to do and so it gets cut. ■
ana.net
CREDIT
ANA MEMBER Q&A
WINNERS
2006
ANA MULTICULTURAL
EXCELLENCE AWARDS
demographic, and many have met with
mixed success. The challenge has always
been finding appropriate, effective venues.
“It is essential to understand the context of
the consumer’s life and how they use the
product,” says Stephanie Blackwood,
cofounder and account director of Double
Platinum, which is one of the leading
GLBT-focused agencies in the country.
“This is tricky stuff, and most nongay
people don’t understand how to do it.”
For the campaign, Double Platinum
identified film festivals and sold Pernod
Ricard on the idea of making a documentary. The result, Be Real: Stories from
Queer America is a 53-minute film that
features the moving stories of six individuals
who hail from a diverse range of lifestyles.
“If I had to reduce it to two sentences,”
Blackwood says, “I would say it’s about the
journey to authenticity, a universal theme,
as seen through the lives of six GLBT
Americans. They’ve asked themselves and
answered the question, ‘Who am I?’ The
answer: ‘I’m queer. I know it. Now what?’”
Be Real has won huge critical praise for
Pernod Ricard. There was a sneak premiere
at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and
the film headlined 17 other festivals across
the country. It has been supported by
national print and Internet advertising, and
has attracted a large group of viewers to a
special microsite: stoli.com/bereal.
A sign of its impact, the campaign
increased name recognition hugely for
Stoli, which has been competing for
market share in the GLBT community with
rival Absolut. “This campaign is pioneering,” Blackwood says. “No corporation
has ever financed a film about the GLBT
experience. Further, this film has no
product placement, just credits, because
Stoli wanted the film to be taken seriously.
Stoli and Pernod Ricard deserve accolades
for breaking through the clutter and really
buying into a campaign that is culturally
relevant to the target consumer.”
“We didn’t just want to sponsor film
festivals. We wanted to be way involved on
a grassroots level,” Pernod Ricard’s Rosen
told The New York Times, which featured
the campaign. “This film will be a springboard for all our advertising and marketing
— T.W.
in the year to come.” ■
36 | December 2006 The Advertiser
that would get people’s feet tapping. “India
is an incredibly diverse society, but when
we examined consumers, one of the most
unifying traits was a common love of
Agency:
Bollywood cinema,” Hong says. “As a
IW Group, Inc.
narrative device, Bollywood is about love
and family. It’s a perfect medium and a
great marriage for MetLife.”
By enlisting the talents of veteran
Bollywood film director Prasoon Pandey,
lyricist Prasoon Joshi, and score composers
How MetLife’s South
Ehsaan & Loy, IW Group delivered bankAsian marketing took
able names that had instant credibility and
on a new direction
trust with the intended MetLife audience.
Almost from the moment they aired on TV
in Chicago and both East and West coast
LIFE, DEATH, AND the necessity of having
contingency plans if things go wrong can
markets, the 60-second spots titled “Tying
the Scarf” and “Ready This Day” created a
be heady stuff to have to think about. It’s
buzz. With support from corresponding
tough enough getting people to listen to a
sales pitch about life insurance. It’s another print ads, they subtly encourage consumers to start saving for their children’s
thing altogether when the same solicitation
has to carry across the boundaries of
education and to plan ahead by buying
culture and language.
life insurance.
An added
When MetLife
decided to expand
vehicle for driving
its global marketing
traffic is a tollfree number that
efforts by reaching out
to customers of South
flashes across the
Asian descent, its
TV screen inviting
viewers to call. The
Los Angeles–based
advertising agency, IW
number is 1.888
Group, Inc., proposed
.Met.1947, the last
four digits repa script that could
have been written in
resenting the year
Hollywood — or rather
India achieved its
independence
Bollywood, the name
MetLife’s advertisements go Bollywood.
for the style of movie
from colonial rule
popular in India. “We wanted to be different under England. As a result, droves of
viewers phoned call-back lines to obtain
and create a unique MetLife brand voice,”
says Martina Lee of IW Group, which for
more information about MetLife.
16 years has cultivated an expertise in
Hong says that not only has the campaign been a great generator of business,
communicating with the growing U.S.
Asian population. “MetLife wanted to
but also “our field force has responded to it
distinguish its approach from the more
with great enthusiasm. They are proud to be
traditional and nostalgic campaigns that we
associated with this approach ... to us, this
is at least as important as the message that
have seen all too often from other advertisers in the industry,” she says, adding that
is conveyed to consumers.” ■
— T.W.
Bollywood is universally beloved in
populous India.
Next Steps
With about 25 percent of MetLife’s
For a complete list of the winners of
business coming from multicultural
the 2006 ANA Multicultural Excellence
markets, Richard D. Hong, director of
Awards, visit ana.net/mic. Keyword
MetLife’s international and multicultural
search: “MCM Award Winners.”
advertising division, wanted a campaign
Winner, Asian Category:
Met Life
BOLLYWOOD
BOUNCE
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