P&G’s print ad “Hamburguesa.”...

ana.net The Advertiser December 2006 | 29

GRACIELA ELETAP&G’s multicultural marketing star is helping the company whiff the fresh scent of success in the Hispanic marketplace

By Todd Wilkinson

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 refl ect the sophisticated ways in which the company is courting the lucrative Hispanic segment as an invest-ment in the future.

To P&G, Latinas represent one of the most infl uential 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, demogra-phers predict, one in four Americans will be of Hispanic descent.

Arguably, few corporate executives in the world have a fi nger closer to the pulse of

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

de force in multicultural marketing. The fi rst Latin American woman to rise to the rank of vice president in P&G North America, Eleta today serves as general manager of the com-pany’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

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 multi-cultural 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 under-stand and meet the needs, every day, of 44 million consumers of ethnic heritage residing in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.”

Following the ScentThe motto for P&G’s MBDO is “The voice of the changing faces of North America.” The offi ce 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 endeav-ors 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

Winner, Hispanic Category:Procter & Gamble, Tide

Agency: Conill Saatchi & Saatchi

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On 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.

P&G’s print ad “Hamburguesa.”

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JERRI DEVARDVerizon’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.”

This focused ambition is refl ected 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 signifi cant, 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 multicultur-alism 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 specifi c 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 con-sumer 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

percent of its Hispanic customers are “avid scent seekers,” compared with 31 percent of those surveyed in the general market-place. 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 fi sh, 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

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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 TideP&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 offi ce, 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. Lafl ey 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.” ■


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Winner, Signifi cant Results Category:

Verizon Communications

Agency: Burrell Communications

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[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 ser-vices 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 mar-keters 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 mes-

sage to deliver the brand.

Q. What do you feel is the most diffi cult ethnic audience to reach?

A. They’re all diffi cult. We have to under-stand 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 seg-ment might be more diffi cult because of the whole issue of self-identifi cation 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 uncomfort-able; 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 Afri-can American, I think like a multicultural marketer. Last year multicultural market-ing 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-

SOUL FOODTyson 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 together-ness, 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 Comm-unications (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 profi le 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

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, “Multicul-tural 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

Winner, African American Category:

Tyson Foods

Agency: E. Morris Communications

The Powered by Tyson television campaign.

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REAL RESULTSStoli 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

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 fi lm, 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

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geted multicultural group to lead it, but it’s important that across all groups — multi-cultural marketing, general marketing — you have a diverse team.

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 agen-cies and drilling down into their HR repre-sentation 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 Amer-icans, 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 diver-sity. Why do agencies like Burrell and La Agencia de Orci & Asociados fi ll 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 — declin-ing share, declining penetration, diminish-ing brand — you hire people to fi x 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 affi nity 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 fi ve things to do and so it gets cut. ■


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Winner, GLBT Category:Stolichnaya Vodka

Agency: Double Platinum

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 signifi cant 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 offi cial provider of meat products to U.S. Olympic training centers, and it has joined grassroots community groups across the country in the fi ght to end hunger in the U.S. “We believe managing inclusion and valuing diversity are extremely importantto 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 with us. ■ —T.W.

Verizon’s advertisements target African American and Chinese communities.

Stolichnaya Vodka’s Be Real campaign.



BOLLYWOOD BOUNCEHow MetLife’s South Asian marketing took on a new direction

LIFE, DEATH, AND the necessity of having contingency plans if things go wrong can be heady stuff to have to think about. It’s tough enough getting people to listen to a sales pitch about life insurance. It’s another thing altogether when the same solicitation has to carry across the boundaries of culture and language.

When MetLife decided to expand its global marketing efforts by reaching out to customers of South Asian descent, its Los Angeles–based advertising agency, IW Group, Inc., proposed a script that could have been written in Hollywood — or rather Bollywood, the name for the style of movie popular in India. “We wanted to be different and create a unique MetLife brand voice,” says Martina Lee of IW Group, which for 16 years has cultivated an expertise in communicating with the growing U.S. Asian population. “MetLife wanted to distinguish its approach from the more traditional and nostalgic campaigns that we have seen all too often from other advertis-ers in the industry,” she says, adding that Bollywood is universally beloved in populous India.

With about 25 percent of MetLife’s business coming from multicultural markets, Richard D. Hong, director of MetLife’s international and multicultural advertising division, wanted a campaign

demographic, and many have met with mixed success. The challenge has always been fi nding 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 identifi ed fi lm festivals and sold Pernod Ricard on the idea of making a documen-tary. The result, Be Real: Stories from Queer America is a 53-minute fi lm 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 fi lm 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 pioneer-ing,” Blackwood says. “No corporation has ever fi nanced a fi lm about the GLBT experience. Further, this fi lm has no product placement, just credits, because Stoli wanted the fi lm 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 fi lm 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 fi lm will be a spring-board for all our advertising and marketing in the year to come.” ■ — T.W.


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Winner, Asian Category:Met Life

Agency: IW Group, Inc.

Next Steps For a complete list of the winners of the 2006 ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards, visit ana.net/mic. Keyword search: “MCM Award Winners.”

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 Bollywood cinema,” Hong says. “As a 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 fi lm director Prasoon Pandey, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, and score composers Ehsaan & Loy, IW Group delivered bank-able names that had instant credibility and trust with the intended MetLife audience. Almost from the moment they aired on TV in Chicago and both East and West coast markets, the 60-second spots titled “Tying the Scarf” and “Ready This Day” created a buzz. With support from corresponding print ads, they subtly encourage consum-ers to start saving for their children’s education and to plan ahead by buying life insurance.

An added vehicle for driving traffi c is a toll-free number that fl ashes across the TV screen inviting viewers to call. The number is 1.888.Met.1947, the last four digits rep-resenting the year India achieved its independence from colonial rule

under England. As a result, droves of viewers phoned call-back lines to obtain more information about MetLife.

Hong says that not only has the cam-paign been a great generator of business, but also “our fi eld force has responded to it with great enthusiasm. They are proud to be associated with this approach ... to us, this is at least as important as the message that is conveyed to consumers.” ■ — T.W.

MetLife’s advertisements go Bollywood.

P&G’s print ad “Hamburguesa.”...

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