Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) has announced that Gisela Girard, president and COO of Creative Civilization — An Aguilar/Girard Agency in San Antonio will lead AHAA.
Commenting on the announcement , Gisela Girard said: “As a small business and agency owner, I recognize and am facing the challenges of tough economic times,” Girard said. “I believe this is the time AHAA has to be even more relevant for its members: offering the resources and tools to build our businesses and become even more competitive. We need to help our agencies tell the story of Hispanic marketing success for advertisers and demonstrate to our clients that Hispanic or multicultural budgets should not be the first to be cut. Latino consumers today are a dynamic force to be contended with and the market cannot be ignored without consequence.
“No one knows this business and the market potential better than we do and I hope we can become the thought leaders that will influence advertisers on the bottom line profit to be gained and demonstrate the criticality of investing in the Latino market even in a down economy. Top 500 advertisers General Mills and Johnson & Johnson, instead of slashing Hispanic marketing budgets in this lean economy, are investing even more in the Hispanic market and are in fact rolling out products directly targeting Latinos. These companies understand the financial rewards and brand-building potential the Hispanic market means for business.”
Girard said the 2010 Census will likely show continued growth in the now more than 46 million Latinos, or 15 percent of the U.S. population. During her year as chairwoman, she wants AHAA to develop a strategy to leverage that growth and communicate the evolving market dynamics to advertisers for the benefit of AHAA members. “AHAA will continue to be a strong voice for Hispanic-specialized agencies,” Girard said. “I hope to work with other Hispanic organizations and influential groups to strengthen our industry’s position politically, socially and corporately.”
Over the past 12 months, the AHAA board of directors, under the leadership of L?pez-Varela, made great strides in implementing the strategic initiatives for AHAA outlined in the three-year plan. L?pez-Varela kicked off his year as chairman by tackling the radio and online measurement issue and reinforcing the need for accurate currency and data representing the industry. AHAA joined the Media Ratings Council to help ensure only accurate measurement tools are accredited. The task forces will continue to be active under Girard’s leadership. In an effort to raise the visibility of Hispanic-specialized agencies and influence advertiser spending, L?pez-Varela brought back the Right Spend study, which revealed the top 500 advertisers by total spending and Hispanic market spending overall and in 27 different categories. AHAA brought in new partners, Nielsen to provide the data and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) to analyze the data, to make the research even more relevant. The study is being repeated and 2008 data will be available in May.
He worked closely with client organizations such as the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) participating on a panel at the ANA Multicultural Conference and speaking the apparel industry’s MAGIC show to get new advertisers to enter the Hispanic market. The new AHAA Web site is under construction and is scheduled to launch this summer. It will be a portal to the great work of AHAA agencies and an industry resource for clients and members of the media. Also this year, the board of directors expanded the AHAA membership categories to include public relations shops, interactive agencies, direct marketing firms and other nontraditional promotional agencies specializing in the Hispanic market to make AHAA more representative of the breadth of the industry.
“This was a year to really connect with the agency principals and get back to core of AHAA’s existence and that is our membership,” L?pez-Varela said. “I invited our agency leaders to share their perspective on the growth and direction for AHAA during my chairmanship and then we implemented their suggestions. To help facilitate discussion of some of our pressing industry and business issues, we expanded our agency principals forum to agency leaders and senior managers, and added a networking luncheon to encourage idea sharing and business-building tips. We created a quarterly newsletter and instituted a monthly agency leaders call to enhance communication among members. It’s working and it will continue.
“During these tough times, we need to work even harder and pull together to make an even bigger difference. There is still much work to be done and I encourage everyone to find a place within AHAA to make a contribution. It’s been a great year: one I will treasure for the rest of my life. Thank you for the honor to serve my fellow colleagues.”