Latino Market Emerging as Boom Area for ‘90s Ads
About two years ago, Security Pacific National Bank was developing a marketing program geared toward Spanish-speaking customers. It discovered that its motto, “Your bank for life,” couldn’t be directly translated into Spanish. The wrong translation might imply that a depositor would be serving a life sentence at the big Los Angeles-based bank.
The bank’s advertising agency came up with a different motto to convey a similar theme: “ seguridad, solidez y garantia, “ or “security, solidity and guarantee.”
Now, a New York advertising giant whose clients include Security Pacific has turned to a small Irvine ad agency to help it gain expertise in the Latino market. D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles announced Friday that is has acquired 49% of Noble & Asociados/U.S.A.
Noble handles Spanish-language ads for Procter & Gamble Co., Security Pacific and Kraft General Foods. The company had 1991 billings of $36 million, up from $8 million five years earlier, said Edward J. Noble, company president.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
D’Arcy Masius, one of the world’s largest privately held ad agencies, has made three acquisitions of companies specializing in the Spanish-speaking market during the past two years. D’Arcy Masius had 1991 billings of $4.5 billion.
In 1990, D’Arcy Masius bought 49% of San Antonio-based Sosa Bromley Aguilar & Associates, which specializes in Spanish-language ads for Burger King, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and other clients. Earlier this year, D’Arcy Masius’ public relations division, Manning Selvage & Lee, bought 49% of Moya Villanueva & Associates, a Los Angeles public relations firm.
“We’re going to see a 25% increase in the Hispanic market between now and the year 2000,” said Clayton Wilhite, president of D’Arcy Masius/North America. “That’s 30 million Hispanics who we believe are going to be interested in communication in their own language.”
As home to three of the country’s largest Latino-oriented ad agencies, Orange County stands to gain increased recognition because of the D’Arcy acquisition. Besides Noble & Asociados, there is Mendoza Dillon & Asociados in Newport Beach, which handles Ford Motor Co., among others, and Casanova Pendrill Publicidad in Irvine.
Orange County is “Madison Avenida, “ said James Helin, managing director of D’Arcy Masius/Los Angeles. “People prefer to receive important information--about banking, for example--in their own language.”
Advertisers have been moving steadily into the Spanish-speaking market for about five years, said Amy Masson, media director for AD Rendon, a Newport Beach agency that recently won the account for Viva supermarkets, the Latino food stores owned by La Habra-based Food 4 Less.
“If businesses don’t advertise in Hispanic media, they’re missing 30% of the population in L.A.,” said Masson, a former media planner for Noble & Asociados/U.S.A. “I think the Anglo agencies just want to become players.”
