Reebok Picks Irvine Agency to Target Latinos : Advertising: Casanova, Pendrill Publicidad is among the top three in the nation in its specialty.

Reebok International Ltd., in announcing the shift of its $140-million advertising budget, said it has hired an Irvine agency to target the Spanish-speaking market for the first time.

The nation’s No. 2 maker of athletic shoes said this week it has hired Casanova, Pendrill Publicidad, an Irvine agency that is among the top three in the nation in its specialty. Competitors Nike and Spaulding also have new ad campaigns that target Spanish speakers.

Paul Casanova, president of the agency, said a different approach is needed to reach Latino consumers. One can’t simply translate general advertising into Spanish, he said, because Latinos “have different lifestyles, different goals and different reasons for wearing shoes.”

Casanova would not say how much Reebok will spend with his agency or how the 60-person agency will handle the account.

Reebok announced Tuesday the consolidation of its global advertising and marketing programs, dropping Venice-based Chiat/Day, and its European agency, Euro RSCG, in favor of Chicago-based agency Leo Burnett to handle its global Reebok brand advertising.

The shoemaker said it wants to increase its $2.5 billion in annual sales by 100% in the next three years. It said Burnett’s network of 55 offices in 40 countries will help it do that.

One observer said Reebok’s strategy is to move away from national TV advertising, at which Chiat/Day excels, and into targeted markets.

“They are now into the guerrilla marketing approach, as opposed to a how-much-can-we-spend-on-TV kind of advertising,” said John Horan, publisher of the Sporting Goods Intelligence newsletter in Glen Mills, Pa.

Besides Casanova, Pendrill, the shoemaker has contracted over the past several months with Ammirati & Paris in New York to work on BOKS(TM), Reebok’s casual footwear and apparel division; UniWorld Group Inc. in New York to handle advertising directed to African-Americans; and Mullen in Wenham, Mass., for Reebok Classic, Golf and Weebok.

Reebok’s previous experience in the Spanish-language market included a translated version of its Planet Reebok TV commercial and another featuring Texas Ranger Juan Gonzalez.

Dave Fogelson, public relations director for Reebok at its Stoughton, Mass., headquarters, said the company hopes to have ads ready for the upcoming 1994 World Cup soccer matches.

“We have relationships with a number of the South American players,” Fogelson said. “The timing couldn’t be better.”