Newport Ad Firm Gets Kraft Assignment for Hispanic TV

Mendoza, Dillon & Associates has been selected by Kraft General Foods Inc. to buy all of its advertising time on Hispanic television in the United States, beginning Jan. 1.

The size of the Hispanic television budget was not disclosed. Andres Sullivan, executive vice president and executive creative director for Mendoza, Dillon, said the company expects to be able to handle the larger workload without doing much new hiring.

The 16-year-old agency is the largest Hispanic-owned advertising agency in the United States, with 67 employees and offices in Newport Beach and Chicago.

Sullivan said the company also does creative work on various Kraft campaigns. The media buying assignment goes to a specialized group that plans the times a client’s product ads should run, the cities in which they should air and the television stations on which to buy the time.

Kraft, the international food business of Philip Morris Cos. Inc., said Hispanic television advertising has been split between Mendoza, Dillon and New York-based Bravo Group.