Arnold Worldwide Integrates Multicultural, Mainstream Practices

Advertisers typically work with several agencies to connect with diverse demographics -- there's one to handle African-American, another focuses on Hispanic, and then there's the agency overseeing general market outreach. 

Now, Arnold Worldwide, which is part of Havas, is changing this long-standing model by announcing a new cross-cultural approach to eliminate the redundancies and silos associated with hiring both a General Market Agency and a Hispanic Agency.

Arnold's cross-cultural marketing services will be fully integrated into all of the agency’s functions -- marketing, strategy and creative. One team will develop programs that cross ethnic boundaries, while leveraging cultural insights that will be dialed up and down by channel.

This team will be led by Christopher Campos as managing director, growth strategies and development; Marco Castro, VP, director of operations; and Hugo Castillo VP, creative director. Campos, Castro and Castillo come to Arnold from Y&R Brands/Bravo, where they worked most recently as VP, managing director; director of integrated account operations; and creative director, respectively. 

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"We believe the conventional agency model of a general market agency leading strategy and creative and then handing off to a specialized agency is quickly becoming obsolete," says Campos. "Our decision to evolve the agency model to be integrated … allows for talent to be horizontally integrated across the organization to actively contribute to a client’s overall business, not just a portion of it."

The decision was based on the rapidly growing cultural and economic impact that U.S. Hispanics are having in America today. "Culture is trumping language, therefore, the dynamics of this new marketplace require an evolution to traditional agency models," says Campos.

"Today’s new mainstream consumer doesn’t live in silos — so the same philosophy applies to the way we’ve structured the agency. We have created a completely integrated offering that strategizes and creates powerful creative solutions together — from the start. We believe this approach will fuel the insights and the creative that will help drive growth for our clients. At Arnold, we are not doing 'Multicultural Marketing' per se — we are simply marketing to today’s (new) mainstream consumer."

In the past Arnold's parent company Havas has struggled to find an effective solution to reach multicultural consumers. In 2011, Havas launched Totality, a multicultural-marketing agency devoted to representing the nation's ethnic and niche consumers, specializing with Hispanic, African-American and LGBT communities. All agencies in the Havas network, including Arnold Worldwide, Euro RSCG and MPG were meant to work together to create one integrated offering for multicultural clients. Then, in June 2012, Havas shuttered the agency after it struggled to attract clients.

The new setup is likely to not only benefit clients, but to help attract the next generation of creatives, Campos contends. "The younger Hispanic generation seeks a work environment that reflects their lifestyle. For advertising, they want a place where they can actively contribute to a client’s overall business, while also having the opportunity to leverage their cultural background to complement the offering. Our model is designed to offer these opportunities."

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