Hispanic Shop LatinWorks Wins AOR for Texas Lottery Account
As the Multicultural Population Becomes the Majority in More States, Is This a Sign of Things To Come?
By Laurel Wentz
As more of the population in America’s most multicultural states is increasingly non-white, future pitches may be geared toward reaching a market that is no longer divided between the general market and a minority population of different ethnicities.
In Texas, where 57% of the population is already multicultural, and mostly Hispanic, the Texas Lottery is awarding its entire account to Austin-based LatinWorks, which previously handled the Hispanic portion. The business is believed to be worth about $30 million.
When the Texas Lottery holds state-mandated agency reviews, agencies can pitch for pieces of the account, or as a group for the whole business. In the pitch just ended, LatinWorks pitched for the whole account with the support of small digital and media agencies.
More traditionally, incumbent TracyLocke is believed to have teamed up with Hispanic agency Lopez Negrete Communications and urban shop Sanders Wingo for the African-American portion.
“The other agencies came at it from a general-market angle and partnered with different multicultural agencies, with African-American experts and Hispanic experts,” said Christian Filli, LatinWorks’ VP of strategic planning. “We took a different approach. We have a different model, where we own the consumer insights, and rely on partners for different disciplines.”
As the winner, LatinWorks will be the lead agency, and work with Springbox to grow Texas Lottery’s digital presence, and the David Group to support LatinWorks’ in-house media planners.
“In certain markets like Texas where Hispanics are the majority, it makes sense that an agency with an understanding of that target across all levels of assimilation will be well positioned,” said Alejandro Ruelas, managing marketing and the agency’s CMO.
In Texas, for instance, the shift is accelerating, with more than 60% of the state’s population projected to be multicultural by 2016, Mr. Filli said.
In deciding to go for the whole account, rather than just the Hispanic portion, “It wasn’t from a place of ambition or arrogance, but understanding that’s where the state is going,” said Sergio Alcocer, LatinWorks’ president and chief creative officer.
He said the agency has handled non-Hispanic work before for clients such as Mars’ Skittles candy and Anheuser-Busch, but always on a project basis rather than as the agency of record.
“Our objective is not to be a general-market agency,” Mr. Alcocer said. “What we want is to bring the multicultural phenomenon to the mainstream in categories where it makes sense to lead with multicultural because that’s where the business opportunity is. It’s a formula of the past that only the general market can lead.”
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