9737: Ida Chacon Says Adios To P&G.

From Advertising Age…

P&G Multicultural Exec Ida Chacon Joins Latinum

As VP-Marketing at Hispanic Business Network, She’ll Help Marketers Grow in Latino Market

By Laurel Wentz

A well-known Procter & Gamble multicultural executive, Ida Chacon, is joining the Latinum Network in the newly created role of VP-marketing and commercial solutions. Ms. Chacon was P&G’s multicultural marketing capabilities manager, working with the marketer to develop its ethnic strategy, manage relationships with U.S. Hispanic agencies, and consult on Hispanic efforts for individual brands.

Latinum is a business network that helps marketing executives understand and take advantage of the U.S. Hispanic market through research, analysis and collaboration. About 85 companies, including P&G, have joined so far.

“Ida will be responsible for three things,” said David Wellisch, Latinum’s founder. “We generate a lot of insights and strategies, and then work individually with our [member] companies to make sure they get incremental ROI. That’s not that different from what she was doing at P&G.”

Ms. Chacon will also help facilitate member companies’ sharing best practices, Mr. Wellisch said. In addition, she’ll assist companies in finding the right partners for commercial collaborations, in which two marketers team up on an initiative in order to “decrease costs and increase ROI,” he said.

Ms. Chacon spent 13 years at Procter & Gamble, the biggest U.S. Hispanic advertiser. The marketer used to have a separate U.S. Hispanic business unit, based in Puerto Rico, but made a major shift a few years ago to disband the unit and put more of the responsibility for Hispanic marketing at the individual brand level, with advice and guidance from a Center of Expertise.

Because P&G invests so much money in so many brands in the U.S. Hispanic market, its multicultural executives are highly regarded. Graciela Eleta, who headed P&G’s U.S. Hispanic efforts for many years and left the company in 2007, was snapped up by Univision Communications. Ms. Eleta has been Univision’s SVP-brand solutions for four years, helping the Spanish-language media group to attract more advertisers to the U.S. Hispanic market.

P&G’s multicultural efforts are led by Alexandra “Alita” Vegas, director of multicultural business development for North America since December 2009. Ms. Vegas joined P&G in her native Venezuela in 1994. Before taking the U.S. Hispanic role two years ago, she was managing director-hair care in Greater China.