O'Brien (PRWeek): Are there a lot of similarities in LGBT outreach among the various multicultural spaces?
Rodriguez-Gutzmer (Ketchum): It's probably the one [market] that has the most crossover because you find it in every single ethnic group.
Santos (Delta): They still maintain their cultural influences and characteristics, obviously. For example, Delta last year we sponsored the Gay Soccer World Cup in Buenos Aires. It spans the world and you need to adapt and see what countries it is going to be OK and what countries it's not going to be OK.
Toro (Fleishman): And then you're establishing a relationship with the community that then their loyalty will be shifted to the brand.
O'Brien (PRWeek): Let's take a look at that Absolut ad in Mexico and the percentage of the US population that is very against illegal immigration and some that are against immigration in general. What should companies do? Should they have crisis communications involved? How should they react to people who, because of their perception, are threatened by immigration numbers?
Brown (Lagrant): As a company, anything that is a political hot button, you have to know that. If you want to be a company like Absolut and take those types of chances and risks, you have to have some kind of crisis communications planned. As a country, we're not ready for that discussion [of immigration]. We're not open to that just yet. I think that any company that takes that route has to be prepared for some type of backlash because that is something that people are really struggling with is how to balance the whole immigration debate. If it's good, bad, or ugly, people are still struggling with that.
Ernest (Images USA): If our marketing efforts are targeted toward Hispanics or African Americans, and that marketing is within those communities, that's one thing. If we create multicultural marketing tools that go out to general market, I'm wondering if that would cause a backlash. In other words, if Delta does Hispanic marketing in Hispanic publications or media, that's one thing. But if Delta does the same thing in general market media, will that cause a backlash?
Swygert (American Cancer Society): And sometimes mainstream media is plain old the best way to reach some markets. We've done some targeting to older, African-American women and the African-American specific media tend to skew a little bit younger than what our target is. Sometimes advertising in O Magazine or being on the Oprah Winfrey Show is really the best way, from a numbers perspective, to reach that market.
Brown (Lagrant): I agree with you, Amy. I think the key is making sure the information is culturally relevant and culturally sensitive. Particularly when you're targeting African-Americans, there is not language issue, which we always hear from the companies, "There's not language issue, so we can target you with the general market." At the same time, if you're not speaking to me in a way that I can understand how you're trying to deliver your product, then we miss it.
O'Brien (PRWeek): Looking at staffing, what sort of interests do you see from students of all different races and backgrounds in working in public relations, specifically working in multicultural positions?
Rodriguez-Gutzmer (Ketchum): Ketchum has really interesting internship program and these students are so happy to learn. They have to be leaders to be good in school, get good marks, get into college, and all of that. But then they join an agency and they are asked to be followers and not leaders anymore. That's one thing that we have to as agents realize that and give them opportunities to grow and continue that leadership role that they have.
Beatty-Gonzalez (American Heart Association): We've had a collaborative relationship with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and we've gotten interns with HACU for the last couple of years, across all of our different departments and it's been very successful.
Brown (Lagrant): Often companies leave students in the multicultural space because they believe that is all they can do and they don't give them opportunities to advance, to do general market, to do anything else. And I think that's where a lot of people get frustrated because they feel like all I'm going to do is be is stuck in doing African-American or Hispanic or Asian-American [marketing]. If that's someone's passion, they're going to be happy with that. Someone might have started off with that because that was their entrée into the field, but as they continue to grow and get more skills, now they want to venture out, now they want to be able to do general market. And sometimes companies don't let them do that.
George Billingsley (Coca-Cola): I think that students are interested in [the multicultural space] and they're trying to find entrees into companies, because all companies don't have a multicultural space in it. But, to Keisha's point, there's also looking at the total practitioner and not just putting that person in that space and letting them get pigeon-holed. But letting them also explore other opportunities within the company to be able to move around.