Milestones
Our Projects
Our specialty at Santa Fe Communications Group is taking a project from the earliest point in its creation to the height of its potential. By injecting a project with community events and in-store components, we can develop powerful franchises that serve as vehicles for participating sponsors. Santa Fe Communications Group is proud to showcase our accomplished milestones. As always, we welcome all inquiries and suggestions for the development of tailor-made marketing vehicles for the Hispanic community in the United States, México, and Latin America.
LA GOTA DE LA VIDA
Research showed that Latinos are the 3rd largest community to suffer from cancer, yet they are the least likely to participate in the bone marrow registry program. It was crucial to connect with our local Hispanic communities to raise awareness of this issue. The La Gota de la Vida campaign was created as a collaboration of many minds from a variety of industries, all working together to create a healthier Hispanic community. The campaign was made up of a song, a music video, a “Making of” DVD, and festivals nationwide. La Gota de la Vida raised over $2 million for City of Hope and registered thousands of Hispanic donors.
Through our efforts, the percentage of Hispanic donors in the national bone marrow database has risen from less than 2% to 10%. Tens of thousands of radio and television public service announcements have occurred nation-wide, educating the public. And as a result, Latinos facing such difficult issues as diabetes and cancer are receiving the care and attention they need. The campaign is partnered with City of Hope, a Los Angeles-based hospital which remains at the forefront of research, treatment, and education of these issues. City of Hope is an independent biomedical research institution, leader in the fight to conquer cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and other life-threatening diseases. La Gota de la Vida began with a song recorded by some of the top Hispanic recording artists of our time. This song became the anthem for La Gota de la Vida delivering millions of impressions to the Hispanic community. As part of the promotion of the song, artists traveled across the nation to appear in festivals, concerts, and events that draw in consumers and potential donors.
Al éXITO TV
Recognizing that the fastest-growing minority group in the country has astonishing purchasing power, our clients wanted to develop a mass media Hispanic marketing campaign. The elements included weekly television and radio media, in-store support, and program sponsors. The clients needed a dedicated resource with a specialized skill set to ensure that the plan is carried out on time and within the allotted budget. Santa Fe Communications Group offered a self-produced and branded television variety program to operate as the communications medium. The program worked in conjunction with specially designed in-store events and collaterals that support the brand message, product placement, and talent endorsement seen on the show. Caminos was a turnkey solution that presented an opportunity for the client to access non-traditional resources to partner in the project. To date, more than 100 one-hour television episodes have been broadcast, each containing four or more sponsored segments that feature top entertainment talent. Weekly drive-to-retail, in-store programs supported the program. A review of the first year’s results indicated that more than 1.5 million new incremental transactions were made at participating retail locations.
eL pREMIO DE LA GENTE
There was a need to create a multi-media marketing program that allowed for key sponsors (national and local) to benefit from the combined power of today’s biggest music stars and their fans who will vote for them in retail promotions. Santa Fe Communications Group invested in and co-developed the first people’s choice music awards for the U.S. Hispanic marketplace. Piloted in Southern California, the program promoted in-store consumer voting for a list of nominees from the Hispanic music entertainment field and hosted a live, red carpet awards ceremony attended by participating consumers. Santa Fe Communications Group secured the presenting sponsor for the project. In the first year, consumers returned 75,000 of 300,000 available ballots (a 25 percent response, verified by an independent accounting firm) and a national Hispanic network aired the special program to measurable ratings in October and on New Year’s Eve. In its third year the program was expanded to the ten U.S. cities with the largest Hispanic populations, the show was broadcast at the network level, the campaign was expanded to internet voting, and achieved a 24 percent response with the return of more than 300,000 in-store ballots.
cAMINOS AL ÉXITO
A leading national research institution and nonprofit organization needed an outreach platform to educate Hispanics about a serious problem facing the Latino community. Santa Fe Communications Group leveraged its client and business network to develop a market-wide program in Southern California that included the participation of every major chain and independent grocer in the area. The program promoted donor awareness by providing free health and personal success opportunities to the public through integrated marketing communication strategies — mass media, in-store collaterals, community events, health expos, and large-scale entertainment — all in support of the cause. During its seven years of operation, the program delivered millions of media impressions promoting donor awareness, and free personal health and wellness opportunities to the Hispanic community. In addition, the program collected millions of dollars in charitable contributions for the client’s nonprofit cause, and recognized hundreds of personal and community success stories among Latinos
aZTEPACÁ
Santa Fe Communications Group joined forces with the Azteca América TV network for the creation of Aztepacá as an evolution from the remarkably successful Al Exito con Food 4 Less TV platform in Los Angeles. To crown the hosting position of this new TV series the program was joined by “El Cucuy,” the #1 radio Spanish-Language radio host in the nation and #1 in ratings in the USA across all languages. Aztepacá, became the most inspiring and enthralling series adopting the format successfully implemented by North American networks in late night television. The program was broadcast nationwide by Azteca America, the fastest growing Spanish-language broadcasting network in the United States at the time. The network covered over 89% of the Hispanic television audience in the United States throughout 63 own and operated and affiliated markets.
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
There are thousands of state legislators, mayors, councilmembers, and judges; and another exceptionally large group of state governors, attorneys general, secretaries of state, and treasurers, in additional to the well-known national candidacies. Most elections to fill these offices in the US feature some form of campaign. There are also issue-oriented initiatives or referenda which require campaigns of their own. Although Santa Fe Communications Group has been extraordinarily successful in coordinating several political campaign efforts, we prefer not to spend our energy trying to search for personalities or issues just because they can win. Instead, we gravitate towards supporting candidates and topics that we are passionate about, and where the winning opportunities will benefit our Hispanic community regardless of party affiliation.
Very recently Santa Fe Communications Group designed, produced, and managed all aspects of a Digital Marketing political campaign for Team El Monte, a group of local Latino candidates competing for several public offices in Southern California under one campaign banner. When the votes were finally tallied, all the candidates that fully participated in our campaign were newly elected or reelected including the City Mayor, City Treasurer, Clerk, Councilmembers, and several candidates to Boards of Education
Partner Harry Abraham-Castillo recently managed a Census awareness Digital Marketing Campaign for Emerald Wave Media and Kern County in California. This effort resulted in more than 3.5 Million ads generating an audience engagement rate of more than twice the national average for an effort of this kind.
Through our Angels of Hope project, Santa Fe Communications Group participated in the successful campaigns of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles and the campaign of Gil Cedillo for the California State Senate. Santa Fe Communications Group vigorously promoted campaigns within the Hispanic community for several State Congress and State Senate Candidates of the Democratic party in California, including campaigning for the former Lieutenant Governor of California, Cruz Bustamante.
We have also been members of several Latino political organizations on the other side of the isle, dedicated to elevating the prominence of Hispanic candidates within the Republican party. One of those candidates is Abel O. Maldonado Jr., who served as the 48th Lieutenant Governor of California.
lAS pOSADAS
The client needed a culturally relevant Christmas in-store promotional program that conveyed appreciation to its customers and promoted holiday sales. The program encompassed twelve stores in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fresno, and El Centro, and was executed two weeks prior to Christmas Eve. Santa Fe Communications Group designed a program based on Latin American home traditions and scaled it to be staged as special 4-hour events held in store parking lots at strategic geographic locations. Each event included a mobile stage with live entertainment, participation of the local church, a fund-raiser for the local school, and a gift raffle. The events drew thousands of participants from the communities surrounding the stores and drove incremental sales through the holiday period via the use of bounce-back coupons distributed to attendees. The clients retained and expanded this successful program for six years.
LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE
Santa Fe Communications Group was given ten thousand tickets to promote a special event that took place four days away. The remaining sixty thousand tickets were only available through local churches, and most of them had already been taken. Santa Fe Communications Group had to decide how best to utilize the tickets it has received while making sure they are all distributed prior to the event. Santa Fe Communications Group contacted a retail client and proposed that it utilize its media and in-store capabilities to promote a store giveaway of the tickets one day prior to the event. The client promoted the tickets in ten of its stores, and the tickets were all gone in a matter of hours. The client was named as a sponsor on the front page of the Los Angeles Times — the only organization other than a church that was able to offer tickets.
RETAILER LOYALTY CARD
Having failed to sign up Hispanic customers for its store savings card as was originally hoped, the client asked Santa Fe Communications Group to assess the situation and provide potential solutions. Santa Fe Communications Group sent its marketing team to observe the in-store promotion of the card and to obtain customer feedback on the process. Results indicated that the client was taking an impersonal approach to educating consumers and promoting the card. Santa Fe Communications Group implemented a complete marketing strategy that included creating attractive incentives, educating consumers about the benefits associated with the client’s product, and building an effective platform for continued loyalty. Within a period of four weeks, the strategy resulted in the sign-up of 6,000 new customers, approximately 75 percent of Hispanic origin, within a targeted group of participating stores located in high-density Hispanic neighborhoods.
SÁBADOS ALEGRES
The client is a major grocery chain that recognized the importance of the Hispanic market segment and needed a focused marketing strategy to increase incremental traffic at the store level. The strategy needed to define the segment’s different cultural needs and convey the right message to Hispanic consumers. The client opted for addressing the challenge in-house and requested that Santa Fe Communications Group supported its marketing team. Santa Fe Communications Group assigned dedicated resources to work with the client’s team, reviewing strategies, developing promotional initiatives, and executing in-store programs. In addition, Santa Fe Communications Group utilized its business relationships with specific brands to create support and raise funding for the client’s Hispanic platforms. Within six weeks, the team developed a weekly in-store program that was executed by a Santa Fe Communications Group marketing team. The program increased customer count to targeted Hispanic stores by an average of 15,000 customers per week. The program was successful and remained part of the client’s Hispanic platform for two years. Six additional Hispanic programs with drive-to-retail components were developed and executed over a period of three and a half years.