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Nissan Picks Dieste Harmel & Partners for Multicultural Work
September 29, 2008
By Della de Lafuente
NEW YORK Nissan North America has named Omnicom Group's Hispanic shop Dieste Harmel & Partners, Dallas, as its lead agency to handle the multicultural marketing business for its Nissan and Infiniti brands following a review, sources confirmed today (Sept. 29).
The client's Nissan and Infiniti brands spend a combined $1 billion annually in domestic measured media, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Nissan spent close to $35 million in 2007 for domestic Hispanic TV alone.
Duties are said to include creative, media planning and buying for the U.S. Hispanic, African American and Asian American markets, per sources, with Nissan joining a roster of clients that includes: AT&T, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Southwest Airlines, among others.
The automaker put the multicultural business in play in early March, hiring Chicago-based consultancy Jones Lundin Beals to manage a review that would "maximize synergies and efficiencies," in effect, combining Nissan's ethnic-targeted marketing initiatives under one lead agency.
Finalists are said to have included Hispanic shops Lopez Negrete Communications, Houston, and incumbent, Marca Hispanic, Coconut Grove, Fla., which previously handled Hispanic duties for Infiniti.
Lopez Negrete confirmed via an agency representative that it teamed up with Asian shop AAAZa, Los Angeles, and African American shop, E. Morris Communications, Chicago, for the multicultural pitch.
Incumbents responsible for existing multicultural duties were invited to participate in the review. In addition to Marca Hispanic, shops handling ethnic-targeted duties included: Vidal Partnership, New York, (Hispanic duties for Nissan); and the True Agency, Los Angeles, (African-American duties on Nissan and Infiniti), the client said in March.
For Vidal, the account loss ends a year-long string of new business wins that has included Royal Caribbean International, as part of WPP Group's integrated "teamRoyal;" Johnson & Johnson, named along with La Comunidad, Miami, to handle the company's Hispanic account and J.C. Penney's Hispanic duties, business previously held by Dieste.
Vidal had held Nissan's Hispanic business since 2004 and Marca Hispanic had served as Infiniti's Hispanic shop since 2005.
Client and agency executives either did not return calls or declined comment.
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