In progress …

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2003 by Haydee Vicedo

Ivette Rodríguez
American Entertainment Marketing
Founder/Owner

Quick Facts:

Name: Ivette Rodríguez

* Goal: For AEM to produce movies and television shows

* Ivette is also a budding screenwriter and has written a script for a pilot

* Ivette used to do club promotions when she was 15; actually promoted Madonna before Madonna "made it."

* She has two beautiful daughters, ages 5 years old and two months old.

For more information on Ivette Rodríguez and American Entertainment Marketing, please call 310-306-0810.

The state of current world affairs, juggling acts with career and home, and the never-ending saga of life's uncertainties sometimes necessitates a nice break from reality. That's usually where movies and television come in; where romantic comedies and suspenseful endings give us a much-needed pause from ah ever-changing world. If someone asked you to name a list of movies that have pleasantly surprised you in the last two years, chances are you'd be proud to name certain Latín films that have suddenly found their way into the hearts of a mainstream audience. The films Amorres Perros, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Piñero, Real Women Have Curves, and Frida were all critically acclaimed works that brought the mystique of Latín cinema into another level of popularity in the U.S. Behind the recognition of these movies is a woman whose hard work has helped put such films on the map. With expertise at making a marketing campaign seem like a planned work of art, Ivette Rodríguez and her company American Entertainment Marketing, raises the bar on how to use the power of media.

American Entertainment Marketing (AEM)is a full-service marketing, advertising, publicity and promotions agency specializing in the Latin market. The company handles marketing, public relations, publicity, media planning, promotions and corporate sponsorships for film, music and personalities. Rodriguez founded AEM six years ago after more than fifteen years of working in every aspect of the entertainment industry. Prior to starting AEM, Ivette was the former Vice President of Marketing and Publicity at Artisan Entertainment. Before that, she was head of West Coast Publicity at Artisan Entertainment. She started her illustrious career in the entertainment field with an internship at Arista Records in the beginning of her college career. When she was offered a job assisting the Director of Marketing, she decided to make the real world her own personal secondary education.

"I always knew entertainment was for me" so I like saying that I went to Arista for college." While at Arista, Rodríguez was thrown into the mix of helping promote a new pop chanteuse named Whitney Houston, and as Houston's career skyrocketed, Ivette's own career fast-forwarded in the background.

"I would work 'til midnight; I wasn't afraid to work. I loved what I was doing." Soon she was orchestrating premieres, press junkets and publicity tours for actors Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfiefer and Jack Nicholson. Her marked expertise was well known in the industry and amid all the success, she was still only one of a very few Latinas in the executive meetings, something she was well aware of. While at Artisan, although doing a tremendous job in her position as Vice-President, she realized that she had to follow a path she always thought about pursuing. "I've always wanted to do something in the Latin world; that's where my passion is. I realized that the movie executives weren't really paying attention to this (Latin market) and so I should."

Today, AEM is growing exponentially, helping the Latin community reach out to its own in a whole different light. Ivette Rodriguez helped us imagine that Benjamin Bratt was really Piñero in last year's critic-favorite biography of the famous poet/writer. She and her American Entertainment team helped keep the buzz loud and clear for Real Women Have Curves way after its success at Sundance Film Festival. She is helping make sure the movies we crave for in our own little "getaways" receive the proper form of promotional pampering they require. Throughout it all, this Puerto-Rican born success story gives no-nonsense advice about how to make it big in this industry: "You have to have work ethic. I never felt like no one owed me anything; if I wanted something I had to go after it." Spoken like a true woman in progress.