Baltimore-based Vertis Communications to launch direct-mail campaign

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Sep 26, 2006 by Louis Llovio

Mega-marketing firm Vertis Communications Inc. said it plans to launch a direct-mail campaign aimed at the $600 billion-a-year-and- growing Hispanic market.

The Baltimore-based company said it will start with a 12-page glossy advertising-only book to be mailed to 2.1 million Hispanic households across the country during the Thanksgiving weekend. Future books will be sent on other holidays, including Christmas, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and Mexican Independence Day.

Vertis, which has 100 offices nationwide, said it will seek to include both local and national advertisers in the campaign.

Mailings will include coupons from advertisers, trackable personalized barcodes to verify response and retail logos displayed on the envelope flap.

"The mailing will feature distinct companies, retailers and grocers," said Grace Platon, Vertis' director of communications. "But this product is going to be very useful to financial institutions and insurance companies."

Vertis said banks and insurance companies will be able to offer programs targeted for specific customers and markets.

The company has hired a team of Hispanic marketing experts to tailor advertiser messages.

Vertis said the company has already enlisted advertisers, but that it would not release their names until results of the first mailer come in.

Since Hispanics come from a wide range of countries that don't necessarily celebrate the same holidays, Platon said the number of mailings could increase - depending on customer response and need.

Platon said the mailings will be sent in both English and Spanish, depending on the demographic groups specifically targeted.

Advertising directly to Hispanics can't come soon enough, said Jorge Ribas, president and CEO of the Greater Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"Hispanics have been left behind, there's no doubt about it," Ribas said.

Ribas is also president of Ribas and Associates, a Laytonville information technology, management and health and life science research consulting firm.

He said he believes that by sheer numbers alone, Hispanics in the United States can become a major force for any company that is able to harness the power of the Hispanic consumer.

A 2004 report by the Selig Center for Economic Growth found that in sheer dollar power, Hispanics' economic clout will rise to $992 billion in 2009, up 341.7 percent from 1990.

Another report found that Hispanics are not afraid to use their new-found prosperity.

The reason for this, Ribas said is "because if we [Hispanics] like something, we tend to react to it."

And, while most people cringe when they receive advertisements in the mail, nearly half, 42 percent, of Hispanics said they received "just the right amount" of advertising mail and that they wouldn't mind receiving more.

But Ribas cautions that as good as the Hispanic customer is, advertisers hoping to tap into the market need to understand that not all Hispanic cultures are the same.

"We have a diversity in styles," he said. "One size doesn't fit all."

That tendency to lump all Hispanics together is part of the reason the market hasn't been properly tapped into, Ribas said.

Franklin Rios, Vertis' vice president of multicultural sales, said the company has addressed that concern by being flexible enough to breach the wide gulf of the Hispanic community, which can vary with immigrants from as many as 15 countries.

"Vertis Communications' Hispanic marketing experts can effectively tailor a retailer's message and unique design to enable a culturally relevant connection with Hispanic consumers," Rios said.