Recently founded, Affinity Multi-Cultural Marketing is the sister company of the highly-successful Hispanic Direct Marketing company, Latin-Pak. Affinity's goal is to assist direct marketers in supplying advertising messages to highly-targeted Asians and African-Americans via alternative media. Says Vince Andaloro, "I established Affinity by applying the same targeting methodologies which made Latin-Pak successful. Our methods help to fill a void in distributing advertising messages to these ethnic groups." These methods include 1) FSI's inserted into Asian or African-American newspapers, 2) door hangers delivered to Asian or African-American neighborhoods, and 3) highly-targeted Asian or African-American mailing and telemarketing lists compiled by applying an ethnic encoding system. Please feel free to contact us for a media kit or samples. Contact KimDempsey, 800-625-4283 or 636-527-5420, Kim@AffinityMCM.com.

America's top Hispanic advertising agencies and media executives gathered at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies' (AHAA) conference September 6th-10th in New Orleans. The conference, ConCensus 2001, worked to build consensus on the social implications of the census, the pace of change in the Hispanic advertising industry and winning strategies for managing and growing an agency. ConCensus 2001 closed with the 3rd Advertising Age Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards gala. AHAA's Eduardo Caballero Lifetime Achievement Award - the Association's highest award - was presented during the conference to Joaquin Blaya, chairman of Radio Unica. A complete Web version of the awards is available at www.adage.com. The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies is the national organization of firms that specialize in marketing to the nation's 35.3 million Hispanic consumers, the most rapidly growing segment of the American population. AHAA promotes the strength of the Hispanic marketing and advertising industry to the private and public sectors. Contact Christine A. Mohr (202) 772-1094, cmohr@environics-usa.com.

SpGisele Simmons & Associates, Inc. provides clients with a classical marketing approach to the development and execution of strategically targeted marketing solutions, designed to provoke meaningful reaction from consumers, build brand equity and drive forward revenue growth. The principle, an expert in integrated marketing and promotion planning, leverages over 20 years experience in turning concepts into tactical plans. She has developed, implemented and analyzed programs in the packaged goods, health and beauty, food and spirits categories as well as for government service accounts. GSA utilizes core competencies in new business development, creative conceptualization, and partnership marketing to develop multicultural and cause related marketing programs for general marketing organizations such as The Post Cereal Division of Kraft Foods, Inc. and The Boys & Girls Clubs of America's national and local organizations. Gisele Simmons has shared her knowledge of Marketing to the Emerging Majority at the 2001 Las Vegas conference for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), is featured on their website and has provided commentary on this subject in the July 9, 2001 edition of Ad Age Magazine. Contact Gisele Simmons, President, Gisele Simmons & Associates, Inc., 845-362-5605, gsimmons@gisele-inc.com.

The festival drew over 30,000 visitors of all ethnicities and walks of life from all over Southern California. Sensational entertainers representing the great diversity of the Southland's Asian community ignited the audience by performing everything from Hip Hop and Rock to traditional cultural dances. Taiwanese pop star, Yuki Hsu, flew in from overseas to perform-attracting masses of young fans to the event, including a fan from Philadelphia! KSCI's on-air talent entertained the crowd with lively multi-lingual dialogue throughout the day. Over 100 booths offering everything from cultural items to business information kept shoppers busy throughout the day. Special thanks to major sponsors: Honda, McDonald's, Asiana Airlines, AT&T, Wells Fargo, ONDCP and Dr. Pepper. For more information on the Festival, log onto www.kscitv.com. KSCI-TV is the preeminent multi-language TV station serving Southern California providing news, sports, dramas and entertainment in 14 languages including Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Tagalog. Contact Jon Yasuda, President and CEO, 310-478-1818, jyasuda@kscitv.com.

Established to serve the Hispanic direct marketing arena in 1996, Latin-Pak's expertise has been utilized by numerous organizations, including many Fortune 500 companies. Latin-Pak specializes in delivering advertising messages to Hispanics via alternative direct marketing methods. These methods include 1) FSI's inserted into Hispanic newspapers, 2) door hangers delivered to Hispanic barrios, and 3) highly-targeted Hispanic mailing and telemarketing lists compiled by applying an ethnic encoding system. Says Vince Andaloro, founder and president of Latin-Pak, "Latinos want advertising information from organizations and our approach makes this happen through our unique, affordable distribution methods." Latin-Pak is a certified minority-owned business enterprise. Please feel free to contact us for a media kit or samples. Contact Kim Dempsey at 800-625-4283 or 636-527-5420 or Kim@latinpak.com.

L.E.L. Productions, a San Francisco based fashion distributor and design company, offers a wide variety of ethnic design services for apparel, postcards, and other products. Their main product is a line of men's neckwear called TribalTies, which uses designs that are based on tribal patterns from around the world. The mission of TribalTies is simply to say something positive about all the cultures and people that populate this earth and the differences we share as a people. As such, Tribal people and cultures - from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific - are all represented by TribalTies. Along with each necktie comes an attached card that describes something of interest about the tribe or tribal area that inspired the design. TribalTies are a great product for companies offering ethnic fashions and/or to attract a more diverse customer. The neckwear is available via their website (www.tribalties.com). Contact Laurence Ligon, 1-888-MY-TRIBE, (415) 587-2361.

Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc. has launched their Multicultural Marketing Resources Reference Library/Knowledge Center and Museum. The library serves as a resource for new and experienced marketers whose companies target the Hispanic, Asian American, African American, women, gay/lesbian and other cultural and lifestyle markets. The library houses basic demographic information on each market as well as relevant articles and information on best practices. Library members can access information on specific ethnic/cultural groups, Census and demographic information, studies on buying habits and buying power of specific groups and trends in multicultural marketing. In addition to a complimentary copy of "The Sourcebook of Multicultural Experts" and a year's subscription to "Multicultural Marketing News", library members receive a listing of the library's holdings, including books, studies, and articles covering every facet of multicultural marketing. To become a library member, contact Lisa Skriloff, 212-242-3351.

For nearly a decade, the Pepper Bird Foundation has been producing Pathways, the educational newspaper inserts offering a wealth of information on local multicultural history, events, and attractions. The publications are tailored to specific ethnic groups --- either the Native American, Hispanic, or African-American community is highlighted --- as well as specific locations around the country. In the past, Pathways has featured both states and metropolitan areas, including Georgia, Florida, Washington, DC and Norfolk, Virginia. Many of these informative publications make their way into the curriculums of school districts and churches throughout the country. These colorful publications provide in-depth historical and cultural information that is of interest to multicultural travelers, students of History, and those who just want more information about the region they live in. Underwriters of individual publications choose which ethnic group and region they wish to spotlight and when they want the publication to appear. This tax deductible contribution allows the underwriter full use of the 5 ¾" x 10" message space on the publication's back cover. Contact A. Bruce Williams, 757-622-6888, bwilliams@series2000.com.

Scarborough Research is the most comprehensive syndicated local market study available, providing demographic, shopping, lifestyle and media usage data for each of the 75 markets measured in 2001. With information on 70 retail categories in 75 local markets, Scarborough allows clients to evaluate the buying power of local markets, understand consumers' retail shopping behaviors and identify their best sponsorship and co-branding opportunities. It even provides keen insight into how to capture more Hispanic consumers by offering information about this niche market on both a local market and a national level. Scarborough methodology includes a telephone questionnaire, a product survey booklet and a TV diary. Data is collected year-round and delivered twice a year to subscribers. Each year Scarborough Research undergoes an extensive examination of its measured categories and brands to ensure that all the most up-to-date information is included in the survey and available to clients. Contact Carolyn S. Moses, Sr. Account Supervisor, Marketing Communications, 212-887-1334.

8th Annual Marketing to U S Hispanics and Latin America conference and workshops on Jan 28-29 in Miami Beach. High-powered industry keynotes from K-mart Corporation's SVP Multicultural Merchandizing and Danone Foods Latin America's President of the Dairy Division. AHAA President Elect and Managing Partner at Mendoza Dillon, Ingrid-Ortero Smart will deliver opening keynote. Four agency heads from Conhill Advertising, Publicis Sanchez & Levitan, Creatability, Ornaleas & Associates will discuss new business challenges and strategies to tap into new markets. Speakers from Toyota Motor Sales, Taco Bell, Sony Disco USA, Procter and Gamble, MCA Records, Cendant Corporation, AOL Time Warner, Latin America, Washinton Mutual. Session on cross promotions to create new partnerships and alliances has been created to help attendees find the right business partners. Practical and Result oriented workshops improving ROI through geographic intelligence and segmentation and combining online and offline research. Contact Rupa Ranganathan at rranganathan@srinstitute.com or visit http://www.srinstitute.com/cm367 Phone: 1-888-666-8514

The Cartel Group™, one of the nation's largest, independently owned and operated Hispanic marketing communications firm is projected to reach $100 million in annual capitalized billings by year end. Victoria Varela Hudson, CEO of The Cartel Group™, attributes the success of the firm to its groundbreaking New School™ approach and Cultural Juncture™ marketing model, which guarantee results for their clients. "This is a significant milestone for our company when you consider that of 25,000 advertising agencies in the country only 150 of them bill $100 million or more annually," said Hudson. The Cartel was selected as a champion of the advertising industry by Pat Summerall Productions and featured on Fox Cable News. The producer said The Cartel Group™ was chosen because it personifies determination, hard work and innovation. This year's growth for The Cartel Group™ is due, in part, to the recent addition of two new clients: Capital One, the sixth largest issuer of Visa and MasterCard credit cards, and Cricket, a fast-growing wireless service offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc. Contact Irma Calderón Woodruff, Executive Director, 210-892-0712, icalderon@thecartel.com.

Ketchum has announced the formation of Ketchum Vanguard Cultural Marketing, dedicated to helping clients succeed in reaching multicultural markets in the U.S. Ketchum Vanguard will assist clients in developing corporate marketing programs that build a positive reputation for a company's brand and successful strategies that increase product sales and market share. Based in New York, Esther Novak, founder and president of Vanguard Communications will oversee the new unit, which includes Ketchum's African American Markets Group, led by Betsy Helgager (Atlanta) and launched in 1998, as well as the recently established Hispanic Markets Group led by José Villaseñor (Dallas). Ketchum has traditionally taken a leading edge role in providing award-winning work and expertise on the dynamics and nuances of multicultural markets. In her new role as SVP/Director of Ketchum Vanguard, Novak will build on that tradition and develop a full service capability in multicultural marketing communications. Contact Robyn Massey, 646-935-3911, robyn.massey@ketchum.com.