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Ingrid Otero-Smart is a firm believer in luck, even if the Hispanic advertising executive’s career has had a little more to do with good timing.

The devoted mom got her start filling in for an advertising coordinator who went on maternity leave in Otero-Smart’s native Puerto Rico.

Otero-Smart, who had hoped to go into journalism, was hooked.

“I think it was just luck,” she said.

Otero-Smart’s latest break: In August, she started as chief executive of Costa Mesa-based Casanova Pendrill Inc., a unit of New York-based Interpublic Group of Cos. that’s the top Hispanic ad agency in Orange County and the 10th largest of any type here, according to the Business Journal’s March list.

Casanova Pendrill’s yearly capitalized billings, a measure of revenue for ad agencies, are estimated at about $60 million. Clients include Nestl & #233; SA, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and General Mills Inc.

Otero-Smart’s first boss at McCann Erickson Advertising Ltd. in Puerto Rico brought the Casanova job to her attention, she said.

“You know when things are meant to be,” Otero-Smart said.

The move marks Otero-Smart’s return to the OC business world. From 1987 to 2005, she was with WPP Group PLC’s Hispanic agency Mendoza Dillon & Asociados Inc. in Irvine, in a variety of roles including president and chief operating officer.

Otero-Smart never moved from OC but went on to become president of Santa Monica’s Anita Santiago Advertising Inc. after Mendoza Dillion was combined with WPP’s New York-based Mosaica in 2005.






Casanova ad for Microsoft’s Xbox: “There is a digital divide, but Latinos are closing it faster than any other group,” Otero-Smart says

“There is no place like Orange County to live,” she said. “So I did my three-hour commute every day. I bought a Prius, though, and that helped.”

Otero-Smart is seen as one of the top Latinas in advertising. She twice made Hispanic Business magazine’s list of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the country. She’s a past president and current director of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, a trade group based in McLean, Va.

At Casanova, Otero-Smart oversees daily operations. She took over for former chief executive Dan Nance, who now is chairman.

Nance is working on relations with Casanova parent Interpublic, the third-largest ad agency after New York-based Omnicom Group Inc. and London’s WPP.

Otero-Smart is getting familiar with Casanova’s clients, which also include Crown Imports Co., the Army and the California State Lottery Commission.

She said she’s spent part of the past month getting to know her team and figuring out how Casanova works.

Otero-Smart has visited Nestl & #233; and other big clients, she said. She’s also called upon Interpublic and met with Casanova’s New York office.

“We have 20 people in New York and its important for them to feel like they’re part of this big organization,” she said.

The biggest difference between Casanova and Otero-Smart’s old shop is size, she said. Santiago was a 20-person, independent agency. Casanova has nearly 100 people and is part of one of the industry’s biggest names.

Otero-Smart said she feels she has a good handle on Casanova: The agency, like others, is riding a wave driven by companies seeking to connect with the nation’s growing Hispanic population.

“Hispanic agencies in general, and Casanova in particular, have done a really good job of evolving with the market,” she said.

Hispanic advertising is holding up in the slow economy, even though general marketing has taken a hit as companies cut spending. Hispanic ads continue to grow as the segment goes from niche to mainstream.

“In an environment where all marketing dollars have been stagnant or in some cases declining, Hispanic continues to grow,” she said.

When Otero-Smart started 20-plus years ago, Hispanic marketing consisted of a single TV ad in Spanish that might repeat for three months, she said.

Since then, the segment has grown to include prime time TV spots that mix Spanish and English, magazine ads, billboards and, more recently, the Internet.

“There is a digital divide, but Latinos are closing it faster than any other group,” Otero-Smart said.


Same Trends

The same trends driving mainstream advertising are impacting the Hispanic segment, according to Otero-Smart. They include using targeted marketing, tracking customers with software and Internet marketing.

Every marketing plan Casanova comes up with includes some sort of Internet marketing, she said.

The challenge for Casanova and other Hispanic agencies is in targeting their ads, according to Otero-Smart.

The agency has to figure out if a client wants to reach recent immigrants in Spanish or U.S.-born Hispanics who prefer to deal in English but with a message that speaks to their cultural heritage, she said.

Her biggest challenge: “recruiting qualified bilingual, bicultural individuals to staff up as fast as we need to staff up,” she said.

Otero-Smart grew up speaking Spanish and English in Puerto Rico.

“The client just doesn’t look at me and say, ‘Oh yeah, she’s Latina and she understands,'” Otero-Smart said. “They say, ‘She’s Latina, understands this market and surrounds herself with good, strong, talented people.'”

Clients demand a lot, she said. Casanova is expected to study a client’s business, competitors and come up with new ways to reach consumers, according to Otero-Smart.

“Clients want more than an agency,” she said.

Casanova looks at increases in brand awareness and sales to determine how its marketing is working, Otero-Smart said.

In that sense, Hispanic marketing is no different than mainstream advertising, she said. But the budgets aren’t as big, even if the expectations are high.

“Hispanic marketing is like Ginger Rogers to Fred Astaire, where she had to do everything he did, but backwards and in high heels,” Otero-Smart said.

Joining Casanova has brought a shift in Otero-Smart’s daily routine. A single mom, she starts her days taking her son to school by 8 a.m. and gets in the office about 20 minutes later.

Before, she’d drop her son off and then spend an hour and half driving to Santa Monica. She said she would work from her Prius calling clients and scheduling meetings.

“Now I don’t have time to call anyone,” Otero-Smart said of her shorter commute.

Running an agency means being part of the whole process, said Otero-Smart, who calls herself more of a manager than a creative type.

Early on at McCann Erickson in Puerto Rico, creative types were separated behind a glass door where visitors had to be buzzed in, she said. Those days are gone.

“This is a team job, not an individual job,” Otero-Smart said.

This week, Otero-Smart is back in Puerto Rico for the first time in about eight years. She’s speaking at a forum for women in leadership.

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