Who will win the 2015 Pinnacle Awards? Find out at the gala event May 21.

By Tricia Cruz, founder of Vamos! 

As a new business in the marketing field and one that had never before submitted an entry for a Pinnacle Award, it took quite a bit of time to put together this winning submission. As the founder of Vamos! (LET’S GO!), a bilingual consultancy, I carefully analyzed every element of our campaign, how it impacted our targeted audience and its uniqueness, especially compared to other campaigns. I firmly believed that in order to be a strong competitor, this entry had to stand out among the competition. Based on my experience as a former TV reporter and news writer in markets of all sizes (Miami, New York City, Binghamton, Rochester and Buffalo) and my transition to PR and marketing, I chose the implementation and execution of a full dual-language campaign as the unique aspect.

The Irving 4 Judge Campaign (for Monroe County Court Judge) was essentially two campaigns within one, and it was certainly no easy task to run two campaigns with the same amount of money that would normally be available for only one. We had to connect with audiences in both English and Spanish. Since we knew we would be limited by funding when we launched the campaign, we went at it from a grassroots approach. To this day, word of mouth remains the most powerful marketing tool, and that would be our focus. We recruited bilingual volunteers who had the ability to campaign for Paul Irving in two languages. We were able to reach multiple audiences through neighborhood canvassing, attending events, phone calls, emails and on social media. Every piece of marketing collateral was in both languages, which included but was not limited to TV and radio ads, t-shirts and name tags.

A win was obviously the desired outcome for this campaign, but we also focused on establishing other important goals that were to extend beyond Election Day such as: voter education, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds for a common cause, and establishing relationships for collaboration on future projects.

In the end, Paul Irving lost by 1,600 votes—a devastating loss to everyone involved on the campaign. On campaigns like this, you come to realize that sometimes no matter how hard you work or how creative your team may be, there are no guarantees you will claim a victory. Nevertheless, there were many elements that made this project a successful one. In addition to the goals mentioned above, the execution of a full dual-language campaign of any kind and of this magnitude isn’t something we see in Monroe County.

The Latino community in Monroe County has 63,000 residents. Studies show that Latinos are the most brand loyal consumer base in the country. The opportunities for businesses and organizations are quite abundant, but business and community leaders must be genuine in their efforts and understand the differences among consumers in this community compared to others.

When Vamos! was established in July of 2012, the mission was two-fold: promote the good work taking place in the Latino community while developing new business partnerships between Latino and non-Latino professionals. My role has now expanded. In addition to serving as a freelance consultant through Vamos! in a separate role, I am also the director of development and communications at the Ibero-American Action League in Rochester. Ibero is the only dual-language nonprofit in Monroe County and the largest Latino human services agency in New York State outside of New York City. Many of the successful strategies used by Vamos (www.vamospublicrelations.com) are now being implemented at Ibero and showing great results in a short amount of time. You are invited to learn more about Ibero and its work in the community by visiting www.iaal.org