Adlatina’s Planner of the Week brought last week an interesting interview with Anna Domingo, a spanish strategist now in front of the planning department of The Farm in Madrid, agency that is opening a branch in Miami this year. What I found most interesting about the interview is the fact that Anna was in charge of the rebranding process of the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center after 9/11, a huge challenge that she managed properly and delivered excellent results. Here is the interview:

¿Which is your purpose in The Farm?
Anna Domingo: We still work from Madrid, but our purpose is to bring The Farm to the Hispanic market in the USA. We are already making several presentations to clients over there.

You always had worked from the marketer side. ¿What made you do this change?
A.D.: For a long time I wanted to made the switch from the client side to the agency side. I like having the possibility of dealing with different fronts of the strategy. My experience in the Rockefeller Center, for example, was about projects, once they were already ongoing, that was it. In an agency, you have the chance of work in different mediums, and this specific agency it’s very creative. So, what better than here? When you’re on the marketer side you’re more limited.

¿How was the experience of doing the rebranding process of the Empire State after the attacks to WTC?
A.D.: The terrible thing wasn’t only the attacks of 9/11; all the season after it was too. The whole economic system and the faith of New York City had to be rebuilt. We work as a team, many people sharing the same interests. Each one in his own area – I was in charge of the Empire State- made the possible to do something, but at the same time it wasn’t only about what we do: there was a time to let the stress and the fear that every business area had to go down. There was a huge impact, specially in the international tourism and real state arenas. Before the attacks there was almost 3 millions of visitors each month and that changed dramatically. By the other side, beneath the observatory of the Empire State there are floors to rent offices at very high prices. We didn’t worked alone, our purpose was that, each one from it’s own area, collaborate to rebrand the entire city; we worked to see in what way we could bring back the traffic and eradicate the fear.

¿Which was the main obstacles – socially and economically speaking – that you have to face to pursue that change of image in the city?
A.D.: Well, after 2001, the economic-financial frame wasn’t simple. The reinvention was the key of our success: in 2004, it was attracted a total of 3.5 millions of tourists according to reports. That means that we returned to the levels before the attacks, and reach it’s peak. Then, it was hard too to make that all our messages were coherent. I was in charge of heading all the strategy – PR was driven apart -. We do the communications through our website, through influencers (those who set trends, those who get the message and we know that share with everybody else). We had these people very well identified and registered in our database, which we always update constantly. In this case, those influencers were the airlines (i.e. for tourism) and brokers for real state. The recovery in the real state was also very successful: it had reached the 70% in 2004.

¿Did you felt encouraged or supported by the United States government in this reinvention campaing?
A.D.: That was another issue: the fact that the government threatens to go into war wasn’t good for us. It’s very difficult to reverse the fear, and the American government manipulates through fear, and still does until these days. We worked a lot in the security aspect, reinforcing that subject a lot.

Your success in front of the Empire State developed a lot of interest from Rockefeller Center, from you where asked for specially. ¿Which was, precisely, the meaning of this job and why was such an important challenge?
A.D.: Some day I was working and a head hunter called me. The news that Rockefeller Center was going to open an observatory was spread, which was very curious after 9/11, because all the eyes where on it. They contact me and they dare me to a big challenge, first, to built the marketing department, and then to lead the strategy to launch the observatory. We had to work in the strategy, in the branding, launch it in the whole planet, and all this using a 360º vision. All this lasted two years.

And now, you’re in The Farm, ¿Which complications you have to face in order to appeal to the latins living in the States?
A.D.: Big part of the challenge of this market is that you have to address to three layers: those who came in a long time ago, those who just arrived and those who born in here. And, besides, there are the people still leaving in all the other countries of the region. Of course, there is something in common, which is the language. But the way in which each of them addresses to the consumers is very different. DDB and I, personally, believe too much in the market research. It’s very important to know how the consumer makes their decisions. Obviously, someone that comes from Spain, Argentina or Dominican Republic, has different criteria to the other ones in order to take choices. That’s what we have to research and get to know it, besides, off course, of knowing about demographic issues, household incomes, etc.

Lately, some communications professionals think that, more than focus in the things that makes us differents, we should focus in doing great advertising that transcends cultures…
A.D.: I agree that there is the sense of humor that moves everybody; so yes there are ways to make us understand in the whole planet. Something funny is something funny, and to get to that kind of universal language is great. But sometimes you have to be more specific. Besides, beyond the creative aspect, the media through which the advertising is being aired are very specifics. The Hispanic population of the United States listens radio a lot, for example; and if it true that he watch TV, it’s not that relevant to them.

In your own words, ¿which are your expectative in this job?
A.D.: I want to contribute to reinforce the fidelity of the existing clients, in Spain, and to make grow the business and push their expansion in the States.