By Our Community, For Our Community
We started Culture ONE World with a mission in mind: to develop creative and impactful communications campaigns that improve the quality of life for Latinos in communities across the country. We wanted those campaigns to be built by our community for our community. It is a mission we are still committed to today.
Washington D.C. is home to the federal government and many advocacy organizations, which was the perfect backdrop for us to make that dream a reality. We saw an opportunity to develop campaigns that engaged the broad diversity of our Latino audience in the United States across issues such as public health, education, financial literacy, the environment, youth programs, and civic engagement.
Our fully bilingual and bicultural team represents the best of what it means to be a Latino in the United States. From first generation to third generation to naturalized citizens and everything in between, our team is a composite of the different, yet shared Latino experiences. Whether born here, brought here as children, or whether our parents worked really hard for us to be here, at the end of the day, we are all driven by that one mission - that somehow our work, whether big or small, will improve the quality of life for Latinos in communities across the country.
In an effort to honor that diversity, we commissioned Mexican-American artist Scarlett Baily to create murals that celebrate heritage and culture along our office walls. Scarlett is a young Latina who has lent her talent to both the fashion and art worlds in London, Tokyo, Barcelona, Los Angeles, New York, Bogota, Mexico City, and now, Culture ONE World in Washington, DC.
These murals are a celebration of our roots and the many influences that shaped our present. Walking into the office we are inspired to do great work when surrounded by murals of people like Frida Kahlo, María Félix, Rigoberta Menchu, and Cantinflas - iconic figures who remind us that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Some murals also represent the richness of our heritage with cultural icons and modern day stories. Thanks to Scarlett, each and every day we are reminded of our culture and the power and resilience of our community. As she says, the homage in these murals tells the story that regardless of where we come from, we are ONE world fueled by many cultures and this is our greatest strength.
These murals will fuel us over the next year and a half as we take on one of the most significant marketing communications campaigns in the near future - the 2020 Census. Culture ONE World is the Hispanic agency of record for the 2020 Census, tasked with educating, motivating, and reminding our gente about the importance of responding. Similar to all of our other work, this one will also be built by our community for our community.
Driven by our moral responsibility to this project and to our mission, our team is working tirelessly to make sure that once April 1, 2020 rolls around the Latino community is as informed as possible about the Census. In order to deliver the message, we have been developing a variety of tactical platforms to engage with all Latinos. This includes integrated communications strategies with a robust advertising campaign, social media, earned media, and a partnership program involving community organizations and businesses. The goal is to arm our audience with the tools they need to accurately fill out the Census, whether online, by phone, or mail.
We need them to know that the 2020 Census will count everyone, regardless of nationality or country of origin. We need them to know that the 2020 Census will count everyone who lives in the home most of the time, including children and newborn babies. We need them to know that their responses could help fund after-school programs, school lunch programs, and childcare centers and that 2020 Census data could help build health clinics, create jobs, provide housing, prepare for emergencies, and decide congressional representation. Most importantly, we need them to trust us enough to know that their personal information will not be shared with another government agency - neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). We are up to the task and look forward to the year and a half ahead.
Our client roster also includes Amtrak and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)’s national drunk driving, seatbelt, and texting campaigns. We are also now working with companies that approach marketing to our audience with a social purpose to do good, not just sell products and services. It is all the work we get to create to help improve the lives of Latinos across the country. It is work we are extremely proud of, fueled by a love for our people.
By Duly Fernandez and Carlos Alcazar