Winner: Angela Carrasco, Media Director & Multicultural Lead, Havas PR North America
When Angela Carrasco joined Havas PR’s Phoenix office in late 2014, the company was on the verge of possibly losing its assignment as JCPenney’s Hispanic agency of record.
Havas’ fledgling Conexiones team needed media hits for the client—fast. With nearly a decade of experience building relationships with Hispanic media, Carrasco led Havas as it delivered huge, consistent multicultural and urban media results for JCPenney and Big Lots, and she helped create a culture of inclusion in Phoenix. She’s so fantastic that Havas has also sent her across the country to tackle the multicultural component of its Rhode Island tourism account.
Carrasco was hired for Havas’ Phoenix office, but her reach and positive energy soon stretched into the agency at large. She is now the brains, face and energy behind Havas’ Hispanic practice and has collectively inspired her company to be more informed and aligned with the Hispanic community. Beyond the office, Carrasco is a member of the Hispanic Public Relations Association (through which she has won two awards for her JCPenney work) and a member of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Says Angela, “Above all, I love people and helping out the community. It truly is my calling deep inside.”
When Carrasco joined Havas PR, she saw the value in the emails that the Havas Conexiones team was sending clients, but she could also see they needed some love—i.e., an injection of personality and insight. She quickly took over this project, transforming the Noticiero (which had hitherto been a list of Hispanic news links) into a daily newsletter and rounding out Hispanic-relevant news with humor, sarcasm and cultural tidbits that Havas’ clients have found not only helpful but delightful.