Founded in 1997 Potter Ruiz is an independent, Hispanic and total market creative services agency. We are a team of deeply curious minds, hungry to learn and uncover what’s most important to our client’s customers. Always insight driven, we don’t rest until we’ve been successful at building meaningful relationships.
ABOUT US
For more than twenty years we have been helping our partners reach and retain the diverse and evolving multicultural market capturing customers through bold, insight-driven solutions.
With a team bred across many Latin countries, we live and breathe the U.S. Hispanic transformative experience. We know intimately the distinct mindsets found in customers from the East Coast where we founded our agency 24 years ago, the West Coast where we house our LA office, as well as the cultural influences of our team in New York.
At Potter Ruiz, we seek to understand the cross-cultural consumer at the heart of what motivates them, creating campaigns free of cliché and stereotype, touching the consumer at their core.
LOCATIONS:
BOSTON | LOS ANGELES | NEW YORK
LEADERSHIP
FERNANDO RUIZ
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, CO-FOUNDER
For over two decades, Fer Ruiz has been recognized as an influential creative voice in reaching the Hispanic market with confidence. Fer’s fascination with the human mind and emotional patterns helps him get to the core of what makes consumers respond. Fer thrives on drawing out feelings and attitudes that can only come from living and embracing the culture. He’s demonstrated his unique talent and cultural insight with award-winning work for McDonald’s, Subway, Chili’s, Jack Daniel’s, Stop and Shop, Babies R Us, Samuel Adams, Fidelity Investments, and The Ad Council. Fer draws inspiration from his youth in Mexico City, as well as his relentless curiosity and hunger for cultural experience.
Off Duty
At work Fer wears several hats and on the street it’s no different. Dapper to the core he’s rarely seen without sporting one of his unique toppers. When not flying between cities he’s flying around town either on his long board or bike listening to music. If on foot he’s roaming the streets digesting the world around him diving into a galleries, and later on diving into the perfectly made cocktail. Tucked by his side at work are his two muses; a 62’ Fender precision bass and a 1980s Kriptonics skateboard.
SUSIE POTTER
POTTER RUIZ PRINCIPAL, CO-FOUNDER
Susie brings nearly 20 years of experience as an agency director and strategist, empowering global brands to make genuine connections with cross-cultural markets. Susie’s insight into the customer journey helps brands to find the most relevant and timely moments to capture consumer attention. Susie crafts the marketing funnel to align with buyer motivations, designing marketing ecosystems that allow the creative to shine. Susie thrives on challenging brands to probe more deeply and thoughtfully into the Hispanic mindset and create authentic messages that connect. She is proud to have worked with many leading brands including: McDonald’s, Absolut, Chili’s, Jack Daniel’s, Bose, EnergyStar, Samuel Adams, Fidelity Investments, and Subway.
Off Duty
Gets downright giddy (rubbing sweaty hands together) over Wellfleet or Duxbury oysters. Builds roaring fires and grills steaks in the fireplace with a special contraption. Known to push it past red while listening to Jack White. Has a curious mind and a good observer of the world around her. Susie lives for culture and the arts but don’t get between her and her Sawzall.
PHILOSOPHY
Successfully engaging the cross-cultural consumer requires brands to understand and reflect their culture, values, and experiences—not just language.
Engaging in American culture is a transformative experience for the cross-cultural consumer. Their deeply-faceted perspectives are driven by cultural ties blended with American values. Their inner dialogue is not linear. That complex cultural identity colors the lens through which they view the world and their rightful place in it.
At Potter Ruiz we understand the nuance required to communicate to cross-cultural markets. Consumer minds are constantly changing, with an appetite for new experiences. Our unparalleled understanding of this hunger leads us to craft bold, insight-driven solutions. We approach marketing with the “Cultural ARC” process—aligning brand creative with three key drivers of messaging: Authenticity, Respect, and Connection. We find commonalities between the consumer and the brand and leverage them culturally and creatively to create memorable brand experiences.
THE CULTURAL ARC™
Authenticity
It’s about more than translation.
We identify what’s true about the brand and the consumer and create campaigns that deliver a genuine, relevant, and impactful message. We gather proof points about the brand and how it reflects the consumer’s values, experiences and aspirations. Our culture is about corazón, heart.
Respect
We communicate with the consumer using positive cultural influence.
Latino culture is proud, complex, and demands to be heard. Maintaining a brand conversation with Hispanics requires respect, admiration, and a deft touch. We communicate free of cliché and stereotype, in a way that earns their respect today and their loyalty over time.
Connection
We create messages that powerfully connect brand with consumer.
Latinos are a highly communicative and connected audience. Whether it’s their advanced use of online and mobile channels or basic everyday conversations between family members and friends, they actively seek out advice to inform decisions. We help connect your brand to the ongoing dialogue through the right channel and the most relevant message.
SERVICES
DIGITAL
WE HELP MAKE YOU MORE DISCOVERABLE.
Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar institution or a virtual empire, your most important location is your online presence and digital advertising footprint. Just as global retailers expand markets and build new locations, brands must be expanding into new channels and building online ecosystems. No matter if we’re contributing a piece of your program or developing and managing an entire plan, we create campaigns that take the consumer on a brand journey that leads them to conversion and ongoing engagement.
SERVICES:
Digital Creative Campaigns
Marketing Automation & Lead Nurturing
Email Marketing Management Customer Profiling
SEO, Search Marketing, Paid Search, & PPC
Programmatic & Display Remarketing
Channel Activation
Analytics & Custom Reporting Web Experience Strategy
Web Development & Deployment
Mobile Strategy
Mobile Development & Deployment
Brand Product Development Consulting
SOCIAL
WE HELP YOU GET ENGAGED.
It’s a social world. Marketing today requires a message that engages consumers both socially and emotionally. Social-culturalism is as important as multi-culturalism when developing creative, amplifying a message, and driving consumer action. At the core, we believe in a social business approach that redefines the traditional funnel and combines great creative with social insights to engage consumers more deeply with your brand. And each other.
SERVICES:
Social Business Strategy & Planning
Reputation Management
Content Marketing Strategy
Content Development
Social Community Strategy
Social Promotion Development
Social Campaign Management
Team Training & Monitoring Tool Installation
Influencer Strategy & Management
Brand Journalism Strategy
Brand Channel Development
Blog Development & Publishing
Podcasting & Video Production
TRADITIONAL
WE HELP YOU NAVIGATE THE TOTAL MARKETING MIX.
Despite over-indexing in the digital world Latinos often live in a multi-generational households where traditional media like radio, TV and newsprint are still widely enjoyed. To reach customers where they live means understanding that they are viewing content both on their devices and TV at home with family as a shared experience. While newsprint has been languishing among the general market, local community newsprint continues to be a consideration. Similarly radio with a robust listenership of 95%. We believe properly allocating resources and developing the right media mix of traditional to digital and social is crucial to brand growth.
SERVICES:
Campaign Development
Hispanic Research & Interpretation
Hispanic Cross-Cultural Analysis
Channel Analysis & Strategy
Marketing/Advertising Plan Development
General Market Campaign Integration Consulting
Creative Services
Concepting, Design, Copywriting,
Adaptation, In-house broadcast production
Traditional Media Production TV, Radio, Print
CRM
EXPERIENTIAL
WE HELP YOU BUILD BRAND EXPERIENCES.
Helping customers achieve a live brand experience is at the core of experiential marketing. While traditional, social and digital work hard to communicate a brand’s attributes and benefits, experiential marketing supports those efforts in a tactile and often interactive way that engages all the senses. Experiential marketing gets customers participating, be it prankvertizing or a more simple event sampling. Our experiential campaigns get customers to take an active role in the conversation. Furthermore experiential provides the opportunity for customers to share their experience, having interacted with the brand they can see how it would fit in to their lives contextually.
SERVICES:
Digital Creative Campaigns
Marketing Automation & Lead Nurturing
Email Marketing Management Customer Profiling
SEO, Search Marketing, Paid Search, & PPC
Programmatic & Display Remarketing
Channel Activation
Analytics & Custom Reporting Web Experience Strategy
Web Development & Deployment
Mobile Strategy
Mobile Development & Deployment
Brand Product Development Consulting
STRATEGY
WE’RE DRIVEN BY INSIGHT AND STRATEGY
Winning the new American consumer demands that we help brands evolve their communications beyond a siloed or versioned approach. Identity is not a profile or a demographic. It’s a dynamic, fluid, transformational human experience. It’s the culmination of our influences and influencers. We are a team of deeply curious minds, hungry to tease out and uncover what’s most important to consumers.
Always insight driven, we help our clients build lasting and meaningful relationships with the diverse and evolving multicultural market capturing customers through insight driven bold creative solutions.
SERVICES:
Brand Discovery
Strategic Planning
Market Research
Marketing Planning
