LEE Y SERÁS

Founding Partner

Lee y serás is a literacy outreach campaign targeted at the Hispanic market.  It was developed to inform, engage and help prepare families and communities to support the reading development of Hispanic children.  A collaboration between Scholastic Inc., Verizon Communications, the National Council of La Raza, the Latino Community Foundation and Univision, the program advocates for community members to take stake in the educational advancement of Hispanic children. The program includes a mobile learning center, public service announcements, curricula for parents, teachers and child care providers, web technology resources, and national leadership institutes.

Social Impact

Lee y seras Evaluation Report:  Study by the Education Development Center reveals that participation in Lee y serás yields several positive outcomes for parents, PreK instructors, and child care providers.

Product Placement & Branding

  • Integrated Lee y serás campaign platform and technology within Verizon online portals and multicultural marketing consumer events, providing customers and community constituents with access to much needed bilingual resource materials, like the Lee y serás Family Album.

Media

  • Promoted through traditional public relations campaign at the time of launch.
  • Initial launch event garnered more than 9.6 million print and broadcast impressions within the U.S., including placements on WFAA-TV, KUVN-TV, The Dallas Morning News, Al Dia and others.  Supplemental web and international coverage garnered an additional 1M+ impressions.
  • Helped to launch the Lee y serás national initiative and technology platform on Capitol Hill and via webcast, which included Leeyseras.net, a bilingual Web site featuring all the tools, material, research and information needed to implement the initiative in Hispanic communities across the U.S.

Relationship Marketing

  • Partnered with Scholastic to evaluate campaign potential and negotiate expanded relationships with national community organizations including the Latino Community Foundation, the National Council of La Raza and media partner Univision.

Event Development and Management

  • Hosted launch events in Dallas and Washington D.C., for more than 500 regional and national leaders from the Hispanic community to showcase the revolutionary new community-based program.
  • Events consisted of presentations by key leadership from corporate partner organizations, as well as a panel discussion featuring the White House director of Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, among others.
  • Managed development and launch of Lee y serás Leadership Institutes and web component, which included training curriculum for community leaders, community organizations, families, teachers and child care providers.

Multicultural Marketing

  • Researched cultural barriers to increasing literacy in Hispanic children.  Helped to develop community-based platform and toolkit “born out of the culture for the culture” that maximizes rich Hispanic traditions, including songs, sayings and family activities like cooking. By involving deeply rooted cultural traditions, like those showcased in the campaign poster, families were more likely to embrace literacy and learning in the home.
  • Secured involvement of more than 50 key Hispanic leaders in each community, education and business sector, including Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and advocacy organizations.

Internal Communications

  • Enlisted the leadership and involvement of company employee resource groups and one of the country’s largest Hispanic leader organizations, the Hispanic Support Organization, to launch Lee y serás in the country’s strongest Hispanic markets, including Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Miami.
  • Employee volunteer members attended the launch and remain involved with championing the program through community Leadership Institutes.
  • Promoted campaign initiative through various national communications vehicles.

Leadership Management

  • Secured participation of the White House executive director for the White House’s Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
  • Provided key messages, script and briefing materials to all participants at all levels.