-By Della de Lafuente

Nissan North America has named Hispanic shop Dieste Harmel & Partners, Dallas, to handle the multicultural marketing business for its Nissan and Infiniti brands following a review, sources said.

Nissan spent close to $35 million in 2007 in domestic Hispanic TV alone, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. (The client's Nissan and Infiniti brands spend a combined $1 billion annually in domestic measured media, not including Internet advertising.)
 
Duties are said to include creative, media planning and buying for the U.S. Hispanic, African American and Asian American markets, per sources, with Nissan joining a roster of clients that includes AT&T, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Southwest Airlines, among others.
 
The automaker put the multicultural business in play in early March, hiring Chicago-based consultancy Jones Lundin Beals to manage a review that would "maximize synergies and efficiencies," in effect, combining Nissan's ethnic-targeted marketing initiatives under a lead agency.
 
Finalists are said to have included Hispanic shops Lopez Negrete Communications, Houston, and incumbent, Marca Hispanic, Coconut Grove, Fla., which previously handled Hispanic duties for Infiniti.
 
Lopez Negrete confirmed via an agency representative that it teamed with Asian shop AAAZa, Los Angeles, and African American shop, E. Morris Communications, Chicago, for the multicultural pitch.
 
Incumbents responsible for existing multicultural duties were invited to participate in the review. In addition to Marca Hispanic, shops handling ethnic-targeted duties included: Vidal Partnership, New York, (Hispanic duties for Nissan); and the True Agency, Los Angeles, (African American duties on Nissan and Infiniti), the automaker said in March.
 
For Vidal, the account loss ends a year-long string of new business wins that has included Royal Caribbean International, as part of WPP Group's integrated "teamRoyal;" Johnson & Johnson, named along with La Comunidad, Miami, to handle the company's Hispanic account; and J.C. Penney's Hispanic duties, business previously held by Dieste.

Automaker and agency executives either did not return calls or declined comment.