SHE REACHED FOR THE STARS

The founder of Zubi Advertising has passed away, but the Hispanic advertising community will long benefit from her achievements.

By Conrad Dahlson

Some people streak across the contemporary scene like a comet while the more earthbound of us simply watch in awe. Such was
Tere Zubizarreta, a leading light of Hispanic advertising who reached the heights of her profession before her long, courageous struggle against cancer ended on July 26. She was 69.

Of course the drama of getting to the top is most inspirational when the protagonist starts at the bottom, and Zubizarreta’s success was entirely her own invention. Her son Joe Zubizarreta, for some years CEO of the solid family firm Zubi Advertising Services, recounts how she arrived in Florida in 1960 at the age of 23 with her husband and family, refugees all from Castro’s Cuba.
To help keep their heads above water, Tere landed a secretarial job at a small ad agency where she soon burst out of her original job description to lend a hand with accounts and production work.
Disaster struck soon after, but with the wit that never failed her, she made it the launching pad of her success. The struggling agency where she was working lost its main client, an airline, and sank without a trace—but Tere soared.
She grabbed one of the deceased agency’s clients, a real estate company, and with one phone and a borrowed typewriter, opened Zubi Advertising in 1976.
More than a business, she opened a whole new future for Hispanic advertising, which in those days was of little consequence in the marketing mix of major corporations.
How did she change their minds? “She used to sell herself as a Hispanic, a woman, in the desirable 18-34 age group,” says her son. “ ’I’m your target!’ she told them.”
Many bought her notion that she could shuttle them to a demographic once as remote as the moon. According to Laurel Wentz, international editor of the trade journal Advertising Age, Tere “helped forge a deeper interest and understanding of the Hispanic market that eventually led to a greater focus and increased ad spending by marketers to reach Latino consumers.”
A lot of her own unique character was at work in changing attitudes, and it wasn’t done by being timid or following worn-out formulas. Adweek’s Nancy Ayala describes her as no less than “iconoclastic.”
Tere Zubizarreta set her own rules. “Her ethical and moral standards ruled what she would or would not allow in order to get clients in the Hispanic market,” Joe Zubizarreta says. She laid down the law not only to her own agency, but to clients as well. “No cigarettes, careful about liquor, and absolutely no false claims.” They had to do what was right.
Character equals credibility, and today Zubi Advertising boasts billings of more than $195 million and a client list featuring heavyweights like American Airlines, Ford Motor Company, Lincoln Mercury, Washington Mutual and SC Johnson.
But Zubi wasn’t the only agency to benefit from her groundbreaking approach. Says ADN Communications CEO Jose Lopez Varela, who takes over as chairman of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies in April, “Tere was a pioneer. Many of us are where we are today because she planted the seeds of this industry and now we are collecting the fruit.”
As a professional, Tere Zubizarreta reached “unimaginable levels,” according to her friend and one-time partner, Tere Benach, senior vice president and marketing manager of CommerceBank. She smashed through the double glass ceiling of being a woman and a Hispanic.
Ad men like to say, “it’s the work that counts.” Never mind all the sophisticated theorizing.
Over the years, Zubi Advertising walked off with many awards for excellence and efficacy, the most recent being the industry’s prestigious Eduardo Caballero Lifetime Achievement Award, preceded over the years by kudos from the Latin Business Association, the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the Women’s Automotive Association International, among others.
People as strong, as determined and as much of a fighter as “Mama Zubi” was can step on a few toes and often aren’t thought of as nice. But many in South Florida put Tere Zubizarreta in that category perhaps above any other.
Daughter Michelle, chief administrative officer of Zubi Advertising, says that while her mother “was able to live life to the fullest as she always wanted,” she thought everyone else should have a chance at the good life, too. She acted on that conviction by devoting herself to social causes through non-profit organizations like the United Way, the Beacon Council, Miami Children’s Hospital, the Orange Bowl Committee, the League Against Cancer and FACE, or Facts About Cuban Exiles.
Benach remembers how Tere “fed, clothed and looked after kids and families left homeless by Hurricane Andrew.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush personally expressed his appreciation for the community guidance and leadership to which she dedicated so much of her life.
“She gave tons of her time, expertise and money” to help people who needed it, according to fellow non-profit volunteer Maria Cristina Barros, who also recalls “her amazing sense of humor.”
The founder of Zubi Advertising Services is survived by her husband Octavio, son Joe, daughter Michelle, grandchildren Charlotte and Michael, sister Annie Slatkoff and the latter’s children Joshua, Jessica and Sara.
“She was special to a lot of people,” Joe said in the week after she succumbed to the cancer she had fought so valiantly, and during which so many people from so many walks of life paid their respects.
“One thing that amazed us as a family was seeing the number of people she has touched,” he said.
Tere Zubizarreta reached for the stars and eventually became one of them.