Exploring Multicultural PR with Zandra Zuno

April 2012

There is no "typical day" for Zandra Zuno. Zuno, 39, is the multicultural practice leader at GolinHarris Public Relations.

When Zuno is not travelling on business, she helps clients reach multicultural audiences with the most up-to-date information concerning branding, marketing, and public relations.

"I think the first thing is thinking of new things we can do differently, what new categories we should work on, what new clients we should seek, and what the new things is we should be sharing about the industry, consumer, or market-place," Zuno said. "I spend a good chunk of my day working with the research team bringing in insights for a particular client or industry."

Born and raised in Chicago, Zuno attended Loyola where she received her bachelor's in communication. Graduating in 1994, she moved into an internship at GolinHarris. 

"It was a full time internship and I worked on the McDonald's account for a few months." Following her internship, Zuno received a full time job at the Chicago Public Library. 

"I was basically doing the public relations and community outreach for the library systems, so at the time 82 libraries-- I was doing a lot of the Hispanic community outreach, writing press releases and creating publicity for the library," Zuno said. 

After a year and a half as a press assistant for the Chicago Public Library, Zuno got the chance to work abroad. 

"I always wanted to work abroad and I always wanted to work in Latin America. The opportunity came up to move to Mexico and I worked for Zimat Consultores, which is one of the largest PR firms there," Zuno explained. At the time, PR was a new and growing industry in Mexico and Latin America.

"It was the right time to be there because there was so much opportunity to work." What she thought would last one year, however, turned into three. Moving back to Chicago, she decided to take time away from work.

"I went to Northwestern to do their integrated marketing communications program, which I did full time for 15 months." With her new masters of science degree, Zuno broadened her skill set to work beyond PR. 

"Eleven years ago I graduated from school and I really didn't want to go back to PR," Zuno said. "I wanted to use the skill set I had obtained at graduate school and do more branding or more global work."

At GolinHarris, Zuno started in branding and global account management. As the marketing director, she used skills in marketing communications instead of working directly with PR and clients. 

Today, as leader of the multicultural practice, Zuno fulfills a number of functions. 

"I'm responsible for growing the practice, growing the team, and growing the clients that we serve," Zuno explained. "Any client we have who is doing multicultural PR I have strategic oversight over the program. I work with the teams to make sure that our programs are getting the right counsel, sourcing the client in the best way that they need to be serviced."
   
The function of multicultural PR is to help clients reach multicultural audiences, particularly Hispanic and African American audiences from a consumer perspective.

"We're constantly keeping track of all the trends as it relates to multicultural trends or the market place or the media landscape. There have been a lot of changes and they are changes happening all the time so our role is to make sure we are tracking that and sharing that with our clients."

One of the major trends Zuno cited is the "changing media landscape." The increase of Spanish language cable, weekly papers and radio programming are some of the media forms attracting Hispanics.
   
"You also see a lot of long standing Hispanic media companies that recognize that Hispanics are not just Spanish speaking but they are also English speaking and seeking news and information that is culturally relevant."

For example, Univision is now proving closed-captioning in English for primetime programming, and has announced a potential partnership with Disney for an all English news channel. 

Zuno is also a member of the SoC advisory board, where she is able to provide advice and feedback for the various planning and programming at the school. 

"I was contacted by Don Heider and I loved his enthusiasm," Zuno said. "We meet on a quarterly basis and our main role is to be those advisors that the school needs and the dean needs. We offer help where we can whether its through making a connection or providing direct feedback."

Zuno described her time as a student at Loyola as a "great experience."

"I loved it there, and being able to work with communications in one of the largest media markets I think was a great plus."

During her four years at Loyola, Zuno held multiple internships including one at WTTW. She also studied abroad in Rome and Mexico.

"It provided me with four years of great experiences and made me more competitive,"Zuno said. For SoC students, Zuno advises to take full advantage of everything at the school.