By Gloria Rodriguez, President of RF Comunicad 

On February 27th Ruder Finn launched the RF Comunicad Collective. The launch of “The Collective” is the cultivation of RF Comunicad’s 30 years of relationship building with a strategically selected network of Hispanic leaders, influencers, visionaries, and representatives of hundreds of national and local organizations that serve the Latino community. The Collective partners are not new to the community – quite the contrary. They have earned their credibility through the work they do in the communities they serve.

Initially launching with 26 highly influential Hispanic organizations, these partners were chosen because of their national reach, long legacy in the communities they serve, and their robust local networks which facilitate grassroots engagement with the Latino population. Growing and strengthening brands take time, and the power of The Collective partners is that they are informed of demographic shifts having nurtured grassroots networks that facilitate outreach and add credibility to corporate initiatives.

The Collective’s origin is the result of a trajectory began about 30 years ago, when I started my career as a communicator in a major media market. It didn’t take long to realize I was the exception in an industry where it was rare to see a woman in that position — much less a Latina. My experience provided the certainty that I needed to shift the paradigm to truly engage multicultural communities. It brought an understanding to my work that one must take into consideration the nuances within each population in order to communicate with them authentically.

In the following years, realizing the void of multicultural voices in communications and with the understanding of the demographic changes across the nation causing a shift in the mainstream marketing space, I set out to fill that void by founding my own public relations company, Comunicad, to create authentic, cross-cultural/multicultural campaigns for my clients, focused, but not exclusive to, the fast-growing Hispanic population. Acknowledging the diversity among the Latino community and, recognizing the importance of cultural intelligence and what it means to navigate the various intricacies that make Latinos unique, became the driving force behind the work.

Comunicad went on to develop a legacy of service-driven, social-impact, public affairs and community programs that have made a lasting impact in communities across the U. S. and abroad.  Comunicad has built coalitions, co-founded nonprofits, built corporate advisory boards, and worked with community partners to create campaigns that bring significant brand value to corporations while delivering positive impact that changed lives.

Comunicad’s work drew the attention of Ruder Finn CEO Kathy Bloomgarden who holds the notion that inclusivity is key for any company as she thinks about Ruder Finn’s talent and growth pipeline, especially with the Hispanic population, which represents the second-largest population in the U.S., with 62 million people, more than $2 trillion in purchasing power and with one-in-four Gen Zers identifying as Hispanic. With that notion, our companies connected, and in May of 2022, Comunicad was acquired by Ruder Finn. This partnership with our group, now known as RF Comunicad, reinforces Ruder Finn’s community-engagement work, specifically with Hispanic communities. As part of this exciting connection, both Ruder Finn and RF Comunicad are proud to have launched the RF Comunicad Collective.

In acquiring RF Comunicad last year and launching the RF Comunicad Collective, Ruder Finn is doubling down on efforts to build a better understanding of the Hispanic community, its needs, and its contributions to the U.S. economy for the agency and our clients. We hope to further empower the Latino community as a result of The Collective’s launch. The Collective’s goals include driving positive impact via the possibilities of corporate socio-economic mobility initiatives focused on the Latino community, facilitating opportunities of growth for the Latino workforce paving the way to leadership positions, and the establishment of culturally sensitive work practices that allow Latinos to thrive in the workplace.

While there are organizations, initiatives, nonprofits, etc., that focus on empowering and talking about the needs of the Latino community, The Collective not only does both, but also offers an infrastructure that grants access and knowledge for corporations to connect with the Latino community authentically and successfully. With Collective partners in more than 20 states across the nation and in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Spain – The Collective also offers a one-stop-shop of access and insights to a wide array of markets.

For more information on the RF Comunicad Collective, see here.