- Mike Beirne

"Nuestro Orgullo. Nuestra Cerveza." That's Crown Imports' tagline—which translates to "Our Pride. Our Beer"—for the latest Corona Extra TV and radio campaign, targeting non-Mexican Latinos.

TV ads for the Spanish effort, created by Casanova Pendrill, Costa Mesa, Calif., started appearing this week and will run nationwide. One vignette celebrates Hispanic music and traditions with a San Antonio scene showing Mexican Americans dancing at a fiesta, followed by a wedding in New York featuring a Caribbean-style band, and revelers dancing to Norteña music in Los Angeles. A second spot focuses on sports and features a runner of Caribbean-Hispanic descent racing in a Los Angeles marathon, in addition to Latinos in baseball, boxing and soccer.

Chicago-based Crown, formerly the Barton Beers division of Constellation Brands, previously shared distribution and marketing duties for Grupo Modelo beers with Gambrinus, San Antonio. Barton was then in charge of predominantly Mexican American markets in the West and the Midwest, while Gambrinus handled the eastern part of the country, which has enclaves of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans in large beer states like New York, New Jersey and Florida. Last year, the Mexican brewer consolidated its U.S distribution and marketing rights with Crown—a joint venture between Constellation and Grupo Modelo.

"With the expansion of Crown Imports' distribution of Corona Extra nationwide, we needed to develop an ad message that would resonate with both Mexicans and non-Mexicans from coast to coast," said Guillermo Gutierrez, Crown's director of Hispanic marketing. "Our research shows that Corona is a source of pride for all U.S. Latinos."

When the new spots were tested among Hispanic consumers, non-Mexican Latinos indicated that they felt connected to the No. 1 imported beer because they saw their culture portrayed in the campaign, said Gutierrez. Conversely, Mexican consumers surveyed about the ads said the brand remained true to its roots.

The TV spots will run on Univision, Telemundo and Telefutura through the end of the year. Additional support includes radio, print, out of home and retail promotions in 46 markets. Measured media spending for Corona Extra on Spanish language TV networks was $5.4 million last year, compared with $1.1 million in 2006, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.