Liquor giant Pernod Ricard’s U.S. division has hired four multicultural agencies as it looks to increase its reach with Black, Latinx, Asian and LGBTQIA+ communities. 

They include Hispanic shop Casanova/McCann; Black-owned and female-led Ché Creative; Titanium Initiatives, which will lead the company’s LGBTQIA+ initiatives; and Asian American marketing and communications agency Plan C Agency. Casanova/McCann is majority-owned by long-time President and CEO Ingrid Otero-Smart, who bought the controlling stake from McCann Worldgroup in 2020.

The agencies started working with Pernod Ricard in May, according to a Pernod representative. Plan C had worked with the company in the past. Pernod did not provide details on other multicultural agencies it has recently used.

Pernod opted to bring the four agencies aboard at the corporate level, rather than assigning them to specific brands, which is a departure from its previous approach.

“We are one company, so we really need to look across the board,” said Pernod Ricard’s Director of Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing Daneyni Sanguinetti. She said that some brands are more advanced than others in reaching minority communities such as Absolut Vodka, which has a long history of connecting with the LGBTQIA+ community.

“It’s not a race, it’s a journey,” said Saguinetti of reaching diverse demographics. 

The agencies were chosen over six months, in a process involving three rounds including interviews and an RFP stage. The work was part of a strategy proposed by Sanguinetti a few months after she joined the company last year from Coca-Cola Co., where she most recently served as marketing director for multicultural marketing, according to her LinkedIn.

Pernod’s move to expand its multicutural agency roster comes two years after companies began facing pressure to boost diversity efforts in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Corporations came forward with pledges to increase diversity within their organizations and in their business relationships. 

Black-owned media companies, led by media mogul and philanthropist Byron Allen, called upon advertisers and agencies in 2021 to spend at least 2% of their annual budgets on Black-owned media. Pernod Ricard, which owns billion-dollar brands including Absolut Vodka and Jameson Whiskey, became one of the companies to pledge 2% of its budget after GroupM called upon clients to make the commitment in June 2021.

Pernod representatives declined to share its current figures for spending on Black-owned media but said the company is “tracking” towards 2%. The company spent $13.6 million in 2021 on U.S. measured media, according to Kantar, down from $20.5 million in 2020, a 33.5% decline.