Julio Valeriano

HMC Online Course Mentor and Center Program Assistant, Julio Valeriano

Julio Valeriano

Julio Valeriano attended the University of Lima in Lima, Peru where he pursued the study of Journalism during the 2001-2003 period. When choosing this major, Julio was greatly influenced by the role of Peruvian journalists played in the overturning of Fujimori's dictatorship.

He relocated to Naples, Florida to perfect his English while waiting on acceptance to the University of West Florida. In 2004, he continued to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism at UWF but quickly realized his aptitude and desire to study Public Relations. In May of 2007, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in this field with a minor in Latin American Studies.

Upon arriving in Pensacola and interacting with leaders in the community, Julio was quickly recruited by The Language Bank of North West Florida, a local volunteer agencies. Initially, he was sought after as a bi-lingual translator, writer and eventually as a PR specialist for the Spanish speaking community.

In 2005, during Hurricane Dennis, the Escambia County Public Information Department requested the agency’s support in translating emergency-related information making it available to the Spanish-speaking community. His main duties included translating press releases which were made available to the international Spanish-speaking press, worked closely with local and national Spanish-speaking media and assisted Spanish-speaking community members through the Citizen Information Line.

Julio's educational pursuit, along with volunteer duties and work experience catapulted him into a dynamic employment opportunity. After graduation he was hired by GMR Marketing, a marketing agency based in Milwaukee, WI. GMR is the leading agency in the mobile and event marketing industries and part of the Omnicom Group, one of the biggest communication conglomerates in the world. Their client for this campaign was Best Buy and their role was to execute its first mobile marketing program targeting Hispanic consumers nationwide. It was a challenging assignment considering that there is very little or almost no research outlining the planning, execution and evaluation phases of a mobile marketing program aimed at reaching multicultural audiences. The eight-month program allowed Julio to interact with Hispanic consumers with a variety of demographic and psychographic traits such as nationality, level of acculturation, immigration status, values and lifestyle. This interaction provided him with first-hand information that was crucial for the development and success of this campaign. Moreover, the execution of Best Buy's Hispanic marketing program set precedents for the agency’s approach and adaptation to cultural differences in its marketing programs. By the end of this campaign, Best Buy became a genuine “amigo” for those Hispanics desiring access to the consumer electronics market.

In January 2008, Julio joined Campbell-Ewald, the sixth largest advertising agency in the nation. His role in this organization was to execute mobile marketing strategies for Carhartt, a clothing company targeting blue-collar workers. Julio's previous experience with Best Buy was vital in effectively targeting these potential customers particularly since an important part of this audience was comprised of Hispanic consumers.

Julio is currently a graduate student in the Integrated Marketing Communication program at Florida State University, where he is also an online mentor for the Hispanic Marketing online class (ADV3410). His research interests are ethnic and LGBT consumer behavior research, multicultural Public Relations and quantitative research.