Hearts in the Heights

The American Heart Association's Founders Affiliate asked REVOLUCION to create a Hispanic PR program during American Heart Month 2009. Our goals were to increase awareness of heart disease prevention among New York City's Latino population and to generate Spanish-language media coverage of the Go Red for Women/Go Red Corazón movement.

So we created HEARTS IN THE HEIGHTS, a two-week partnership among the AHA, the bilingual Broadway musical In the Heights and Amor 93.1 FM. The PR program was covered by Univisión Radio, El Diario/La Prensa, Yahoo! En Español and 45MM media impressions were generated.

For 8 performances, In the Heights promoted heart health with actor interviews, curtain speeches, lobby videos, ticket discounts and more. Media sponsor Amor 93.1, the #1 Spanish-language radio station for pop and romantic music, contributed :60 promo spots, morning-show interview time, a stage door radio remote and on-air giveaways.

We chose In the Heights because it's a vibrant musical and tight-knit Hispanic community at the top of the island of Manhattan. The show made history in 2008 as the first Broadway hit about Latinos, by Latinos. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical, Grammy Award for Best Musical Album and is currently being made into a feature film by Universal.

One of the main characters, “Abuela Claudia”, struggles with heart disease and this affects her entire community. Tony Award nominee and Cuba native Olga Merediz, who has played this role since the show's inception, became AHA’s ideal campaign spokeswoman.

For the special Hearts in the Heights performances, Ms. Merediz delivered a bilingual, post-performance speech on behalf of the AHA, appeared at events and spoke with Spanish-language broadcast media about the cause.