Brunch with Popular Hispanic TV Host is Prize in General Mills Promo

General Mills is expanding the promotions under its Que Rica Vida Hispanic marketing platform to include a sweepstakes for its Bisquick and Que Rica Vida brands.

The sweeps offers five grand-prize winners the chance to have an early Mother’s Day brunch in Miami this May with Karla Martinez, co-host of Univision Network’s popular morning show, Despierta America (Wake Up America).

Martinez is the new spokesperson of Que Rica Vida (What a Good Life), the Hispanic marketing platform General Mills launched about three years ago. The Spanish-language lifestyle magazine and Web site of the same name, along with Bisquick, are sponsoring the sweepstakes, which runs through March 20, 2009.

The promo is the result of a partnership with Univision Communications Inc., which General Mills has been working with to significantly increase its Hispanic marketing efforts with many of its brands, the company said.

A series of 30-second vignettes starring Martinez will air across the country over the next 12 months, featuring cooking and nutrition-related tips, each showcasing one of 15 General Mills’ brands.

Four grassroots sweeps registration drives will take place in community centers throughout the Los Angeles, Northern California, Houston and Chicago areas.

“The idea is to give as many people as possible a chance to enter by taking the sweepstakes beyond the typical channels, and directly into the community,” said Ursula Mejia-Melgar, editor of Que Rica Vida magazine, in a release.

The magazine, Que Rica Vida has a quarterly circulation of 350,000. It is distributed free of charge via direct mail, as well as at stores and community-based venues. Starting in 2009, a condensed version will also be distributed to more than 600,000 households as a free-standing insert in various newspapers around the country, General Mills said.