- Adweek Staff

NEW YORK MDC Partners Hispanic marketing shop Adrenalina has added a pair of key staffers to help build its retail business and spur overall growth: Jules Aspesi, new business director, and Michelle Maldonado, vp, operations and PR.

"Instead of focusing solely on pre-purchase awareness, we want to create interactions at the purchase and post-purchase stages," said Manuel Wernicky, the New York agency's president and managing partner, in a statement. "With today's economic crisis, more marketers are looking to reach consumers with in-store brand messages that are two feet away, not two miles away, where they'll passively watch ads on TV."

Aspesi (pictured above) joins the agency here on June 1 from toy company Hasbro in Pawtucket, R.I., where she was a consulting senior marketing manager. At Adrenalina, she is tasked with developing in-store consumer promotional programs. She is a 15-year industry veteran who also has agency experience from tenures at Alcone Marketing Group (where she worked on Heineken, also a key Adrenalina client), the Vidal Partnership and Tracy-Locke.

Maldonado's resume includes stints at Emanate in New York, where she was vp, Hispanic marketing director and led efforts for Bank of America. She has also served at WingLatino/Grey Global, Edelman and the Bravo Group.

Adrenalina was formed two years ago and is best known for its "Tecate. Con caracter" ("Tecate. With character") campaigns for Heineken USA's Tecate and Tecate Light.

The agency has been adding to its ranks of late. Prior to Aspesi and Maldonado, Adrenalina tapped Ivan Sanchez and Victor Zeiris as vp, senior brand strategist and cd, respectively.