How do you launch a bilingual press release campaign?

You launch a bilingual press release campaign by writing the brief in both languages from day one, pitching English and Spanish-language reporters in parallel with separate beat lists, and preparing visuals, spokespeople, and supporting quotes in both languages before anything goes out. Translation at the end produces a release that visibly was not made for Spanish-speaking audiences. Built bilingual from the start, the two releases reach two real audiences.

The short answer

• Brief in both languages from day one — never translate at the end.
• Two pitch lists, two beat reporters, two timelines. Univision and Telemundo are not the AP-Spanish version of CNN.
• Spokespeople, quotes, and visuals ready in both languages before the embargo lifts.

What this looks like in practice

The work I led at SOS Children's Villages was bilingual from the brief stage. Story selection accounted for what each audience already knew about the issue. The headline that worked in English was not always the headline that worked in Spanish — both versions were designed for their audience, not derived from one another. That structural choice is part of what produced coverage in AP, NBC, CNN, Reuters, and The Atlantic, and a campaign that doubled the organization's web traffic and held.

The mechanics: the press release is drafted in both languages by writers who speak both, not by one writer plus a translator. The pitch list separates English-language beat reporters from Spanish-language ones — Univision health, Telemundo immigration, El Diario NY's local desk, EFE wire — because they cover different beats with different deadlines. Embargo timing accounts for both wires. Spokespeople are prepped to give the interview in either language, with messaging frameworks that hold under hostile follow-ups in both.

What gets it wrong

The most common failure mode is treating Spanish as a deliverable instead of a channel. The English release goes out, runs through translation, and gets sent to a list of Spanish-language outlets pulled from a database. The release reads like a translation. The reporters can tell. They run it once, if at all, and don't pick up the next pitch.

The second failure mode is assuming the Spanish-language press cares about the same hook. Spanish-language outlets often have a different angle on the same story — a community angle, an immigration angle, a Latin American context — that an English-only team won't surface. Built bilingual, the brief generates two angles. Translated after the fact, it generates one that doesn't quite land in either language.

"A headline that works in English may not be the headline that works in Spanish. Both versions are designed for their audience, not derived from one another."

Where I've done this

• SOS Children's Villages — bilingual integrated campaign that doubled web traffic
• Currently leading bilingual marketing and family communications at School in the Square, a PreK–12 dual-language English/Spanish public charter network in Washington Heights and Inwood serving 800+ students.
• American Red Cross national disaster response in Spanish-speaking communities.