Kang & Lee Advertising has been ranked as the top multicultural agency specializing in the Asian American market by Advertising Age in its 58th annual agency report.

Led by President and CEO Eliot Kang, Kang & Lee Advertising has been a giant in the Asian-American advertising, marketing and communications industry for more than 16 years. The company's boasts annual billings of more than $70 million, and has a roster of clients including AT&T, Bank of America and Kia Motors.

'Since we opened shop in 1985, our primary goal was to educate advertisers about the bottom-line value of marketing to Asian Americans,' said Kang. 'It's been a long journey, but I'm glad that more and more product categories and companies are now throwing their hat in the ring.'

According to recent Census results, nearly 12 million Asian Americans currently reside in the United States, and are concentrated around major urban areas like New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Yet 'Asian American' is an umbrella term that encompasses a diverse group of ethnicities including Chinese American, Filipino American, South Asian American, Vietnamese American, Korean American and Japanese American. As a result, advertisers are often intimidated by the idea of trying to reach what they view as a fragmented group.

'Kang & Lee functions as a bridge between advertisers and the market,' said Cynthia Park, executive vice president and managing partner at Kang & Lee. 'We pride ourselves on our insight and ground-breaking creative work to deliver the most effective, cost-efficient and culturally relevant communications.'

Over the years, Kang & Lee has worked for many prestigious and challenging clients, with the recent US Census 2000 program as one of the agency's most ambitious accounts.

'For the first time in its history, the U.S. Census Bureau budgeted for a paid-advertising program to reach out to the U.S. population across the breadth of its diversity,' said Saul Gitlin, executive vice president of strategic services and new business. Kang & Lee developed in-language Census campaigns that targeted thirteen ethnic groups in fourteen different languages, including 10 distinct Asian-American groups as well as Russian Americans, Polish Americans and Arab Americans.

'As a result,' Gitlin continued, 'Asians had one of the lowest undercounts in 2000 and the newest Census data reconfirms the attractiveness of the Asian-American population for marketers as the fastest growing racial group in the country.'

In recognition of the agency's Census 2000 multicultural programs, Kang & Lee won a 'triple crown' of leading industry awards in 2001 including a Gold Effie Award from the New York American Marketing Association, the Media Plan of the Year Award from Mediaweek magazine, and the Grand Ogilvy Award from the Advertising Research Foundation, the highest honor for research within the advertising industry.