Brand Storming.

Uruguayan moves to Miami to sell US. TV programming to Latin America.

EDUARDO VERA's MIAMI-AREA OFFICE is crowded with boxes of T-shirts and tote bags emblazoned with Hallmark logos. In his suburban home, too, there's no shortage of corporate emblems, many of them on the stacks of Hallmark movies watched by his teen-age son and 5-year-old daughter.

"I'm a marketeer," Vera says with a laugh. In the three years since he debuted as Crown Media International's general manager handling Latin America, he's persuaded a growing number of the region's cable operators to sign up for Hallmark programming. Virtually a one-man show, he's taken regional sales of Hallmark--a subsidiary of Crown Media International--from US$3 million in 1998 to $10 million this year.

"In part, it's because we have an excellent product and, in part, because there was a niche to fill," says Vera. "And, let's be frank here, I've been in the business for 11 years, so I know all the players."

Eduardo Ricalde at Mexican cable company PCTV, which carries Hallmark movies and dramatic series, is one of those players. "Negotiations with him are tough but never rude," Ricalde says of Vera. "He zealously defends his company's position, understanding that there may be differences of opinion between him and his clients."

Beginning in August, the Uruguay-born Vera will court the region's cable television providers with a new brand: Hallmark Channel, a 24-hour network with movies and dramatic series. The new entity incorporates Hallmark films and the Odyssey Channel.

"On Aug. 5, Odyssey will die and be reborn as Hallmark Channel," says Vera, who knows firsthand what it's like to reinvent. Vera worked as a tour guide in Peru before he found his vocation--sales--and became a regular fixture at international travel trade shows, promoting Latin America. A work trip to Miami convinced him that south Florida is where he wanted to be. He returned to Peru, sold his belongings and slipped into the United States on a tourist's visa. He never left.

After legalizing his U.S. residency and working as the stateside representative for several Latin American travel operators, Vera joined the Miami operations of Peruvian media mogul Hector Delgado Parker, who had just launched a daily fax-news service for Peruvians in the United States. Delgado Parker quickly moved the Uruguayan to Canal Sur, his television network that turned into one of the region's biggest for a time. Vera used Sur as a springboard to the Travel Channel, where he became vice president of distribution, before moving to the Family Channel then Hallmark.

Swimming upstream. Vera's job is to boost Hallmark's presence in highly competitive markets like Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

In Argentina, he has got his work cut out for him. In April, Hallmark sat in the No. 24 spot in the long cable roster--tied with CNN en Espanol and ahead of Fashion TV and HBO Plus. "Argentina is the most veteran of the cable markets. They've had cable for 25 or 30 years," Vera says of Hallmark's largest market. "But it's also the most culturally sophisticated market. Argentines are particular about what they watch."

In Brazil, Hallmark is one of many pay-TV networks scrambling for space on a spectrum dominated by Globo. An estimated 40 million Brazilian homes have television, but only 3.2 million subscribe to pay television. Hallmark programs are available in a third of those households. In Mexico, the U.S. company has a significantly stronger presence: in April cable TV ratings, it was No. 6--tied with TNT and just behind De Pelicula and the Discovery Channel.

Ironically, the man who takes U.S.-generated programming to Latin America wants to some day watch those shows from a home in the region. Vera and his Peruvian wife Danitza would like to return to South America. He says life in the United States is too fast-paced and too materialistic.

"I have a great house with a swimming pool and a boat, but I don't have the time to enjoy it," Vera explains. "In South America I might live more simply, but the quality of life for a family is better."