The help. Carlos Maya, musician, composer, producer, philanthropist, former researcher.

By Gonzalo López Martí – LMMiami.com

In this business we rarely ask the opinion of the artists-for-hire who help us bring to life our lofty, world-changing, award-winning ideas. Namely film directors, photographers, web developers and so on. We expect from them to hit the ground running, give us exactly want we want, when we want it, at the price we set, no questions asked. This series of articles will humbly attempt to right this wrong.

Carlos Maya came to the US from his native México in the early 90s. His journey has been a fascinating one: he waited tables, worked in a pioneering market research shop and now is one of the most sought-after professionals working in our industry through his company Mixto Music*. Let’s see what he has to say, órale güey.

Q: When and how did you start in the business? Did someone mentor you or give you your break?

CM: I moved to New York City from Mexico City many years ago. Early 90s. The first few years, just like most Mexicans in NY, I made a living working in coffee shops and restaurants. I worked in pretty much every position there is, from delivery boy in Madison Avenue to bartender at a Mexican bar in the Village. Since I was a teenager I had moonlighted as a promoter and road manager for rock bands so obviously my first impulse once I felt sort of settled in the Big Apple was to create a Latin rock band. The band was called Antigua. We recorded an album and played in places such as the legendary CBGB, The Elbow Room and New Music Café, among many others. We were doing pretty good as a band but I still had to keep a day job. I ended up working in the mailroom of a market research company. Once there, given my bilingual skills, I figured I had a chance at going for more responsibility and a higher salary, so I sent my resume to Roslow Research Group, a market research firm specializing in the Hispanic market. Thay hired me and I had the good fortune of working directly with Peter Roslow from the beginning, a legend in the industry, who taught me how to analyze and interpret the behavior of the Latinos as consumers. In parallel, I had a recording studio at home and was producing music for myself and for other artists. Over time I found the way to combine what I learned in research and music production, so I decided to start my own music and sound design shop.

Q: You have worked both ends of the spectrum of advertising, how would you describe your experience?

CM: Well, I’m neither a statistician, nor am I a psychologist or an anthropologist, as most people in market research, but I’ve always been very analytical so Peter Roslow gave me a vote of confidence. Little by little I started to grow within the company until I became VP of Internal Operations for RRG. For example, I was involved in the design and implementation of the Spanish vs. English Advertising Effectiveness study commissioned by Univision which, as many veterans of the industry would tell you, was and is widely used in the industry to persuade brands to invest in the Hispanic market. I also did lots of copy-testing for many brands such as McDonald’s, Heineken and AT&T. One of the coolest projects I remember was the creation of the first Hispanic Internet Tracking Study, which was partially sponsored by AHAA: coming up with the idea for that study gave me a really good raise in salary!
When I left the company to start my music shop I realized that having the ability to understand the consumer was definitely a big advantage. Within a couple of weeks I landed my first two clients: Verizon Wireless with Viva Partnership and JCPenney, with Cartel Creativo. In advertising the details definitely make a difference so paying attention to things such as the inflection in a voice-over delivery or the instrumentation of a music piece could make an ad “believable” or “trustworthy”, depending on the market and level of acculturation. My motto has always been to create music and sounds that are both catchy and relevant to the consumer, while preserving a high degree of “believability”. To be effective, a jingle  has to sound just like the genres consumers listen to for fun. Otherwise it’s not going to be engaging.  When I accept an assignment, I always ask for a clear brief first: I need information such as target demo and markets when starting a project, and I’ll even conduct considerable research on my own, in order to nail the right kind of sound to be used. It’s all about making the subjective a bit more objective.

Q. When did you start your music production company?

CM: I started my music production company back in 2005. It began as Adobo Productions but we later changed the name to Mixto Music which is the current name.

Q. Since you are a musician, please toot your own horn: what brands have you done work for?

CM: AT&T, JCPenney, Mercedes Benz, Coca-Cola, Western Union, McDoanld’s, P&G, Verizon, Corona, Nissan, Home Depot, Heineken, Pepsi, Tire Kingdom, Taco Bell, Seven Eleven, Gillette, Burger King, HP, Tequila Don Julio, Wendy’s, Modelo, Trident, Smirnoff Ice, NFL, Pizza Hut, Toyota, MTV, Dentyne, American Airlines, H&R Block, Kraft, Midas, Frito Lay, Samsung, Vonage, Walmart, Zumba, Windex, Ford, Advance Auto Parts, Beall’s, Burlington Coat Factory, Chevy, General Electric and many more.

Q. What agencies have you worked for?

CM: Dieste, La Comunidad, Viva Partnership, Conill, Alma DDB, Cultur8, The Vidal Partnership, Lopez Negerete, Co. Jones, Lapiz, Marca, Moroch, República, , Zubi Advertising, SCPF, Accentmarketing, Beber Silverstein, Cartel and many more.

Q: What do you love about our business? What do you hate?

CM: Our main job in this industry is to educate companies as to what the differences and/or similarities of the Hispanic consumer are compared to the mainstream. This process is fascinating but we still have a lot to learn from it. One of the things I dislike the most is that we sometimes still sell ourselves short.

Q: Mention the best campaigns you have seen recently.

CM: There are three I really liked: Dieste’s Muttbombing; Alma DDB’s “First Customer” for McDonald’s and Richards Lerma’s “La Ch!#ngona” for Pizza Patrón
Q: Mention the worst campaigns you have seen recently.

CM: I really wouldn’t know. A bad campaign is the one that doesn’t sell the client’s product (data which is rarely available out in the open).

Q: What is the future of the music industry, not only in the advertising world?

CM: Music is rapidly moving into a very interesting era. Artists no longer rely on album sales and radio play to reach their audiences. More and more acts are increasingly using their own creativity to explore different platforms to deliver their output. Having U2 give away an entire album to Apple users gives us an idea of the importance of resorting to different approaches to reach an audience. Still, music is and will continue to be the most consistent platform to connect brands with consumers.

Q: What is the future of intellectual property, copyright and compensation models for artistic creation in the social media era?

CM: It’s hard to predict given all the changes that have been happening in the past few years. The one thing all of us are sure of is that record sales and radio play are not enough to cover expenses for professional recordings and promotion, unless they reach massive status. It is thanks to platform like social media that bands now have the opportunity to be known globally even if their distribution is limited, geographically or otherwise.
Social media is an amazing phenomenon that is shaping the world but it also has the potential of being misused. We as an industry should be very careful as to how we use it, to prevent the consumer from becoming jaded or desensitized.
 
Q: Is music & showbiz in general a male dominated industry?

CM: Music and showbiz are a mirror of society. We live in a male dominated world and unfortunately it’s going to take a while until it is not.

Q: Music being a cultural field in which us Latinos have a lot to say, do you see increasing crossover potential for Hispanic music & professionals? For example, are Hispanic musicians being hired by mainstream agencies?

CM: That’s still a struggle for many of us. “Joe” will always have more opportunities than “José”. All we can do is continue to excel and keep gaining momentum. Having talented people like Gustavo Santaolalla and Guillermo Gonzalez Iñárritu gain such a level of recognition in Hollywood definitely helps to open new doors for all of us.
Ultimately, advertising is about finding new ways of delivering a message, so being bicultural is finally being recognized as an advantage rather than a handicap. But again, we have to be at the top of our game.

Q: I also know you have been involved in some community-oriented projects. Can you tell us more about it?

CM: We started the Mixto Foundation several months ago whose mission is to transform and strengthen Latino communities through music and the arts. At the moment we are working with FIU (Florida International University) in a three year-long campaign to prevent HIV, hepatitis and drug and alcohol abuse among young Hispanic adults in the Miami-Dade area. A $900K grant for it’s realization was just awarded a couple of weeks ago by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA) so, needless to say, we are extremely excited about it. We at Mixto will be in-charge of coordinating all the advertising efforts including creative development and production. In the next week or so we’ll be reaching out to agencies to get some help from the experts. The Hispanic community is severely underserved when it comes to these issues so we hope we can set a precedent based on the success of the campaign so we can extend the reach of it to other cities. We only have one shot to do something amazing and we are going for it.

*mixtomusic.com