Hispanic Agencies get your Slingshot Ready.

By Dennis Hernández – N’Contact

Check the article from USA Today on Friday, CLICK HERE.  This is why GM agencies are going after the Hispanic market, it makes perfect new business sense for them, the Hispanic market keeps growing and they have more access to CMOs.

The way the economy is and the constant GM advertising budget cuts, who has the most control over advertising budgets?  A Hispanic agency that handles 8-12% of the client’s advertising budget or a GM agency that handles 85%+? How many times have we seen a Hispanic agency working on a project and all of the sudden the client calls to stop the project because they have to use the funds for a GM project?  Well, GM agencies are no longer asking for an increment to their budget for a special project, they are going after the growing Hispanic market business.  Again, it makes perfect sense for GM agencies.

We all have seen the big spikes in the Hispanic population after each of the last two US Census decades results — the 1990 results validated what our “founding fathers” had been saying for years to Corporate America and we saw a huge spike in advertising dollars commitment to the US Hispanic market (we went from 1% of the total budget to 2%, a whopping 100% increase!!!); the 2000 US Census result was no joke, it was a game changer, the Hispanic market was finally a force to reckon with, we got a well deserved recognition, we were no longer talking about the future, the future was here and what we had predicted came to reality and we were compensated accordingly…well, not exactly accordingly but it was good, bigger budgets started to roll and good Hispanic agencies saw a rapid growth.

Now, the 2010 results will come out shortly and GM agencies are not sitting out of this one, they want the business.  After the 2010 US Census results comes out, the Hispanic market is going to become a General Market for business purposes.  GM agencies have more resources and are fierce competitors when going after new business, and in this new decade, the new business is the Hispanic market.  Is going to be David versus Goliath – but at least we have precedent that Goliath can be beat.  Is all going to come down to bottom line and bottom line is sales.  The new decade has to be about the bottom line in terms of who executes the best strategies that generates the most sales and ROI…and with the limited resources we have to deal with in the Hispanic market compared to the GM, I believe we deliver better ROI.

“Hispanic Agency” is a title, a name, a label that was created over 30 years ago to go after a niche market without having to compete with Goliath.  The positive aspect of this trajectory is that we have done such a great job over the years that we have outgrown our label… and the challenge??? we now have to face the GM agencies because the Hispanic business is just too good for them to let it go.  But the reality is, that at the end of the day, Hispanic agencies are Advertising Agencies…period…as talented as GM agencies, and in many cases even better.  How many time have we been instructed to use a creative platform or brand positioning created by a GM agencies that when we look at it we say…”we could have done so much better, in general, not just for the Hispanic market”.  Well, this should now become part of Hispanic agencies new business approach.

“Hispanic” agencies with a successful track record increasing bottom lines for Corporate America should be able to sit down with CMOs and ask for a shot at a product line, at least.  The fact that we have done such a great job in the Hispanic market for their brands is not because we are Hispanics, is because we are successful advertisers/marketers, successful professionals and successful business people, we can do the same in English.   If agencies don’t start going in that direction, they will slowly but surely start losing business because our counterparts in GM agencies are already going after the Hispanic market.

The recent events with GM agencies landing Hispanic market business are not isolated cases, is a tendency; “Hispanic” Agencies, better get your slingshots and start getting ready for a fierce battle.

Un abrazo,

Dennis Hernández
N’Contact